José Lencastre is known for his versatility in playing different musical genres over the years and has been a part of the vibrant Portuguese improvised scene sharing the stage and recording with Nuno Rebelo, Carlos Zingaro, Gonçalo Almeida, Luís Vicente, Sei Miguel, Rodrigo Amado, Ernesto Rodrigues, Miguel Mira to name just a few, as well as collaborating with international performing artists from all over the world, including Peter Evans, Susan Alcorn, Michael Formanek, Raoul Van der Weide, Onno Govaert, Joost Buis, Clara Lai, Dirk Serries, Martina Verhoeven, Miguel Petruccelli, Aleksandar Scoric, Sakina Abdou, Peter Orins,  Bart Maris, John Dikeman, Kresten Osgood, Ziv Taubenfeld, Albert Cirera, Zbgniew Kozera, Vasco Trilla, etc, etc.

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Between 2012 and 2016 he lived in Brasil where he developed his interest in the rich rhythmic, melodic and harmonic musical culture of Choro, Frevo, Ciranda, etc. While in Pernambuco he put together Inconsciente Coletivo, a trio of sax, keyboard and drums that played mostly his own compositions.

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Back to Lisbon, together with Rodrigo Pinheiro, Hernâni Faustino and João Lencastre, José formed Nau Quartet.

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The group has released four records so far that have been highly acclaimed both in Portugal and abroad.  "Live in Moscow" , came out on Clean Feed and captures a magic night  at DOM Cultural Center , during a tour in Russia in 2018.

In the  album "Thoughts are Things", Marimba master Pedro Carneiro was invited as special guest, adding color and texture to the quartet's sound. 

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He has also participated in several other albums as a leader or co-leader that have been reviewed in prestigious magazines, newspapers or websites such as Jazz.pt, All About Jazz, Free Jazz Blog, Salt Peanuts, NYC Jazz Records, Ipsilon.

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Lencastre tours regularly all over Europe and has played in several festivals and venues including Area Sismica, Krakow Jazz Festival, Copenhagen Jazz Festival, Dragon Social Club, etc.

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Anthropic Neglect, a collective project with Jorge Nuno, Felipe Zenícola, and João Valinho released its debut self titled album in 2020. In the following year they played at Gulbenkian Jazz em Agosto.

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José Lencastre is co-founder of the label Phonogram Unit. This project was born during the 2020 pandemic and it aims to release free and contemporary music from the musicians that are part of it. 

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In 2022 the solo album “Inner Voices” was released on Burning Ambulance label.