posted 2015-11-13
Alekos Vretos Project feat. Elchin Shirinov
The
groups taking part in the 5th Greek Jazz Panorama are impressively
varied. Indeed, this year’s event goes beyond presenting to actively
encouraging a fertile stylistic pluralism which combines the
contemporary with the traditional to feed into the vivacity and dynamism
of the Greek jazz scene.
The Magnanimus Trio get proceedings underway on the first evening of the
Festival. Their musical world contains elements of modal jazz in
conversation with other contemporary and traditional idioms in
minimalist compositions, songs and improvised music. They are followed
by the BalaRom Trio, joined on the night by the Bulgarian kaval
virtuoso, Nedyalko Nedyalkov. BalaRom -which is to say Pantelis Stoikos
on the trumpet and keyboards, Kyriakos Tapakis on the oud and Loukas
Metaxas on percussion- surrender themselves, with Nedyalkov’s help, to
an orgiastic soundgasm as they play their way through the Balkans at the
speed of light with the precision of a magician who knows how to charm
an audience onto its feet.
Day Two of the Panorama kicks off with Alekos Vretos quartet and their
guest, the Azeri pianist, Elchin Shirinof. Vretos ventures into
uncharted territory on his oud, leaving a powerful taste of jazz in his
wake accompanied by a subtle aroma of the Arab musical tradition
produced by the interaction between musicians from different worlds.They
are followed by the the Tilemachos Moussas Trio performing its World
Dog project with Lambros Filippou. From rock to baroque and from jazz to
Epirote polyphonics and back again, Moussas and Filippou create new
sounds by hand -hybrids which blaze new trails, dispel preconceptions
and spread sonic flights of fancy which electrify the audience.
On Day Three, we get to hear the sound of a trio straight out of New
York: the Greek leader, drummer George Spanos, with two musicians who
played for many years with the legendary Rashied Ali: the American
saxophonist Lawrence Clark on tenor horn and the Dutch double bassist
Joris Teepe. Together, they will dive into the deep waters of
African-American music—in fact, into the most difficult and creative
part of that tradition: the avant-garde scene from that most legendary
of decades, the nineteen sixties.
Friday 4 December
MAGNANIMUS TRIO
Christos Barbas: piano, ney, kaval, voice
Dimitris Tasoudis: drums, piano, keyboards, marimba, log drum
Pavlos Spiropoulos: double bass
BALAROM TRIO
Pantelis Stoikos: trumpet, keyboards
Kiriakos Tapakis: oud, electric oud
Loukas Metaxas: drums
Nedyalko Nedyalkov: kaval
Saturday 5 December
ALEKOS VRETOS QUARTET
Alekos Vretos: oud
Dimitris Klonis: drums
Dimitris Christopoulos: bass
Elchin Shirinov: piano
WOLRD DOG
Tilemachos Mousas: 12-string guitar, electric guitar, theremin, synthesizer
Lamprow Filippou: voice
Chrisostomos Mpoukalis: double bass
Panos Tziniolis: drums
Sunday 6 December
GEORGE SPANOS INTERGALACTIC NUCLEUS TRIO
George Spanos: drums, compositions
Lawrence Clark: tenor saxophone
Joris Teepe: bass
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