New Album, Greece/USA: Alex Louloudis & Zack Clarke – What We Are – 2023 – ears&eyes records

‘What We Are‘ is the flower that came out of the years-long collaboration between Zack Clarke and Alex Louloudis.
As may be apparent from listening to the album, both Clarke and Louloudis find their aesthetic preferences closer to the free jazz approaches. At the same time, one can understand that the two are heavily rooted into the jazz tradition as well as other important traditions that come from different places in the world. High on their list of influences, both in the composition and improvisation fronts, the two have Ornette Coleman and his innovation of the harmelodic approach.

JazzWorldQuest News

JazzWorldQuest Showcase 2023: Nastazio Gkoumas(Greece)-Chaos Theory

 

JazzWorldQuest Showcase 2023:

JazzWorldQuest Showcase 2023: Nastazio Gkoumas(Greece), Album: d Y s t o P i a

Contemporary jazz feat.
Nastazio Gkoumas guitar
Alberto Portocarrero drums
Manuel D Rodriguez trumpet
Eleni Anastasiou piano
Antony Tsangaras bass

COMPOSITIONS BY NASTAZIO GKOUMAS

Website CD Store

JazzWorldQuest Showcase 2023 

World Music Mix: Armagos (Greece)- Album: “7 times in America” (2022)

“7 times in America,” the latest album by Greek pianist Armagos, is a wonderful display of musicianship and sensitivity. The seven pieces’ minimalist style enables for the compositions’ true beauty to stand out. With emotional depth and that special cinematic quality previously present on his previous albums, the compositions have a softly meditative nature painted with great care and finesse. A beautiful album for listeners who appreciate the inventiveness blessed with grace.

Listen

World Music Mix

JazzWorldQuest 2022: Nastazio Gkoumas(Greece)-Album: Dig City

 

Nastazio Gkoumas(Greece)-I should dance
Album: Dig City
More info

JazzWorldQuest Showcase 2022: Nastazio Gkoumas(Greece)-Album: Unknown Limits

 

Nastazio Gkoumas(Greece)-Further Life
Composer: Nastazio Gkoumas
Album: Unknown Limits
A piece from the new album released by virtuoso guitarist Nastazio Gkoumas.
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JazzWorldQuest Showcase 2022

JazzWorldQuest Showcase 2022: Nastazio Gkoumas Trio(Greece)-Album: Blurring Mind

 

Nastazio Gkoumas Trio(Greece)-Unspoken Words
Composer: Nastazio Gkoumas
Album: Blurring Mind
Contemporary jazz peace & freedom to the world.
Website CD Store

JazzWorldQuest Showcase 2022

JazzWorldQuest 2022: Dimitris Angelakis(Greece)-Long Way Home

Vibraphonist, composer, educator and Fulbright Alumnus Dimitris Angelakis, a Greek native who came of age as a jazz player in Philadelphia and New York, is proud to announce the arrival of his debut recording Long Way Home, releasing on acclaimed bassist Petros Klampanis’ label ΠKmusic. Long Way Home finds Angelakis in virtuosic form, playing original compositions and inventive arrangements in a burning quartet that foregrounds the magical blend of vibraphone and Fender Rhodes electric piano, played with consummate skill by George Kontrafouris. Bassist Kimon Karoutzos and drummer Jason Wastor complete the lineup in the formidable rhythm section.

Dimitris Angelakis-Ulysses Journey

The title Long Way Home is inspired by Greek poet Konstantinos Kavafis, in particular the poem “Ithaca.” We become who we are, Angelakis suggests, through the voyages we take, and this is in fact the voyage’s ultimate goal. Wise words from a musician who has undertaken extensive journeys of his own: professional experience in Europe as a leader and sideman and Europe with Petros Klampanis, Horacio “El Negro” Hernandez (George Fakanas Group), Milcho Leviev and Paris Strother (Prince); graduate work in Philadelphia with Tony Miceli (2013) and with Christos Rafalides in New York; recording sessions and live appearances on the East Coast, not to mention a yearlong sojourn in China.

All these experiences inform the beautiful Long Way Home. The five original pieces each tell a story, most of them gleaned from inspirations particular to Greece, even as the music reflects Angelakis’ immersion in the sound and culture of American jazz. There are three songs from the jazz canon, including Bill Evans’ harmonically challenging “Very Early” and the enduring ballad “Polka Dots and Moonbeams” (on solo vibraphone). “Coral Keys,” by the late pianist Walter Bishop, Jr., prompts the quartet to stretch on music from the heart of the post-bop tradition that remains a touchstone for all involved. Harking back to the “Ithaca” theme, “Ulysses’ Journey” is inspired by the Homeric epic and the poem Ithaka from the moden Greek Poet Konstantinos Kavafis.
Website

JazzWorldQuest Showcase 2022

World Music Mix: Apostolos Sideris(Turkey/Greece)-Album: Hane (Baruthane Productions 2022)

 

Apostolos Sideris(Turkey/Greece)-In Between The Lines
Composer: Apostolos Sideris
Album: Hane (Baruthane Productions 2022)
This is a piece I recorded with Turkish multi-percussionist Sakir Ozan Uygan. It is the first single from the album Hane.
Website

JazzWorldQuest World Music Mix: Armagos(Greece)-Promises(2021)

 

Armagos(Greece)-Promises

In 2020 Greek composer Armagos created the album “The Lonely Piano”, his first studio instrumental project, which became popular among music lovers in Greece and around the world.
Armagos released on September 2021 his new instrumental album, “Promises”: a unique collection of 10 emotional tracks for piano and ney (asian flute). The listener lives the experience of a journey full of images, emotions and melodies that come straight from the heart and capture a unique sense of atmosphere, presence and peace.
Two of the best Greek musicians perform in this recording: Neoklis Neofytidis (piano) and Nikos Paraoulakis (ney).

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WorldMusicMix

JazzWorldQuest Showcase 2021: Nastazio Gkoumas Trio(Greece)-Escape

 

Nastazio Gkoumas Trio-Escape
Nastazio Gkoumas Trio(Greece)-Chicken Bucket
Composer: Nastazio Gkoumas
Album: Escape
Nastazio Gkoumas : guitar
Demetris Papanikolaou :double bass
Rafael Kyriakides : drums
JazzWorldQuest Showcase 2021

JazzWorldQuest Showcase 2021: Nastazio Gkoumas(Greece)-Album: If You Know

 

Nastazio Gkoumas(Greece)- To All People I Love
Composer: Nastazio Gkoumas
Album: If You Know
Website CD Store

WORLD MUSIC MIX: Armagos(Greece)-Holy Week

 Armagos(Greece)-Holy Week

Armagos is a music composer, producer and sound designer with a unique approach to creating intense and experimental soundtracks. His music combines elements of orchestral, acoustic, electronic and traditional genres to create imaginative and diverse soundscapes and contains an emotional core of striking intimacy and sensitivity.

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http://jazzworldquest.com/music-mix

JWQ Showcase 2020: Nastazio Gkoumas(Greece)-Parallel Worlds

 

Nastazio Gkoumas(Greece)-Parallel Worlds
Album: Parallel Worlds
CD Store

GREECE: Nikolas Skordas & Stephanos Chytiris(Greece)-Invisible War

Nikolas Skordas & Stephanos Chytiris(Greece)-Invisible War
Composers: Nikolas Skordas & Stephanos Chytiris
Album: Invisible War
Label: Slam Productions
Nikolas Skordas: soprano and tenor Saxophones Tarogato, traditional Flutes
Stephanos Chytiris: drums
Nikolas Skordas website | Stephanos Chytiris website | CD Store

GREECE: Nikolas Skordas-George Haslam : LETHE (Slam Productions 2019)

Nikolas Skordas, sop & tenor saxes, tarogato, traditional flutes.
George Haslam, tarogato, alto sax, zither.
With guest Sophia Koroxenou, voice tracks 8 & 10.

Music has the strength to act upon the soul, re-establishing  its innocence and long forgotten wisdom …
 "Lethe"- oblivion in our lives, like music, might be the proper preparation for the Exodus. (Nikolas Skordas)

  One of the benefits of running a CD label has been the opportunities to meet and sometimes work with interesting musicians – for me this has included Stefano Pastor, Szilard Mezei, Mal Waldron, Borah Bergman, the Greek trio Outward Bound, many friends in Argentina and, more recently Steve Cohn and eminent Greek composer and reedsman Nikolas Skordas. Nikolas recorded 2 previous CDs on SLAM, duos with Alex Maguire and Alexandros Aivaliotis.

I went to visit him in Thessaloniki, December 2018 where we played a few gigs  had a workshop and also in Athens.  I took my tarogato, also various sax mouthpieces and zither, ( It was my first outing with zither, I have experimented with sounds, I like the natural acoustic feeling) and he played soprano and tenor saxes and various ethnic flutes, bagpipes etc…

We recorded a session in Shellac Recording Studios Thessaloniki, with vocalist and byzantine psalt singer, Sophia Koroxenou, who had made the tour possible and also joined us surprisingly on the last minute  in the studio .

The music of course is improvised.

http://nikolasskordas.com
SLAM PRODUCTIONS

GREECE: Nikolas Skordas -Alexandros Aivaliotis: Facing Infinity(2019)

FACING INFINITY

Nikolas Skordas soprano sax, tarogato, traditional flutes.

Alexandros Aivaliotis shakuhachi, hocchicu.

With guest Sophia Koroxenou, voice track 12

This second SLAM CD by Nikolas Skordas (see SLAMCD 582 Ships and Shepherds with Alex Maguire) features him with fellow original improviser Alexandros Aivaliotis in the duo ON, creating an intriguing and beautiful combination of textures and voices from a mixture of international cultures. Nikolas and Alexandros write: 

 The musical interaction between the mellow, inner, simple sound of the Japanese vertical flute, the shakuhachi, and the sharp, but also sweet sound of the soprano saxophone, the most wildcat of the sax family, creates an untold journey to unconventional places and times of the human experience.

 Regarding the name of the duet, we underline the multidimensional meaning of the word "on", (Greek: sentient being), the human entity, the concept of "is-be", inside us. The same phonetic sequence "on", in Japanese stands for "sound", as the original form of the frequency creation through air. The above ideogram consists of two others, meaning "stand up" and "sun", as "the rising of the light". 

 Those two denotations present the concept of sound as something vivid, fresh and authentic, beyond the boundaries of common knowledge and views about music. East and west, together present a new musical proposal through a rare duet! On the one hand, we have the soprano sax, an instrument capable to produce different voices, hard to play, weird and inexplicably indomitable but beautiful, a tool that requires full commitment and patience. On the other hand, the old meditation tool of ancient Japan, a root end bamboo made flute with only five holes, one of the hardest traditional flutes to master, vibrates the atmosphere in a unique way, imitating even the human voice and producing sounds from the depth of the human existence. Listen!

Also available through all digital outlets, including

iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/facing-infinity/1449706613

iTunes Greece: https://itunes.apple.com/gr/album/facing-infinity/1449706613

Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Infinity-Nikolas-Skordas-Alexandros-Aivaliotis/dp/B07MVKJWB8

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/5D746FixvszqQFiQxMW7LF?si=vRzMS-qSTfGOm2guYFWwDw

GREECE: Christos Anestopoulos-Deja Vu (2018)

The compositions and the music of this album is based entirely on the sound of this specific acoustic quartet with saxophone, classical guitar, double bass and drums and it combines strong melodic lines from various styles such as classical, jazz and folk music. With their music they create a dreamy, ethereal and atmosphere which leaves the audience with a positive and happy experience but some times also melancholic and very esoteric and deep. Improvisation is a very basic element in the music the four of them create and it used in a way that each performance of the group is different and unique. credits releases

December 20, 2018

 Christos Anestopoulos – guitar,compositions David Lynch – Sax Vasilis Stefanopoulos – double bass Vasilis Podaras – drums

GREECE/INDIGOGO: SUPPORT DEJA VU album on INDIGOGO

SUPPORT DEJA VU album on INDIGOGO https://igg.me/at/christosanestopoulos ``I Remember Her`` music by Christos Anestopoulos Christos Anestopoulos - guitar David Lynch - sax Vasilis Stefanopoulos - double bass Vasilis Podaras - drums video - Grigoris Argiropoulos recording assistance - Dionisis Sambaziotis recoded live at Theatre Agora (Patras) more info www.christosanestopoulos.com

GREECE: Paraskevas Kitsos-In Between The Eyes(2018)

Paraskevas Kitsos is a musician based in Athens, Greece .
He studied guitar,bass guitar and double bass and he has participated in numerous projects and records
His projects included Momo trio Moriconne 3 ,and his sextet.
Paraskevas's influences include many music idioms ,from jazz ,balkan music ,european jazz ,rock ,metal and electronica.

"In Between The Eyes "is the second personal album of bassist and composer Paraskevas Kitsos.Paraskevas is based in Athens ,Greece and
the six compositions of the album are originals ,the seventh is a cover by the great Sun Ra.Some of the best musicians of Greece's jazz scene appear on the record making the arrangements really unique .
The lineup with a drummer, bass , guitar, trumpet,sax ,piano,vibes and percussion gives to each tune a different perspective.. Through the concept of lyrical melodies and hard groovy bass lines Paraskevas creates a drawing energy that can be felt directly at his live shows and has been captured perfecty on this record.
credits

PERSONNEL:

Giannis Angelopoulos:drums
Giannis Pappagianoulis:percussion
Giannis Pappanastasiou:Alto saxophone
Vagelis Stefanopoulos:piano
Pantelis Stoikos :trumpet
Vagelis Paraskevaidis:vibes
Tasos Tsalapatis:el.guitar
Paraskevas Kitsos: bass guitar and double bass