FOUGARO JAZZ FESTIVAL #5

Zoe Efstathiou - piano | Emil Palme - guitar | Jedrzej Lagodzinski - saxophone | Egil Kalman - double bass, modular synthesizer | Ole Mofjell - drums

The quintet explores the shapes, the textures, the forms and the plasticity of sound. Their work provide listeners with a different experience as they are called upon to notice every single detail of the sound. Through their interactive improvisations, music is led into unexpected, unplanned paths that make every concert entirely different from the previous ones. The sound is gradually transformed like a sculpture in large-scale compositions that invite the audience to experience a different approach to the present or to time in general.

Zoe Efstathiou, a pianist and composer of contemporary and improvisational music, has been living and working between Copenhagen and Gothenburg in the last two years. After a piano diploma from the Philippos Nakas Conservatory she studied at the Jazz Dept of the Ionian University, where she was the first woman to graduate. In Greece she has worked with some top veteran jazz musicians and has given numerous concerts. In 2014 she participated in the first Greek Jazz Panorama - New Generation of the Onassis Stegi as one of the most promising Greek jazz musicians of her generation. For two years she ran the Dept of Piano Studies at Lab Music Education.

In 2015 she moved to Scandinavia and continued her studies for two years at such major institutions as the HSM of Gothenburg, the RMC in Copenhagen and the NMH in Oslo), graduating with a master's degree in improvisation, and in September 2017 she started her postgraduate studies at Copenhagen's Rhythmic Music Conservatory - RMC. Along the way she developed a keen interest in contemporary improvisational music, contemporary composition, electronic and electroacoustic music. She is active on the Scandinavian contemporary scene with concerts at, among others, the Copenhagen Jazz Festival, A l’Arme Festival, Nordisk Råds Musikkpris) https://soundcloud.com/zoe-efstathiou

Emil Palme, a guitarist of experimental music, improviser and composer, composes and performs in ways that enable seemingly disparate genres to meet one another in novel and interesting ways. His music balances improvisation, contemporary composition, folk and even heavy metal. In 2017 he won the Danish Music Jazz Award and was named Carl Prisen “Jazz composer of the year” for his album “Candy Prince” with the Danish avant-garde Boujeloud band. As a guitarist he is able to alter the way one sees the instrument; using simple materials like stones and metal objects, he explores and demonstrates different ways of approaching the guitar and its sound. In recent times he has collaborated with various artists and toured Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Denmark. Since 2013 he has launched 7 albums. https://soundcloud.com/boujeloud

The Polish-born sax player, composer and bandleader Jedrzej Lagodzinski lives in Copenhagen. As a sax player, he attempts to join two forces: the dynamic peaks of improvisation with the beauty of its sound. As a composer, he aspires to explore the fusion between free improvisation and large-scale narrative composition. His works display major contrasts, exotic influences, the strong influence of vocal music, simplicity and free improvisations. In 2016 Jedrzej and drummer Szymon Gasiorek founded the Love & Beauty Music record company to promote Copenhagen's new alternative music. https://soundcloud.com/jedrzejlagodzinski

Egil Kalman from Sweden is a double-bass player and composer of electronic music. His eclectic style hovers between experimental and traditional music. His double-bass playing is earthy, while he plays also electronic and electroacoustic music με modular synthesizers. As a composer of electronic music he uses the unprocessed sound directly from synthesizers rather than hide behind special effects. Highly active on the Scandinavian experimental scene, he has also toured Europe and Asia with musicians like Tobias Delius, Eirik Hegdal, Brute Force, Lars Greve, Ole Mofjell, Marthe Lea, Hans Hulbaeckmo, Guro Kvifte Nesheim. https://soundcloud.com/egil-kalman

The Norwegian Ole Mofjell is one of the most active and promising drummers on Europe's contemporary improvisation scene. He attended the jazz curriculum of Trondheim Musikkonsevatorium. He lived in Berlin till 2015, when he moved to Copenhagen. He has toured Europe, Asia and America and is known for his collaborations with Thurston Moore, Laura Toxværd and Tobias Delius, among others, and his expressive, explosive playing with Hästi (a trio with Erik Kimestad Pedersen and Johannes Vaht), Laura Toxvärd Trio, Not on The Quest List (duet with his wife, Natalie Sandtorv). https://soundcloud.com/olemofjell

Irene Konstantinidi – vocals | Ukko Heinonen – tenor saxophone | Georgios Tsolis – piano | Konstantinos Manos - double bass

Irene Konstantinidi is a jazz singer who explores the potential of the voice as an improvisation tool in jazz. She likes also to write lyrics for both original contemporary compositions and the classic jazz repertory. She has performed at major jazz festivals in Greece. Her projects and albums (two CDs released in 2011 and 2014, with The Wonderfall Quartet) have been received as “Best Greek jazz band” and her Horizon as the “Best Greek jazz album” for 2014 by JazzOnLine.gr.

At the Fougaro Jazz Festival #5, Irene Konstantinidi will present a selection of works by Wayne Shorter and Bill Evans with her own lyrics, and some of her original compositions. Born in Athens, she started piano lessons at the age of 5. She attended the Music High School of Pallini; in 2001 she graduated from the University of Athens with a degree in Education, and in 2006 she graduated cum laude and with the first prize in jazz singing and improvisation from the Athenaeum Maria Callas in Athens. In late 2016 she moved to the Netherlands and is already engaged in new projects and fascinating collaborations, having recorded with Metropole Orkest and with Nomadic Treasures), while attending a Master of Jazz Vocals programme at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague.

Yorgos Psychogios was born in Athens in 1970. He started learning the accordion at 14 at the Helenic Conservatory, graduating cum laude in 1987. He continued at the Experimental Conservatory under soloist Agathi Lemoni and graduated as piano soloist cum laude, with the first prize and a citation for genius. He went on to study music theory, and has attended seminars on conducting, contemporary analysis and music notation, and seminars on piano and chamber music under distinguished foreign pianists (Οxana Yablonskaya, Ellen Traganas, Lev Vlanskeko, DuoGanev, Vovka Ashkenazy). In addition to his piano career in classical music, Yorgos successfully pursues a career in Jazz and Improvisation and has been teaching the piano for many years in conservatories and music schools. He created the Orchestra and Choir of the Economic University of Athens, which he ran for ten years. In 2011 and 2012 he was art director of the ¨Jazz Marathon¨, successfully held at Parnassus with the participation of outstanding ensembles and musicians.

Yorgos Psychogios has given many recitals of piano improvisation, warmly received by critics and audiences, and has collaborated with top musicians and orchestras. He performs at festivals and theatres throughout Greece and at selected venues abroad. In January 2012 he performed a unique improvisation recital at the Onassis Stegi, in the manner of Keith Jarett, which was favourably reviewed. The four CDs he has released were all enthusiastically reviewed; he is currently working on a CD from the show "From Jazz to Rembetiko" at the Athens Concert Hall, with excellent jazz arrangements of songs by Vassilis Tsitsanis and other rembetiko figures, together with the distinguished vocalists Eleni and Suzanna Vougioukli and Christina Maxouri. In 2014 he was selected to represent Greece in the internationally released CD “Tune in Jazz” of EBU.

MAKIS ABLIANITIS: guitar, vocals | NEFELI FASOULI: vocals | YORGOS MAGLARAS: violin | FOTIS MYLONAS: keyboard, flute, bansuri | DIMITRIS PAPANIKOU: bass | NIKOS SKOMOPOULOS: drums

Born in Athens, Makis Ablianitis embarked on his relationship with music when he got his first guitar at the age of 15. He studied theory and composition and completed his studies on a scholarship at Boston's BERKLEE COLLEGE OF MUSIC. In 1993 he formed the Jazz Steps quartet, and in 1995 the Jazz Crew band. In 1996-1998 he was part of the ethnic ensemble of Nikoloudi-Tekbilek. His discographic debut came in 1997 with ‘FLAME KEEPER’ while a major milestone in his career was his collaboration with ARTS, DANCE & MUSIC PRODUCTIONS, in 1999-2000. His second personal album ‘BAHAR’ was released in January 2001, establishing his position on the world/ethnic music scene. He forms the ‘Makis Ablianitis Group’, as BAHAR goes platinum. Songs from ΒAHAR are included in collections in the USA, France, Israel, Turkey, Serbia, Romania, Japan, Skopje and Germany. He collaborates with Maria Farantouri in the CD MOSAIC, which includes his own compositions.

In 2004 he forms the “HOT ORGANIC TRIO” and releases ‘BAHAR LIVE-under the sky’. In 2008 he releases ‘KISMET’, featuring some of the best musicians on the world scene (Hariprasad Chaurasia, Fuat Saka,Dragan Dautovski). He is also active in teaching jazz guitar, harmony and orchestration at various conservatoires in Athens, and teaches music at St. Catherine's British School.

These day he plays with the ‘Guitar On The Go’ group, and performs works from BAHAR, KISMET and‘URANOS’ with the Makis Ablianitis group.

Ιdra Kayne: vocals | Yorgos Dellis: keyboard | Yorgos Kosteletos: drums | Dimitris Schizas: guitar | Haris Haralambous: bass

Born and raised in Athens to a Ugandan father and Greek mother, Idra has had 15 years of studies in dance (classical ballet and jazz) and singing (with Neni Zappa, while in 2007 she graduated from the Vocal Art Academy), and has attended seminars on singing, composition, orchestration and beatbox in Rotterdam, in the context of EU's Roots & Routes programme.

Her professional career in music started in 2000, with live appearances on major music stages in Athens and Thessaloniki. In 2007 she featured as support act for DeLa Soul at the "Meet The Streets" festival and since 2008 she has been working with many artists in discography and live shows. In 2011 she appeared in Jonathan Larson's successful musical "Rent", and in January 2012 she released her first album Don’t Walk Away”, with the title single being selected as the song of the quarter by Jumping Fish. In June 2012, her second single "Love Love Love" was launched with a video clip shot in Athens and L.A. In 2102 and 2013 she continued pariticipating in the musicals “Fame” and “Annie”. In April 2013 she had an opening act on the FUZZ Club concert of Hannah Williams, and on the Nouvelle Vague Days show of Pepper Radio, and in the summer 2013 she had her first concert in the garden of the Athens Concert Hall. She has also been into theatre since 2011, taking part in the operetta "Daughter of the Tempest" (2011) and the musicals RENT (2012), FAME (2013), ΑΝΝΙΕ (2013), PRISCILLA (2014) and SWEET CHARITY (2015) as well as in children's theatre productions.

In 2016-17 she released 2 new singles, "Voodoo” and "Night Demons”, participated in the winter shows of Dalaras-Kotsiras-Maheritsas, presented the project “I Wish I Were a Boy” in the garden of the Athens Concert Hall and is working on her second album, to be released in the autumn of 2017.

Theodore - vocals, piano, synthesizer, kaoss pad | Vassilis Dokakis - electric guitar | Alessandro Giovanetto - electric guitar | Nicholas Papachronopoulos (Man) - bass | Melentini - vocals, trumpet, synthesizer, glockenspiel | Ashley Hallinan - Drums

Theodore is a composer, performer and multi-instrumentalist with a remarkable track record. Early on he displays a rare talent and the tendency to keep experimenting and evolving. His influences from Pink Floyd and Radiohead combined with his studies in piano and traditional Greek music make him stand out among his contemporaries. Moving across a broad range of atmospheric, psychedelic and ambient music, this gifted musician displays his own special electronic post-rock approach to composing and performing while remaining open to classic romanticism.

He has recorded two albums, "7" and "Ι is but It’s not”. The latter is signed by Ken Thomas, producer of Sigur Ros and Yann Tiersen, and has been widely applauded by, among others, ΒΒC6 and Lauren Laverne, who stated that "it is the most interesting thing one can listen to right now!"

His live shows are as selective and distinctive as his compositions. They include the opening act for Sigur Ros in Athens (June 2016, Release Athens Festival), the show in the archaeological site of the Temple of Olympian Zeus (2015), where he played live his own soundtrack for Buster Keaton's ‘The Cameraman’, his first appearance at the Fuzz Club (2016), on the occasion of the release of his second album, and his live performances at six d.o.g.s in Athens and at clubs & festivals in various cities in Greece and Europe.

In recent months Theodore is back at the studio recording his new album to be launched by United We Fly, while also performing live in Greece and abroad, with new material as well as the songs from his two previous albums.

Adedeji Adetayo - guitar, vocals, kalimba | Vangelis Stefanopoulos - piano, keyboard, vocals | Yoel Soto - bass, vocals | Angelos Polychronou - percussion, vocals | Panagiotis Kostopoulos - drums

Adedeji is a singer, guitarist and lyricist from Lagos, Nigeria. Living in Europe since 2007, he has performed in Greece, Spain, Netherlands, Lithuania, Slovenia, Sweden, Germany, the UK, Surinam and Morocco. His concerts span the spectrum from solo appearances, most characteristically with the NNO Philharmonic Orchestra in the Netherlands, to participations in shows where he plays his own music as well as an extensive jazz and funk repertory, earning the admiration of numerous fans in Europe, Africa and the world. A pioneer of African music, Adedeji has initiated Greece to its sounds together with accomplished musicians with whom they play both traditional and contemporary arrangements of songs from West Africa, specifically from the region of Yoruba.

His appearances include an opening at the concert of Keziah Jones (Technopolis, Gazi), the Jazz Festival of Kalamata (2011) and the Documentary Festival of Thessaloniki (2009).

In the last two years he has been running what he calls Afrosession, a celebration of black music. In March Adedeji launched his second discographic work, a double CD with participating musicians from Nigeria, Greece, the UK, the USA, the Netherlands and Senegal.

The album Afreekanism has a political and cultural side while remaining fun and true to the African tradition as it systematically covers various kinds of black music. Its is groovy, with an eclectic Afro-centric sound that combines jazz, funk, soul and everything in-between.