Taken together, the young musicians of the Greek jazz scene are an interested and hugely varied group from whom we can expect some truly great things. Come June, for three consecutive nights on the OCC roof terrace, the new generation combos in the Festival line-up will showcase the dynamism of the Greek contemporary improvisation scene and the bright future that lies ahead.
The combos in question are the Next Step Quintet, the Stelios Chatzikaleas Quintet and the Stefanos Chytiris Flux Project, all of which will be joining forces with international soloists whose names are to be announced.
L’Écume des jours [Froth on the Daydream] by Boris Vian—where real and surreal, love and death come together—was the spark behind the composition of the seven new pieces the quintet will be performing, led by the trumpeter Stelios Chatzikaleas . The quintet’s work is underpinned by a desire to re-examine the rules of harmonic and melodic development without necessarily following them.
The Next Step Quintet are rightly considered one of the rising stars of the Greek jazz scene. All five members are graduates of the Jazz Department at Ionian University, and the combo has already appeared at numerous festivals in Greece and abroad and garnered excellent reviews for its first CD, which was released in 2012.
Stefanos Chytiris (drums), Bram De Looze (piano) and Luca Rosenfeld (bass) form the core of the Flux Project, a group committed to more fully comprehending the initial ideas which inform their work. Exploring the structures and limits of improvised music, they always return to their point of departure.