Live Jazz events & concerts in Greece

Already in existance for twenty seven consecutive years and being awarded as the best festival of its kind by the association of Music Critics of Greece, Nafplion Festival gives a good reason to visit Nafplion.
NAFPLION FESTIVAL is a panorama of unique musical performances staged at some of the city’s major venues: VOULEFTIKON, the first Hellenic Parliament, AGHIOS YEORGIOS SQUARE, the courtyard of St. George’s church, AGHIOS SPYRIDON SQUARE and PALAMIDI CASTLE. NAFPLION FESTIVAL spreads its wings every year with more and more ambitious plans.

JUNE 30 - Palamidi - 21:00 - Jazz at the castle - Tomas Franck Quartet (Denmark)
One of the greatest contemporary jazz musicians, Tomas Franck has a musical strength common to few. His career has brought him closer to a finer sense for the very substance of music. While this is not a process that rewards instantly, probably only a handful of other tenor saxophonists in the world today play with his degree of integrity.
Featuring Ben Besiakov piano, Lennart Vidar Ginman bass, Jeppe Gram drums and Tomas Franck on the tenor saxophone.
Tomas Franck New Quartet is a band that plays both original music by the bandleader himself and Jazz-standards in there own versions and interpretations, + jazzoriginals composed by the masters like John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, Duke Ellington, Wayne Shorter, Dexter Gordon and many others. The group has been together for about seven years in this constellation, but Tomas has worked and knowend both Ben and Jeppe for many years in different line ups. “What you hear is what you get“… – when you listen to a concert with this TF new 4 you will be in no doubt that it’s the intuitive and spontaneous that is in the front and the music is taking only that direction as what is beeing natural to reacted on in that very moment, – every encounter with this quartet is giving the listener a fresh and new expierience.



JULY 1 - Palamidi - 21:00 - Jazz at the castle - DIMITRIS KALANTZIS
Dimitris Kalantzis has collaborated with prominent musicians of the Greek and international jazz scene. With the same way that American jazzmen "stepped" to the great composers to create their own innovative projects, Dimitris Kalantzis creates new jazz music that relies and is inspired by great Greek composers.
After the great success of “Mano’s”, A jazz tribute to Manos Hatjidakis, a new jazz proposition is being deposited, in the material of Mikis Theodorakis this time, by Dimitris Kalantzis’s quintet, with the participation of the top Greek Jazz musicians. Miki’s musical creations, as he says, are influenced by Byzantine Music, a musical genre dominated by modal scales and isokrats, in a dignified atmosphere, identifiable in these jazz recordings characterized as modal.
The reference to John Coltrane is clear and underlined. Coltrane’s music is tropical, subdued, sub-imposing, perhaps religious. The repertoire of the performance covers a significant amount of time from the production of Mikis’, from “Small Cyclades” to “Axion Esti” and the soundtrack of Kostas Gavras “Z”.
Dimitris Kalantzis, piano - Alexandros – Drakos Ktistakis, drums - George Georgiadis, bass - Takis Paterelis, saxophone - Andreas Polyzogopoulos, Trumpet




JULY 8 - Palamidi - 21:00 - Jazz at the castle - Helge Lien piano Trio (Norway )
Helge Lien Trio is a vital and highly original modern jazz trio - It has been said that Helge Lien Trio has a very special ability to spellbind its audience. With their interpretation of the concept of chamber jazz, they have played their way into the hearts of an ever-growing audience. Lyrical, melancholy, but also rhythmical and full of humour – Helge Lien Trio provides great contrasts that are tastefully held together in a cohesive unit by the skilled musicians.
Having built up loyal audiences, perhaps most notably in Germany and Japan, the Helge Lien Trio bring with them their finely poised tunes that balance impressive virtuosity with inherent accessibility, and introspective lyricism with buoyant expressionism to their concerts around the world.
Helge Lien, has developed his very own unmistakable style of trio playing. With instinctive sureness, he and his musicians have developed their own take on chamber jazz that stands out through its harmonically complex tone colors. Building on Bill Evans’ lyrical power and the exhilaratingly melancholic playing of Esbjörn Svensson, Lien, in constant dialogue with Mats Eilertsen (bass) & Per Oddvar Johansen (drums), creates distinct moods in recorded and live settings alike.




https://www.nafplionfestival.gr/en/