The traditional folk songs of Epirus are pentatonic and polyphonic, sung by both male and female singers. Extensive improvisational passages performed usually on clarinet, are almost always found in these songs.
The folk tradition of Epirus is many centuries old as is the use of the pentatonic scale in the music of this region of Greece. This scale according to certain musicologists, identified in the Dorian way of ancient Greeks, characterized the so-called “Greek harmony”.
Jazz on the other hand, is a musical genre that defined the evolution of popular music since the beginning of the twentieth century and inherently incorporates the pentatonic element as well as the element of improvisation.
Both Jazz and the Epirus folk music seem like languages that evolved from the same genetic code despite the geographical and chronological boundaries.
We would like to welcome Jazz music as a relative to our musical tradition, and build on a long lasting relationship.
Antonis Ladopoulos - Ioannina Jazz Festival Director
Program
Crazy People Music: July 2 (21:00)
Jazz with groovy & funky mood - Antonis Andreou, Dimitris Tsakas, Yiorgos Georgiadis, Alexandre Drakos Ktistakis, Dimitris Sevdalis
Evi Siamanda jazz mood quartet: Thursday July 2 (23:00)
Jazz Journeys with Evi Siamanda, a unique travel around the world with music in the backpack, snapshots of fabled cities and exotic destinations and delightfully personal stories from the likes of Theodorakis, Hatzidakis to Piaf learning to ‘hug’ when she first arrived in America and Ella Fitzgerald taking inspiration from stormy seas and skies. An alternative sound is born under the conduction of Spyros Rassias (piano) the virtuosity of talented musicians Giorgos Smirnis (bass) and Nikos Variamidis (drums).
3rd floor quartet: Friday July 3 (19:00)
3rd floor quartet is a band based in Ioannina. The band was created by the need of its members to express themselves through jazz music. Starting to work on songs from the jazz standards repertoire, they continued to experiment adding their own ideas to the music. The quartet also plays cover versions of known songs from the Greek repertoire, while remaining faithful to the jazz concept and tradition.
3rd floor quartet: Dimitris Nikas:Piano - Nikos Kipriotis:trumpet - Efthimis Sfairopoulos:Double-bass - Kostas Dimitriou:Drums
Liquid Glass: Friday July 3 (20:15)
Roman Gomez & Group: Friday July 3 (22:00)
Roman Gomez is a composer, arranger and multi-instrumentalist (piano, guitar, bandoneon) from Buenos Aires, Argentina and Rome, Italy. Since 2008 he is based in Athens, Greece. He has collaborated with musicians in various countries, such as France, Spain, Russia, Latvia, Germany, Italy and Cyprus. In Italy, he worked with Lucio Dalla, Edoardo de Angelis, Tony Esposito, Daniele Sepe and has performed at important venues and festivals worldwide. His tango music embraces elements of Argentinian and Latin American folklore and has also stylistic elements of jazz. His improvisation and compositional skills possess a creative blend of tango and modern classical music, with influences of C. Debussy, G.Gerswhin and B. Bartok.
Roman Gomez: Piano, Guitar, Bandoneon, Vocals - Demian Gomez: Drums, Vocals - Sergio Chrissovitsanos: Violin - Daniele Cappucci: Bass
Costis Christodoulou – THE THING: Friday July 3 (23:15)
The Thing, pianist Costis Christodoulou’s orchestra, looks at the tradition of jazz through a unique prism, playing music that comes from a place where strange creatures (“Bigfoot”, “Vrachycyclopas” –a one-eyed robot) dance to the tunes of Duke Ellington and Jelly Roll Morton and read the poetry of Sun Ra and Charlie Mingus.
Manos Theodosakis: Cornet - Takis Paterelis: Tenor Sax - Costis Christodoulou: Piano - Kostas Konstantinou: Double Bass - Sotiris Douvas: Drums
GAT Trio: Saturday July 4 (20:00)
The cooperation of Andreas Georgiou with Takis Cheliotis began with the formation of SANSA QUARTET in 1985 which included also Dimitris Karaganis on flute and Takis Velianitis on the violin and bass. With George Metaxas we met in 1991 when he came from USSR. Since then our musical explorations developed and reached todays metamorphosis of the GAT TRIO, which is based on an interractive process, going through the entire phasma of musical idioms that compose the contemporary creative music.
George Metaxas, piano - Andreas Georgiou, guitar, Shahnay - Takis Cheliotis, drums
NUKeLEUS Quartet: Saturday July 4 (22:00)
NUKeLEUS, is a leading Jazz quartet from Athens Greece, with members of great virtuosic ability and original repertoire.Their music combines elements of jazz, classical, salsa, funk and traditional Greek music mixed in a special polyrhythmic way. All NUKeLEUS quartet members are among the founders of the modern Athens Jazz Scene 25 years ago, appearing in numerous festivals and clubs as well as teaching the Jazz idiom in Conservatories and Universities.
Sami Amiris: piano - Pericles Trivolis: contrabass - John Stavropoulos: drums - Antonis Ladopoulos: saxophone
Jazz Seminars and Masterclasses:
All Jazz Seminars and Masterclasses taking place during the three days of the Ioannina Jazz Festival are open to the public.
To attend, please book a seat by emailing the festival or by calling the Cultural Center at 2651083958 from June 8 to 29.
Programs : http://www.ioajazz.gr/en/category/program-en/seminars-2015-en/