The 2nd Kalamata Jazz Festival will take place from July 22 to July 24, 2011.The Festival this year will focus on young Greek artists who come and move in jazz and are in need of visibility and communication with the public. These artists loyal to their personal aesthetic vision through the difficulties they have met, managed to emerge internationally in a demanding arena like the jazz scene.The style of music covers a wide range of musical styles, always within the overall aesthetics of jazz. From the classical vocal quartet with saxophone accompaniment to the most sophisticated composers and arrangers of jazz and afro beat.

The Festival opens with a free music event on Friday at the Railway Park. The vigorous jazz guitar So&So Quartet led by drummer Antonis Koutivas will kick off the three-day celebration, followed by the rhythmic and culminating performance of the Nigerian virtuoso guitarist Adedeji Adetayo and the Neo Yoruba People who will sway the audience to their jazz-funk and afro-beat rhythms.

On the second day, the festival moves to the Kalamata Castle Amphitheatre with the astounding fusion jazz sounds of the Giorgos Tsolis Trio, digging into the history of jazz piano and the gauzy voice of Alexandra Lerta & the Ad Hoc Quartet, breathing new life into jazz favorites from the 30s and the 40s with the accompaniment of the superb saxophonist Yannis Papanastassiou.

The final festival day at the Castle Amphitheatre opens with the sullen melodies of Broken Fingers from Utrecht, a project led by guitarist and composer Giorgos Daskalakis, before welcoming to the stage Petros Klampanis, a Greek bassist, composer and arranger based in New York who will present his latest album entitled ‘Contextual’ along with a great lineup of talented musicians in what promises to be a spell-bounding performance. Spyros Manesis on piano, Eleni Valentis on vocals, Bodek Janke on percussion and guitar prodigy Gilad Hekselman will perform along with Klampanis.

One-day tickets for music events held at the Kalamata Castle Amphitheatre cost 12€.


Festival program / schedule

On July 22 at the Park Railway at 21:00 - Free entrance.

- “Jazz steps” feat. Katerina Barbarousi from the Municipal Conservatory of Music. (piano, guitar, bass, drums,trumpet, sax)

- “So & So” Quartet feat. Penelope Pistioli.A dynamic jazz guitar quartet from Kalamata.

- The virtuoso guitarist and singer Adedeji Adetayo from Nigeria with Neo Yoruba People.

Composer, singer and guitarist, Deji Adetayo could itself be heard as an entire vocal ensemble. He harmoniously blends jazz and afrobeat with soul and gospel to folk and funk. His music have been recorded in Nigeria, Greece, Spain and the Netherlands, including some of the best musicians of each country. Along with Vangelis Stephanopoulos on keyboards, John Angelopoulos on drums and Cuban Yoel Soto on bass .


On July 23 at Kalamata Castle Amphitheatre - ticket 12 € .

-George Tsolis Trio (George Tsolis,piano - Stathi Elio, bass - Fransesco de Rubeis, drums )

George Tsolis, pianist and composer, lives since 2004 in The Hague where he has completed his studies in the Jazz Department of the Royal Academy in The Hague. The trio plays his own compositions and has references to fusion jazz of Chick Corea, the latin rhythm and explosiveness of Michel Camilo.

-Alexandra Lerta the Ad Hoc Quartet special guest J.Papanastasiou

(Miguel Rodriguez, piano - Bill Stephanopoulos, bass - Robbert Jan van Straalen, drums, John Papanastasiou, sax and vocals )

Alexandra Lerta is a great new jazz singer who has been living in Holland for the last 5 years. She graduated from the jazz section of the Royal Academy in The Hague and actress graduated from the National Theatre. She present her own band, the Ad Hoc Quartet created in Holland.


On July 24 at at Kalamata Castle Amphitheatre - ticket 12 € .

- The Broken Fingers

The Broken Fingers is the project of guitarist George Daskalakis, who lives and works in Utrecht ( Holland) . He has a master's in jazz composition from the Utrecht Conservatorium and has completed the Bachelor in Music in jazz guitar. He plays with the bass player from Kalamata Panos Maradi who has been living in Holland for two years now, the Chilean Alejandro Rivas on saxophone, the Austrian Martin Grabher on drums and John Hatzidakis on piano.

- Peter Klampani project "Contextual"

Double bass: Petros Klampanis - Piano: Spyros Manessis - Percussion: Bodek Janke - Vocals: Eleni Valentis - El. Guitar: Gilad Hekselman.
Petros Klampanis draws a sonic portrait of the double bass in this project “Contextual” (cd released on April 2011). Much like an impressionist painter alters his color palette depending on how light falls upon his subject, bassist and composer Petros Klampanis alters the musical context in every track of his album in order to point out different characteristics of the double bass. From 2008, he lives in New York. He has a Master of Performance from the University of New York (CUNY, Aaron Copland School of Music). He has collaborated with many important representatives of NY jazz scene (Paul Bollenback, Gilad Hekselman, David Berkman, Gretchen Parlato, Ron Affif, Yotam Silberstein, Antonio Hart, Christos Rafalides, Vodek Janke, etc.) and collaborate as well with the Ionian University of Corfu.

Find more at http://www.kalamatajazz.gr




source: Jazz On Line gr