Monday 13 September 2021 I 21:00 I Patio CCCC

The Michalis Kalkanis Group is one of the most special groups of the Greek creative music stage. The members are the composer Michalis Kalkanis on double bass, Lefteris Andriotis on Cretan lyra, Orestis Benekas on keyboards and piano and Vasilis Bacharidis on percussion.  The group is coming to propose a new and totally authentic sound, cooperating with the great trumpetist Andreas Polizogopoulos and two special artists, the Armenian virtuoso of oud Haig Yazdjian and the avant-garde electric guitarist Jannis Anastasakis. They create together a magic and original musical environment, into which coexist jazz music with ambient, world music with psychedelia and noisy perception and source melody with electronica. Their proposition’s goal is a new and completely authentic sound and the success of it is already proven during its first presentation, in two performances that took place last year in Epidaurus Small Theatre.

Cast:
Trumpet: Andreas Polyzogopoulos
Guitar: Jannis Anastasakis
Cretan lyra: Lefteris Andriotis
Oud, voice: Haig Yazdjian
Keyboards, piano: Orestis Benekas
Double bass: Michalis Kalkanis
Percussion: Vasilis Bacharidis
Sound engineer: Panagiotis Rizopoulos

Bios

Andreas Polyzogopoulos I trumpet
 Trumpet player and composer Andreas Polyzogopoulos grew up in Samiko, a small village of southwest Greece. He picked up the guitar at a young age until he discovered the trumpet at age eighteen. He studied jazz trumpet at the Conservatory of Amsterdam (BMus) and the Royal Conservatory of Brussels (MA) where he won the Toots Thielemans award. He also took lessons from Markus Stockhausen and followed a workshop with Paolo Fresu in Sardegna
In 2008 he recorded his first personal album (Perfumed Dreams) with the group Poly Quartet and won the first place in “Motives for Jazz” competition in Belgium.  In 2010 he toured Europe as a member of European Youth Jazz Orchestra and in 2011 he recorded on Dimitris Kalantzis’ quintet cd “Mano’s” which was the first jazz record to become Gold and later Platinum in Greece. He has played in various important jazz festivals and venues such as North Sea Jazz Festival, Odessa jazz Festival, Sanghai world music Festival, Berlin Jazz Festival, I suoni delle Dolomiti, Jazz a la Vilette, Banlieues Blues.
He has recorded five personal albums and appears in more than seventy as a sideman. He has collaborated with the majority of the Greek jazz musicians as well as with world music artists such as Savina Yannatou, Maria Farantouri, Giorgos Kontrafouris, Psarantonis, Mode Plagal, Dulce Pontes, Nikos Sidirokastritis, Kostas Theodorou, GiorgosTrantalidis, Haig Yazdjan, David Lynch, Vaggelis Katsoulis, Takis Barberis, Tania Giannouli, Thanasis Papakonstantinou and Dionysis Savopoulos.
Andreas also performed and recorded with international artists such as Jaques Morelembaum, Tore Brunborg, Diederik Wissels, Michel Portal, Gunter Baby Zomer, Markus Stockhausen, Tony Lakatos, Dulce Pontes, Serge Teyssot Gay (Noir Desir), Anne Paceo, Marc Buronfosse, Federico Casagrande, Tony Tixier and Christophe Panzani.
The European Jazz Scene is where Andreas feels at home, especially where the music provides enough space to take risks and experiment with the timbres of the trumpet, the rhythm, electronics and silence. His later records include a tribute to his favourite band Pink Floyd (“Heart of the Sun”), followed by “Annica” (inspired by a ten-day silent meditation) and the ambient album “One Inch of Love”. After a residency in “Cite des Arts” in Paris, Andreas moved to Brussels and soon after he started collaborating with pianist Diederik Wissels. He appears on Wissels’ CD “Secrecy” and soon they will release a duo album.

Jannis Anastasakis I guitar, sound effects
Jannis Anastasakis was born in 1984. Today he is in a league of his own as a guitar player, improvisor and soundscape artist in Greece. His unique, in-depth approach of the guitar as an ambient sound generator, and the extended use of effects (he is also the builder and designer of the JAM pedals) and analog synths, results in a very personal sound and delivery, that sets him apart from all other players in Greece. He is coming up with unique and fresh sounds that take the music from ambient to psychedelic and off limits to new territory! He has collaborated with great artists such as: Arve Henriksen, Eivind Aarset, Christian Fennesz, Gilad Atzmon, Thodoris Rellos, Savina Yannatou, Floros Floridis, Michalis Siganidis, Lena Platonos, Harris Lambrakis, Haig Yazdjian, Dionysis Savopoulos, Haig Yazdjian, Thodoris Rellos, Michalis Siganidis, Charis Lambrakis. He has also cooperated with the Greek National Theatre in the play of Thodoris Abatzis, The man who laughs.

Lefteris Andriotis I Cretan lyra
Lefteris Andriotis was born in Athens. He is a graduate of the Music School of Pallini. He studied classic theory and harmony, jazz interpretation and orchestration at the conservatory Filippos Nakas. He has attended composition lessons with V. Foster. He has cooperated with Nikos Mamagakis, Louis Borda, Savina Giannatou, Charoula Alexiou, Giannis Charoulis, as well as with several Greek groups of jazz and world music.

Haig Yazdjian | oud, voice
Born in 1959 in Aleppo, Syria by Armenian parents. He has been living and working in Greece since 1980. He is a composer and plays the oud. He has appeared in various music venues in Athens and has collaborated with famous Greek and foreign artists. He has participated in concerts all around the world, and in 2006 he took part in Loreena McKennitt’s European tour. His personal discography starts with the albums: Talar (1996), that grew his reputation as one of the most talented and promising composers of his generation. Two years later he continued with Garin and the single Gift (1998) which were accepted with a lot of enthusiasm by the audience and the critics. At the same time, respect and recognition come from the most important Greek musicians, with who Haig has cooperated. In the summer of 2000, he records a CD with the music that he wrote for the theatrical play The beast on the moon, that was performed in Athens in 1999-2000 and one year later, he records the album Yeraz (2001). In 2007 he records Amalur, which means Mother-Earth in the Basque language.
Haig Yazdjian has cooperated with many important Greek composers and singers as well as with soloists of international prestige. Among them are Nikos Xidakis, Eleftheria Arvanitaki, Maria Farantouri, Dimitra Galani, Elli Paspala, Eleni Vitali, Loreenna McKennitt, David Lynch, Dave Spilain, Omar Faruk Tekbilek, Djivan Gasparyan, Theodossii Spassov and Glen Velez.

Orestis Benekas | keyboards, piano
Orestis Benekas has graduated from the Department of Music Science and Art of the University of Macedonia, in the direction of Contemporary Music and specialisation on Composing. Since 2012 he lives and works in Athens. He has participated in several groups and projects, like Σtella, Pavlos Pavlidis & B-movies, Montero, Marina Satti, Dimitra Galani, Michalis Kalkanis Group and others, having already done more than 1.000 concerts.

Michalis Kalkanis | double bass
As an offspring of a music family, these years Michalis Kalkanis has put his own music stigma and has been recognised as one of the most promising and multifarious musicians in Greece. His first album, Scarborough Tales (2010) was his final Project for his Master in Hull in UK. In 2012 followed the album A Parking Lot Performance, which was recorded live in an old car parking as an interpretation for double bass and was covered by a video directed by the Irish Brendan Canty & Conal Thomson. His next album with the tittle World Echoes in Athens is a register of immigrants prays in several places in Athens, lined with music and was used as the soundtrack on the photo exhibition of the photographer Tasos Vretos, with the tittle Places (ways) of worship (Τ(ρ)όποι Λατρείας) at the Benaki Museum, during the winter of 2015. Later he participated in the Michalis Kalkanis Group, in Athens Technopolis Jazz Festival, where he was selected as The New Proposition of the Festival, while next year he made an appearance in Summer Nostos Festival of SNFCC, having invited the top multi-instrumentalist and composer from Siberia, Nadishana. The same year he made appearances in several festivals in Greece and Cyprus, while in October his group was selected first among 300 candidates to perform in Fira B Festival in Spain.

Vasilis Baharidis Ι percussion
Vasilis Baharidis was born and grew up in Thessaloniki, where he lives and works. He has collaborated on recordings and concerts among others with Giannis Aggelakas & Episkeptes, My Excuse, Thanasis Papakonstantinou, Sokratis Malamas, Giannis Charoulis, Psarantonis, Giorgis Xilouris, Alzheimer Beat, Nikos Veliotis, Sotires, Super Stereo, Giorgos Christianakis, Babis Papadopoulos, Dimitris Mistakidis and many others.

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