In Jazz rhythms
Chris Jarrett, a jazz pianist, is proposing his own endless experimentation to that of his famous brother, Keith Jarrett, one of the most influential
musicians. The Athens public has enjoyed Chris Jarrett’s music, with free admission, on September 16th, 2004, at the Pikioni Playground, in
Filothei.
Chris Jarrett presented the “Suite Greque” music show, in which he has adapted a series of rebetika , Asia Minor tunes , Greek folk songs and
Mediterranean musical traditions in jazz orchestrations - something that, if anything, has not been attempted by another foreign artist so far. In
Greece, it was Giorgos KONDRAFOURIS who did this, with Sofia NOITI as his vocalist. Pianist Gioula ANDREOU-ZOGRAFOU, traditional percussionist Giorgos
JANETOS, and clarinet player Giorgos KOTSINIS from Stratinitsa, Pogoni, Ioannina, also took part in this concert. Indicatively, let us quote some of
the adaptations by Chris Jarrett, to which he has given his own English titles: “Eurhorebetico”, “Marcia di foria Hellas” (a dance of the
Zagori area), “Ásia F Minor”, “Zeibekiko Variations”.
Chris Jarrett was born in 1956, in Allentown, Pennsylvania, to Slav parents, and took his first piano lessons, at the age of 13, by the great Austrian
pianist Vincent Ruzicka. He first worked with record companies in 1985 and, after his first two albums, “Dance to the volcano” and “Outcry”,
he made the “For Anne Frank” album, containing music for the ballet, and his first symphonic work, “Loves me not”. His musical repertoire is
wide, with a considerable tendency to experiment, and he has also composed records for a women’s choir, for a rock band, for the opera: last April,
the “Romeo and Juliet” opera was staged to his music, at the “Young Person’s Theater”, in Düsseldorf.
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