EVI SIAMANTA
JAZZ – SOUL
The Megaro Gyzi Festival 2008 presents Evi Siamanta, an important Greek singer with special phonetic faculties, who is moving with easiness and comfort between different kinds of music but mainly in the area between jazz and soul. So, the friends of jazz and soul music will have the occasion to enjoy the amazing voice of Evi Siamanta in a wider jazz-soul repertory, with the cooperation of an important group of musicians, the quartet of the saxophonist Takis Paterelis.
Evi Siamanta, vocals
Takis Paterelis, alto sax
Dimitris Sevdalis, piano
Yiorgos Georgiadis, bass
Alex-Drakos Ktistakis, drums
EVI SIAMANTA, vocals
Studies: Classical piano, harmony of music, classical and contemporary singing.
Seminars of acting and musical singing in Paris College de Variete Chris Pages.
Seminars of jazz singing and improvisation with Sheila Jordan, Marc Ledford [permanent collaborator of Pat Metheny – Grammy awarded ].
Collaborations Jazz with Tony Remy [guitarist of Eurythmics], Marc Ledford, Matt Penman [bass player in the tours of Madeleine Peyroux], Ernesto Simpson, Donny Mc Caslin [Grammy nominated 2005], Chris Rafalides [vibraphone latin jazz, founder of Manhattan Vibes New York].
Participation in the Athens European Jazz Festival 2005 representing Greece with the Guru Jazz Upstairs Big Band under the address of saxophonist Takis Paterelis.
Participation in the soundtrack of Documentary Film a€?Secrets of the pasta€ in music of Grammy Awarded Steve Woods.
The recording of her personal CD with songs of the famous Greek composer Mimis Plessas in instrumentations of Chris Rafailides has been recently completed and is expected to be launched within 2008.
TAKIS PATERELIS, saxophone
Born in Athens in 1965. At the age of 6 he started taking lessons in classical piano at the Athens Conservatory, first from Mrs. Helen Vardas, then Mrs. Aliki Vatikiotis. In 1984 he got his diploma with a unanimous excellent.
Since 1982 he occupied himself with the study of saxophone and jazz music. In 1991-92 he went to the Berklee College of Music in Boston (USA), where he attended lessons of saxophone and Jazz Composition, under the guidance of Andy McGhee, Herb Pomeroy, Jeff Friedman, Paul Fontaine, Billy Pierce a.o.
In Greece he has performed with most of the jazz artists. He has also cooperated with known American and European jazz artists, such as John Hicks, Hamid Drake, Chip Jackson, Manny Boyd, Danny Hayes, Tony Lakatos, Bella Lakatos, Jimmy Cob and many more.
Since 1993 he is teaching saxophone, piano and other therotical lessons at the «Conservatory Phillipos Nakas».
Personal Discography:
Takis Paterelis: «Let the blues talk» (Legend Records)
Takis Paterelis – George Kontrafouris: «Funky people» (Europe Record)
DIMITRIS SEVDALIS, piano
Dimitris Sevdalis is a piano player and arranger born in Athens, Greece in 1976. He started playing music at the age of seven, studied classical piano and then Jazz piano at the Philippos Nakas Conservatory in Athens.
In 1996 he received a scholarship from the Berklee College Of Music, which he graduated from in 2000 with a Diploma in Professional Music. While studying in Berklee, Dimitris got involved with Latin Jazz, which remains his main style today. His influences include Chucho Valdez, Gonzalo Rubalcaba and Keith Jarrett. During his stay in the U.S, he performed at the Harvard Club with Berklee’s Tito Puente Ensemble and he also played in many clubs in Boston such as the Regatta Bar, Wally’s Cafe, Sofia’s, Caprice and the Good Life.
Upon his return to Greece in 2000, he joined the successful Latin Jazz band Grupo Candela and embarked on a tour which covered most of Greece, sponsored by Bacardi and Havana Club rum. After the aforementioned tour, Dimitris joined the world famous Greek singer Haris Alexiou for a year, both on stage in acclaimed venue in Athens (4 months) and on a country-wide tour (4 months). He also recorded with Haris Alexiou on her latest double CD.
At the same time Dimitris performed all over Greece with two Latin bands, Manocuba and Cubana Bop. He also played with Grammy award nominee Jimmy Bosch, famous Cuban violin player Alfredo De La Fe and singer Orlando Watussi.
Currently Dimitris is living in Athens, he released his personal Latin Jazz CD entitled «HABANA VIEJA», which is a collaboration between Greek and Cuban musicians. With the Latin Jazz group Dimitris recorded his CD, participated in many festivals and played as a support group for Isaac Delgado’s concert in Greece. He is also gigging heavily with famous Greek accordionist Zoe Tiganouria and played with her last summer as a support Group for James Brown concert in Greece.
YIORGOS GEORGIADIS, bass
Born in 1969 in Athens. He started in 1991 his music studies in electric bass with G. Fakanas and continued in 1995 with studies in classical contrabass with Takis Kapouyannis. He took seminaries for orchestra, contrabass (Bagovska, Mc Tyeer, Howard Davis) and free improvisation with N. Beliotis. He graduated with an excellent at the last level on electric bass at the London College of Music & Media.
He began working professionally in Greek jazz and cooperated with known musicians, such as T. Paterelis, G. Kontrafouris, D. Vassilakis, D. Kalantzis, as well as with the group of ‘IASIS’, of Orphea Peridis, of Haig Yazdjian, of Elli Paspala and of David Lynch.
Since 1997 he is a member of the guitarist Takis Barberis group, with whom in 1998 the CD «Naiva» (Lyra) was recorded, and in 2004 the CD «Porto Kayio» (Libra Music). In 2000 he cooperated in the recording «Blink» (Legend) of G. Polyhronakos.
He has worked for the National Theater in the production of «Ornithes» (music by D.Papadimitriou), «Students» (music by G. Stoupel) and «Summernight’s Dream» (music by D.Papadimitriou), further with G. Kimouli in the musical «Dr. Jackle and Mr. Hyde» (music by G. Stoupel). He has also cooperated with the Athens Symphonic Orchestra.
He participated in the 3rd Jazz Festival of Athens, with the a€?Greek Warriorsa€ of D.Vassilakis, and in 2004 he participated with various groups in the City of Athens festivities in view of the Olympic Games.
ALEX – DRAKOS KTISTAKIS, drums
Studies: Jazz performance (Drums). Conservatory «Fillipos Nakas» in Athens, in the Department of Modern Music, Participation in world conference of I.S.J.A. in Berklee College of Music (June 2000). Private courses with Ron Savage, Ralph Peterson, Lee Pierson.
Performed with: Alex Foster, Dave Friedman, Bobby Few, Abram Wilson, Miles Griffith, Amik Guerra, Soweto Kinch, Denys Baptiste, Jason Yarde, Rex Richardson, Paul Clarvis, Tony Remy, Reiner Witzel, Igor Lumpert, Joel Soto,Chris Rafailedes, Dimitrious Vassilakis, George Kontrafouris, Takis Paterelis, Vasilis Rakopoulos, Dimitris Tsakas, Kostas Baltazanis e.t.c.
Teacher: at Athens Modern Music School and scientific collaborator at the Musical Department of the Ionian University of Greece.
