The week that ends here at GME was dedicated to a music genre that is somehow overlooked nowadays, even though it encompasses huge amounts of talent, improvisation and vision: Greek jazz. Tonight’s destination: pianist Giorgos Kontrafouris and saxophonist Takis Paterelis. The jazz virus attacked Paterelis at the age of sixteen, as he had already forgotten his dream of becoming a football goalkeeper! His father’s records and the radio shows of Kostas Giannoulopoulos and Sakis Papadimitriou on the Hellenic Radio excited him. Takis first encountered the saxophone of Charlie Parker; soon after, all alone at home, he listened to records and tried to imitate his great teachers: Sonny Rollins, Dexter Gordon, Sun Ra. As for Kontrafouris, he recalls: “I grew up in Piraeus, which is the main port of Greece, and I was listening to music from a very young age. I also started taking piano lessons at the age of 7 and gradually I realised that playing music was what I wanted to become part of. My sound changes and develops through the years, because of the music I listen to and the impact that it has on me”.
Produced and presented by Hercules Economou