The Cinematic Orchestra ‘Man With A Movie Camera’ DVD Reissue

This might be old news by now but…

Wonderful music for a wonderful movie.

“Re-issued after 6 years, the jewel in the crown to many fans, The Cinematic Orchestra‘s ‘Man With A Movie Camera‘ is now available to buy on DVD from the Ninjashop and Amazon UK.  The video download is released on 2nd November 2009.

J Swinscoe’s The Cinematic Orchestra have been described as “classy and cerebral, but atmospheric and soulful too” (NME). They are one of the few bands of the last few years to successfully fuse contemporary studio production techniques with fantastic live playing, their take on jazz and film soundtracks fused together with a thoroughly modern sampler-generation attitude.

In late 1999, Swinscoe was asked by the organisers of the Porto European City of Culture 2000 if the band wanted to score a soundtrack to a silent movie to open the celebrations. It seemed a perfect opportunity to expand the ideas of TCO into the world which had given them their name. But the difference was this was for a one off live performance. The film was Dziga Vertov‘s ‘Man With A Movie Camera’, a 1929 early documentary cinema film from the Soviet Union. The performance in a old theatre space in Porto ended with a standing ovation of 3,500 people. Since that evening TCO have performed the score live at film festivals from Turkey to Scotland.”

 

Yiannis Kassetas & The Funk Wizards – FunkAbyss

As I mentioned before, Greece has wonderful jazz musicians.

Although this is not the right place (again) for jazz music as the majority of people prefer to shake their bodies on tables and wave their hips on bars in the tunes of some opa-opa song, jazz music blossoms in the underground.

The underground jazz audience might be outnumbered by the belly dancing lovers at this side of southern Europe but…jazz diamonds are released every now and then…

Before I start writing about Yiannis Kassetas and his band, I would like to mention that during the last two decades, most of the musicians that work at the Greek music clubs studied at Berklee college of music or at M.I. and most of them are jazz or latin music teachers…

But…for sure they have to make some money for the living too…if you know what I mean…

Yiannis Kassetas is a young sax and piano virtuoso who released his second album titled “FunkAbyss” about a month or so.

Two years after his first album, “The Truth About the Alien Invasion In Egypt” Kassetas and his band, The Funk Wizards strike back.

This time with the participation of sax player Jason Yarde and drummer Clarence Penn.

For those of you who are not familiar with these two musicians, Clarence Penn  played the drums for artists of the caliber of Wynton Marsalis, Roberta Flack, Dizzy Gillespie and Michael Brecker to name but a few.

Jason Yarde on the other hand is a member of Jack DeJohnette’s band but he also contributed in recordings for artists such as McCoy Tyner, Roy Ayers and Hugh Masekela Jazz Jamaica All Stars.

The Tracklist :

1. John Carpente’s Road Movie

2. Creatures of the Abyss

3. The Zen theory of Funk

4. Crystal Dream (intro)

5. Crystal Dreams

6. Giant Rainbow

7. Wildness

8. Sweetness

9. X-rcheia Blues

10. G. Rainbow (blue shades)

Some of the finest Greek jazz musicians came alongside Kasseta & the Funk Wizards in the studio: organ player Giorgos Kontafouris and tenor sax player Dimitris Vasilakis, Dimitris Sevdalis (Rhodes), Alexandros Drakos Ktistakis (drums) Basilis Xenopoulos (alto saxophone), Apostolos Sideris (bass) Dimitris Karalis (flute) Adadeji Adetayo (vocals and guitar) and Serafim Bellos (drums).

And since I am done mentioning the guests’ names, let me name the members of the Funk Wizards: Yiannis Kassetas (piano, tenor and soprano sax) Manos Lutas (el. bass and fretless bass) Kostis Christodoulou (Rhodes, synthesizers), Vaggelis Kotzabasis (drums) and Lucia Paleologou (vocals, she also wrote the lyrics for the track “Giant Rainbow”, the only track on this album that has lyrics).

Well worth checking.

 

A new snack by Baby Trio

George Kontrafouris is one of the top Greek Jazz musicians. He was born in Athens in 1967, studied classical piano but at the age of 16 he switched to jazz music.

He was the founding member of the jazz band “Page One“, and later joined the bands  “Exit” and “Houston Pearson Quartet“.

He worked with many international musicians, such as: Arild Andersen, Carey Bell, Bob Brozman, Carla Cook, Keith Copeland, Wayne Dockery, Stepko Gut, Marc McDonald, Markus Stockhausen, Louisiana Red, Andy Shepard and participated in many recordings.

After releasing three solo albums,  he formed Baby Trio along with two very young but talented musicians, guitar player Alexandros Vichos and drummer Vangelis Kotzabasis.

Tracklisting

1. The Insane Attack of the Komodo Waran
2. 5 to 7
3. 3. Daddy Giorgos

On this mini CD of theirs, titled “A New Snack”, Kontrafouris continues exploring the world of Hammond organ like he did on his album “Little Daddy’s Blues” (which was released through Tony Monaco’s record label Chicken Coop)

These three great Greek jazz musicians released in 2008 a limited edition CD (777 copies) of groovy jazz which is close enough to the style of Mel Rhyne and Jimmy Smith.

More about mr. Kontrafouris can be found here