‘Jazz is universal but also personal’ - The Best from Greece

The Athens News spoke with Greek jazz artist Dimitri Vassilakis about his international career, new album Across the Universe and local appearances, including an ongoing series of shows in the Greek capital.

 

 

Dimitri Vassilakis: I think it was very important for jazz that it was greatly appreciated in Europe; so, yes, many big American names came to Europe and, of course, they made a living out of it. But, for me, it was quite the opposite because the US is the place where you gain recognition and respect. New York is the place for a jazz artist. It has the best players in the world. If you make it there, you make it anywhere.

 

 

It is very important for me because I can still keep my Greek identity and infuse my music with some Greek elements, not at all ethnic - I don’t want to put it under that umbrella. But, on the other hand, it’s very important that anyone from anywhere in the world can play this music and communicate. For me, it was very important that, as a Greek, coming from a country where we don’t have a tradition of jazz, I made it in Europe and the US and I gained the recognition. It’s like when you go to a sporting event. The big event is in New York; you’ve got all the good players there. This is a way to actually appraise yourself. 

 

It’s not that I want to play jazz in a particularly American or European way; I want to play it in my own way. I might be from Greece, I might be from somewhere else, it really doesn’t matter. In the end, you measure yourself up against other people who are better and more knowledgeable than you.

 

 

A jazz musician should project light and love and be able to communicate. Jazz has a power of communication that goes beyond ethnicity and that’s all that matters. So, regardless of where you are from, a true artist has to have those elements and I follow that path, the jazz path. 

 

What is it about jazz that attracts such a huge following worldwide and even more so beyond its birthplace? 

 

Jazz has evolved. It’s like the root of a huge tree with different branches and different styles; that is why it has an enormous following. If you think that even rock‘n’roll came out of the blues, soul, rhythm & blues, all those genres came out of jazz. 

 

It has many elements but, for me, the important thing is the universality of jazz. I could be in Africa or Asia and, without even knowing the local language, we [jazz musicians] can communicate if we just mention the title of the tune or simply play the tune, and then the other musicians follow, because they know it and then we can improvise on that. We have a common code which is very strong. It is like a code that can reproduce other realities immediately because we have a base. 

 

It’s not like classical music. In classical music, you have to play a certain piece in a certain way. You don’t have many parameters. But if we play, say, “Summertime” or “Fly Me to the Moon”, then everyone knows the song and can play it in their own way. I experienced this mainly on tour with the Association of Schools of Jazz, when I met students and teachers of jazz and saw all these differences in culture. But when the time came to play, all of these were forgotten and, suddenly, we played great jazz, whereas we couldn’t even communicate properly because of the language barrier. But there is no barrier when it comes to music.

 

 

Of course, it is getting better. I came back in 1991. We developed a jazz course at the Philippos Nakas Conservatory and in music departments - though not full-time jazz departments - at universities. We have some courses at the University of Macedonia in Thessaloniki, where I taught for seven years, and there is also the University of the Ionian. But we are still way behind in terms of music education and the culture of jazz, in general. 

 

We are even behind some of the other Balkan countries in terms of education and art. These countries have academies of jazz and many musicians there infuse their music with jazz in a very creative way. We need to open up to more diverse sounds. 

 

 

I like the fact that these artists are coming here now, but I ask myself why they didn’t come here earlier. For me, that is weird. Those guys should have come here decades ago. They visit Istanbul, other Balkan countries, but they never visited us before. 

 

Many Greeks are not really aware of other art forms. They are so preoccupied with what Greek artists are doing, which really doesn’t mean much to anyone else outside Greece, aside from the Greek-speaking diaspora. Nobody in this country has the energy to think wider. We have a very narrow way of looking at matters of art. 

 

I first picked up a saxophone in 1986. I saw the instrument and immediately after I listened to Charlie Parker and John Coltrane, and that was it. My life changed. I forgot all about vocals until 2005 when I was jamming with some other musicians, scatting and stuff. 

 

The other model for my singing is Chet Baker. I feel very close to him because he is a horn player. A lot of the tunes that I will be playing at the Half Note are Chet Baker’s. He wasn’t a composer but he sang amazingly. My sound is darker than Chet’s. 

 

In terms of performers, Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane and Joe Henderson are my biggest influences.

 

Rollins is unbelievable. It is amazing what he does, considering his age. My third album, Parallel Lines, is essentially dedicated to him as it is a jazz suite for a trio. It follows Rollins’ style, that of fragmental improvisation and thematic development. On this album I recorded with the most important jazz drummer right now, Jeff “Tain” Watts, who has played with the Marsalis brothers. 

 

One model for Across the Universe is Nina Simone, whom I love equally. Her music shows how deeply personal jazz is and how, despite being personal, it can be universal too. You tell a story to the audience and they respond to you. 

 

 

I created a trilogy for London-based record label Candid Records: Secret Path, Labyrinth/Daedalus Project and Parallel Lines. All are instrumental albums with my own original compositions. Labyrinth was a project infused with Greek elements but mainly it was focused on the idea behind them: the intensity, ritual quality and clarity of thought - the ideals behind ancient Greek thought. The tunes are not in song form - they are more like open thematic units for improvisation. 

 

I wrote this music so that the musicians could play it freely. I was very happy to see Labyrinth voted second best album of the year by the BBC and I have been asked to make presentations concerning the album at American universities. 

 

 

I made a change with Across the Universe, as I have incorporated vocals but not my own compositions. I plan to, hopefully, do a new recording of my own compositions. I have a lot of original tunes that are looking for a way to be recorded. 

 

What I think I want to convey is Greece’s amazing light; I haven’t seen this light anywhere - this beautiful, blessed land that we have and the power that it can give us. This is what I want to convey, if I can, through my music. I think that art awakens people. This is what I want to do, what music should do, what an artist should do at a time like this, anywhere, but especially in Greece, now that we’re in a cyclone. The artist should awaken the consciousness of the people. 

 

This is a great time for personal development because suddenly now people must confront themselves. Before, they didn’t think about that because of the easy life they were living. Now everybody has to face up to themselves. Art can help people wake up and go through that process. 

 

I like all sorts of spaces. At the moment, I am playing with my Athens-based trio at a very posh venue, at the Divani Caravel hotel, every Thursday evening. It’s called Jazz Nights, “driven” by [luxury automotive manufacturer] Bentley. It’s cool, I play old-style jazz, what you see in the old movies, tunes from the 30s and 40s and other music too. I invite drummers to jam and female singers to perform. 

 

I feel comfortable in many places. I especially like the small music clubs where you jam, like at the Zinc bar in New York. Sometimes I like playing halls or big festivals, where, at times, the vibe is really good. 

 

One of my most memorable moments was when I played in South Africa in 2009 with Abdullah Ibrahim at the state theatre in Pretoria. That concert was amazing, but what was even more so was the time I spent in the schools and ghettos of Soweto, performing for the kids. I started playing my saxophone at a football field and the kids stopped playing football and came around me, and started dancing. When you do something for them, they understand that you do it with your heart and they give you back so much love. It was an enlightening week.

 

 

Labyrinth was an important point for me as it helped me initiate my contacts with the US. I recorded it in New York. In 2001 I presented this album at [NYC jazz club] Birdland, which is my most significant live performance, in the sense that I played a venue which took its name from Charlie Parker. So, for me that was a dream come true. I performed together with all of the great musicians who featured on that album, including my mentor David Liebman. To a great extent, Liebman determined the way in which I viewed jazz, also from an educational approach. 

 

 

What is special about this series of shows at the Half Note is the inclusion of New York-based Puerto Rican tap dancer Michela who - together with my New York Quartet pianist Theodore Hill, who has Greek roots - appears in the Sunday afternoon gig at the eminent NYC club Smalls, in Greenwich Village. Michela, who has also performed with the Roy Hargrove Big Band, is one of the best young tap dancers in New York. For me it is very significant that I am returning to the Half Note with such a strong ensemble, as I love the venue very much.

 

For me it is very important to balance energy, to live a spiritual kind of life, and I want to incorporate this in my music, too. I run and cycle, and I think it’s very important because I draw energy from nature. I love “Nature Boy” and the way  Nat King Cole performed it. I like him because he is a vocalist-pianist; he is just incredible. 

 

GREEK saxophonist and composer Dimitri Vassilakis, a familiar face on the small yet active local jazz circuit, has flown in his multicultural New York Quartet for a five-night stint - featuring NYC-based tap dancer Michela Marino-Lerman - at Athens’ Half Note Jazz Club, which concludes on November 27. After dabbling in rock music in a band he formed with his brother back in 1979, Vassilakis set his sights on jazz at a time when the genre “did not exist in Greece, in its culture or its education system”. He studied classical and jazz music in the UK and cut his musical teeth on a trilogy of albums released by eminent label Candid Records. Vassilakis has performed at leading NYC jazz clubs including Birdland, Sweet Rhythm and Tonic, as well as the University of Yale and other notable venues.