Jazz Articles about Dimitri Vassilakis

Dimitri Vassilakis: Parallel Lines

by Mark F. Turner
July 21, 2006

Parallel Lines--an album that's filled with exquisite musicianship, fire, and hard-swinging grooves--could justifiably put Greek saxophonist Dimitrios Vassilakis on the who's who list of world-class reed players. Born in Athens, Greece and living in London, he is also an educator pursing a PhD while teaching and lecturing in the Music Department at Makedonia University in Thessalonica. Vassilakis' music theory and concepts are vitalized when he is joined by drummer Jeff “Tain Watts and bassist Essiet Okon Essiet. ...

Dimitri Vassilakis: Parallel Lines

by Chris May
January 12, 2006

Greek saxophonist Dimitri Vassilakis' third album for Candid is a one-course, big plate feast of rugged, gruff-toned tenor saxophone and high-torque bass and drums. It swings hard from start to finish, with only the halfway point “Soul Eyes" providing a pause, and does both Vassilakis and his primary influence, Sonny Rollins, proud. It was released in Europe this past fall and will be out in the US shortly.

In his liner notes, Vassilakis cites Rollins' Freedom Suite with ...