Dimitris Zafeirelis: Dimitris Zafeirelis & Giorgos Gavalez Duo Jazz Parafono 1997

Dimitris Zafeirelis has enjoyed well-earned acclaim in his hometown of Athens as one of the foremost guitarists, jazz composers and musical innovators his country has to offer. He has been active for at least half a century, playing everything from bop, fusion, classical, operetta and rock, all with that distinct national flavor and unrelenting style which characterizes any great performer. Parallel to his commercial career, Zafeirelis is an instructor, a highly sought-after one. Unfortunately, his domestic success has not translated much into international renown. Though little information about his career exists outside his native language, there is no evidence to suggest he's pursued the many European or transcontinental jazz circuits. Despite his prolific output, only a handful of recordings are available on streaming services. Apparently, what you read now is the first critical piece even mentioning Zafeirelis in English, at least since the invention of the internet.

His album—a duo with bass guitarist Giorgos Gavalas from '97—makes clear what Anglophone jazz lovers have missed. From the opening track, Zafeirelis is sharp, instinctive and almost abrasive. What is, essentially, standard '70s fusion material on paper, something between the verbose complexity of Jaco Pastorius and the slower, plaintive Pat Martino, is suddenly wrenched from the treatments one would expect, allowing a simmering mystery lesser performers would not dare explore. "DimotikoI" waxes and wanes between methodical bop and eerie Mediterranean folk ballads, Zafeirelis' alchemically mimicking the warm, drenched sounds of an oud in its middle section.

But bop and fusion, and in the later "Rock Oriental" and "All Blues," hard rock and electric blues, are simply masks the duo wear and contort to their liking. "All Blues" ostensibly matches the barrage of minor chords and dripping melancholy that defines any revivalist Mose Allison track, but in practice, the two performers war against the tyranny of genre as much as they embrace it. Gavalas' slow, trenchant fingering embues the piece with a sort of cosmic anxiety, an airy wandering that excites Zafeirelis' more conventional grooves and slides. The resulting atmosphere is not so different from some Mississippi back-porch concert, undulating and raw like any worthwhile blues. But Zafeirelis and Gavalas are stubborn, uncouth and exacting in their playstyles.

"Rock Oriental" provides a great example. As the name suggests, Zafeirelis shreds to his heart's content, reveling in the explosive suspense provided by Gavalas' smoky licks and smooth accompaniment. But just as the listener becomes comfortable and lays their colective heads in the seat cushions and prepares for some '80s-inflected jazz-rock, Zafeirelis' grooves grow morose, pensive. The rhythm passes to Gavalas, while the lead indulges in vibrant, almost grungey progressions. He drifts to a winding ambience, reminiscent of Japanese koto music as much as soft rock. What is hinted at in the introduction of a track is resolutely denied by the performers' whim. Nothing—genre, technique, national and ethnic identity—is sacred to these beguiling musicians except the natural progression of the music.

This is not to suggest Zafeirelis and Gavalas are unable or unwilling to deliver some basely enjoyable, traditional jazz. "Agios Thomas" proves they are not ardent experimentalists. They are, however, eternally unsatisfied, frustrated improvisors, balancing the thin tightrope of influence and invention. Two explorers, slavishly devoted to an authentic sound—how unfortunate it is, then, that the world has afforded them so little of its attention, and how exciting for the listener to explore such wild, uncharted territory.

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