Kostas Maginas

Biography
Articles

I was born in Athens. I studied guitar in Athens and Thessaloniki and in 1987 I moved to Berklee College of music in Boston where I've continued my studies on composition and arrangement. Between 1988 and 1990 I took part in Brandeis University Jazz band, under the direction of Ricky Ford and played there concerts with Milt Hinton, Charles Davis, Ran Blake, Kenny Burrell and many others, while at the same time I was giging with my own groups at various jazz clubs in Boston. I've returned to Greece in 1991 and since then I've recorded my own material many times for the 3rd program of the National Radio Broadcast, also collaborated and played live on stage with ''14th day'' dance company and composed soundtracks for TV documentaries. I've played and toured Greece and Balkans with people like Lee Konitz, Dick Griffin, Mark Turner, Rick Margitza, Graig Bailey, Sam Newsome, Rob Dixon, Roberto Gatto, Danilo Rea, Keith Copeland, Benjamin Henocq , Jacubu Griffin, Olivier Gatto,Nicolas Simion and others. I have recorded two cd's under my own name: ''Dialogues'' and "Seven for a secret".

Kostas Maginas: Seven For A Secret

Read "Seven For A Secret" reviewed by Mark Sabbatini

by Mark Sabbatini
May 6, 2005

The concept of Led Zeppelin-meets-Celtic might seem like too much to wrap your brain around, but Kostas Maginas makes the process easy. Maybe too easy.

Seven For A Secret, the second album by the guitarist from Thessaloniki, Greece, is as smooth as a Pat Metheny Group release but with a more ethnically diverse tonal presence. While interesting and pleasant, it also falls short of its artistic potential by too often feeling conventional, instead of delving deeper into some ...