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Nikos Chatzitsakos

Born in Athens, Greece, bassist, arranger, and composer Nikos Chatzitsakos is an award-winning musician as a member of Ralph Peterson’s GenNext Big Band and leader of the Nikos Chatzitsakos Tiny Big Band & Quartet. Influenced by Black American music of the 1940s-60s, he attempts to find new ways to honor the era and perform it and connect it to other idioms.

Nikos is a graduate of Berklee College Of Music in Boston, where he studied performance and jazz composition with a full-tuition scholarship. He continued his graduate studies at the Berklee Global Jazz Institute on a full-tuition scholarship.

Nikos has performed alongside distinguished musicians such as Ralph Peterson, Frank Lacy, Antonio Hart, Quiana Lynell, Sarah Reich, and George Kontrafouris. Nikos has also taken the stage at venues including, Dizzy's Club Coca Cola at Lincoln Center, DC Jazz Festival, Scullers Jazz Club, “Jazzed In Siberia” festival, The Berklee Performance Center (BPC), and the Onassis Cultural Center.

Awards

Full Tuition Scholarship Berklee College of Music Undergraduate. Full Tuition Scholarship Berklee Global Jazz Institute Graduate. First place in the 68th DownBeat and second place in the 67th DownBeat Critics Poll’s Rising Star Big Band category with Ralph Peterson GenNext Big Band. 2nd place on the 2019 Seven Virtual Jazz Club Competition with Nikos Chatzitsakos Tiny Big Band. Winner of arrangement category of DownBeat Student Music Award 2020. Recipient of the 2020 Panhellenic Scholarship.


Tags

13
Album Review

Nikos Chatzitsakos: Tiny Big Band 2

Read "Tiny Big Band 2" reviewed by Jack Bowers


Cleaving to the premise that one Tiny Big Band deserves another, bassist Nikos Chatzitsakos is back with Tiny Big Band 2, the second album by his feisty nonet and a follow-up to the well-received Tiny Big Band! (self-produced), recorded in 2022. This time, Chatzitsakos uses two vocalists instead of one, rotating them on half of the album's eight tracks, and brings back only three of the earlier album's instrumentalists, plus himself. The returnees are cornetist Robert Mac ...

39
Album Review

Nikos Chatzitsakos: Tiny Big Band!

Read "Tiny Big Band!" reviewed by Jack Bowers


Bassist Nikos Chatzitsakos' Tiny Big Band, formed in 2018, is basically a nonet with vocalist Lian Zac added on three of the album's eleven tracks, trumpeter Robert Mac Vega-Dowda sitting in on five, vibraphonist Vid Jamnik on four, guitarist Gianmarco Ferri on two. The accent is on straight-ahead contemporary jazz, exemplified by seven standards from the Great American Songbook and a quartet of handsome themes whose jazz credentials are exemplary. The ensemble plays with assurance and enthusiasm, ...

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3

Recording

Nikos Chatzitsakos Tiny Big Band - Release Date May 13th! Performing April 24th At The Lilypad - Boston!

Nikos Chatzitsakos Tiny Big Band - Release Date May 13th! Performing April 24th At The Lilypad - Boston!

Source: Scott Thompson Public Relations

“Nikos Chatzitsakos Tiny Big Band” was formed in 2018. In this project, Nikos arranges jazz standards for a unique instrumentation of six horns and a piano trio, plus some guest appearances on vocals, guitar, and vibraphone. Although this instrumentation is rarely seen in our days, it was common in the heyday of swing music, before the appearance of big bands. Similar to a film director that brings the plot and characters of an old script to our modern world, Nikos ...

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Tiny Big Band 2

Self Produced
2024

buy

Get Out Of Town

Self Produced
2023

buy

All or Nothing at Aall

Self Produced
2023

buy

Tiny Big Band!

Self Produced
2022

buy

I Didn't Know What...

Self Produced
2022

buy

The Windmills of Your Mind

From: Tiny Big Band 2
By Nikos Chatzitsakos

All or Nothing at All

From: All or Nothing at Aall
By Nikos Chatzitsakos

Get Out Of Town

From: Get Out Of Town
By Nikos Chatzitsakos

I Didn't Know What Time It Was

From: I Didn't Know What Time It Was
By Nikos Chatzitsakos

Videos

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