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Pandelis Karayorgis Quintet: Afterimage
Boston, MA area pianist, composer Pandelis Karayorgis brandishes his magic at a Chicago venue with some of the Windy City's finest improvisers. He shifts many concepts with odd-metered progressions while straddling the avant-garde spectrum amid a manifesto based on cohesive discourses, where the hornists may purposely lag behind the beat or bust out into commodious movements. Karayorgis is a perceptive composer, whether he ingrains a smoky blues motif with sinuous phrasings or positions the band into a manifold gait where ...
read morePandelis Karayorgis Quintet: Circuitous
In the album liners, Boston-based jazz pianist Pandelis Karayorgis cites this unit as a dream band, featuring prominent Chicagoans, saxophonist Dave Rempis and drummer Frank Rosaly. Never one to run short on creative sparks, the pianist is a sly arranger, and these works are asymmetrically synched within organization and improvisation. Moreover, several of these pieces are influenced by Thelonious Monk, primarily from an unconventional rhythmic standpoint amid odd-metered expressionism. Vivid imagery is rampant on “Swarm," where the frontline ...
read morePandelis Karayorgis Trio: Cocoon
With so many projects in the works, where is one to begin in a survey of pianist Pandelis Karayorgis? The Boston-based educator (born in Athens, Greece) is a member of The Whammies (featuring Han Bennink), a sextet formed with Driff Records partner Jorrit Dijkstra to cover the music of Steve Lacy. He also maintains a Chicago Quintet with Dave Rempis, Keefe Jackson, Nate McBride, and Frank Rosaly, and is a member of System of 5, Construction Party, and the Guillermo ...
read morePandelis Karayorgis Quintet: System Of 5
A longstanding adherent of intimate duo and trio settings, Boston-based pianist Pandelis Karayorgis' discography has been dominated by small combo recordings since the early 1990s, with many founded on the venerable configuration of piano, bass and drums. A radical traditionalist with a penchant for the acute angles and strident tonalities of advanced post-bop, Karayorgis' recent exploits with bassist Jef Charland and drummer Luther Gray have earned him well-deserved praise. System Of 5 is the debut of Karayorgis' newest ensemble, presenting ...
read morePandelis Karayorgis: System of 5
One of the most enduring qualities possessed by pianist Pandelis Karayorgis is his startling intellect, as well as the grace with which he announces his arrival. A truly gifted musician with a penchant for angularity, his playing is, nevertheless, beautifully logical, even when he is playing those darting arpeggios that a linear melody demands. However, every once in awhile, he abandons all logical lines to the melody of his complex work, and jumps in seemingly with a myriad of hands, ...
read morePandelis Karayorgis Quintet: System of 5
One of the major attributes of System of 5 pertains to the modality of New England area pianist Pandelis Karayorgis, which lies between modern jazz, with heavy rhythmic nods to Thelonious Monk, and a newer slant that parallels the current state of jazz imperialism. Backed by a new band, the musicians overlap mainstream persuasions with tricky time signatures and passionate improvisational implementations. The pianist abides by a democratic process, but also incorporates well-rehearsed complexities into the grand schema.
read morePandelis Karayorgis / Nate McBride / Curt Newton: Betwixt
Pianist Pandelis Karayorgis, bassist Nate McBride and drummer Curt Newton debuted as the Mi3 trio in 2005 with We Will Make A Home For You (Clean Feed), a riotous live recording that featured Karayorgis leading the trio on a vintage Fender Rhodes. Their studio follow up, Free Advice (Clean Feed, 2007) found Karayorgis back on home turf, playing acoustic piano. Their most definitive statement yet, Betwixt combines the electronic experimentation of their live debut with the sonic precision of the ...
read morePandelis Karayorgis / Nate McBride / Curt Newton: Betwixt
Tutored early on by Paul Bley, and with Thelonious Monk and Lennie Tristano his most pronounced formative influences, Pandelis Karayorgis isn't the most likely pianist to become a late-adopter of the Fender Rhodes. But after some twenty years recording with an acoustic instrument, on Betwixt Karayorgis exclusively plays the electric Fender Rhodes.
Or perhaps that should be “rebirths" the Rhodes. Karayorgis comprehensively wrenches the instrument from its 1970s fusion legacy and offers it up to post-modern jazz and ...
read moreThe Pandelis Karayorgis Trio: Heart And Sack
Boston based pianist Pandelis Karayorgis and young bassist Nate McBride are both graduates of the prestigious New England Conservatory of Music while Karayorgis also studied under master pianist-improviser Paul Bley. Perhaps Bley’s lasting influence serves as a paradigm or a foundation for this fine new recording titled “Heart and Sack”. Not without an identity of his own, Karayorgis shows characteristics that pay homage to the masters but fortifies his individual prowess with gifted chops and a strikingly personal approach.
While ...
read moreThe Pandelis Karayorgis Trio: Heart and Sack
The liner notes to this disc quote the Greek modernist composer Iannis Xenakis; while Heart and Sack by the Pandelis Karayorgis Trio does not have Xenakis' spiky amelodicism, pianist Karayorgis is clearly aware of the territory staked out by Xenakis and his peers. These ten tracks all have a solid jazz sense of forward motion, courtesy the fine drummer Randy Peterson and the superlative bassist Nate McBride, not to mention the directed sensibilities of Karayorgis himself. However, Karayorgis, while never ...
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