Jazz club welcomes new season

The Half Note celebrates its 33rd anniversary with a rich program that will run halfway through April

ELIAS MAGLINIS

This season, the capital’s Half Note Jazz Club is celebrating its 33rd anniversary, having spent almost half of that time at its current location in Mets. That was a reason to celebrate, so recently the club organizers held their first ever press conference, in which they announced almost all of the upcoming program, running to Easter.

It was quite different from the usual press conference: Mostly music instead of words filled the cozy and familiar venue. A video screening gave a taste of the 27 bands that are expected to take the stage and keep us entertained until April 16.

Jazz remains the focus of the Half Note, although over the past few years the club has welcomed crossover ensembles, meaning groups that meander their way through different kinds of music and which are becoming increasingly popular everywhere.

“All of our seasons are different,” said Thrassos Irinis, who is in charge of the program. “Every year, we want to make the music happen. This season won’t be any different, except that this time we will insist on a balance between older acts such as Chico Freeman with new ones like the Brooklyn Funk Essentials, who resemble the Tiger Lillies and keep climbing up the charts, or Vagabond Opera, which combines 1920s European cabaret with Balkan Gypsy music and opera.”

Irinis said that the club has acquired quite a reputation abroad, which has resulted in more than 1,000 foreign artists asking to play on its stage.

One of the club owners, Takis Georgas, said that admission on Mondays will be half price, in the “Half on Mondays” initiative mostly aimed at young people and students, whose pockets cannot afford the club’s standard prices. Acid jazz, funk, world and ethnic, blues, swing, boogie-woogie, ballads, hip-hop, soul and tango will all take the stage at the Half Note Jazz Club. “Our aim is to have a different audience every week,” said the organizers.