European jazz at Technopolis
Last year marked the 10th anniversary of the European Jazz Festival which takes place at the Technopolis cultural center of the City of Athens. This year the festival is back at the same venue, under a new mayor, in a city — not to mention country — put to the test on a daily basis. The annual jazz rendezvous runs at the Gazi complex from May 24 to May 29.
Participating in the festival are ensembles from 12 European Union countries, namely Hungary, Slovakia, Portugal, Denmark, Spain, Austria, the Netherlands, Greece, the Czech Republic, Sweden, Luxembourg and Belgium.
For the first time in its history the festival is hosting a small tribute to Balkan jazz with guests such as Albania?s Fanfara Tirana and local acts such as the Martha Mavroidi Trio, Pantelis Stoikos and the Trio Balkano, the GoJam Group and the City of Athens Big Band. Running parallel to the festival is an exhibition of photographs by Christos Kopsachilis and Lefteris Arvanitis.
The festival, the result of a European Union artistic collaboration, hosts a number of representative jazz voices and bands, primarily young ensembles with fusion and ethnic jazz influences.
Greece is represented by the Nikos Anadolis Trio — the band was selected by a three-member jury comprising George Kontrafouris (an established jazzman and Ionian University lecturer), Giorgos Charonitis (co-publisher of Jazz
