ATHENS – One might call it “jazz lit by the fire of Crete” – Maria Manousaki, international Jazz violinist and composer who led a fine ensemble in Athens on May 9 calls it Mediterranean Jazz. The creator’s description will be respected here, but she and her fellow artists were on fire that Friday night at Athens’ Theatre of the NO.
The occasion for the concert was the first presentation in Greece of the music of her latest solo CD, ‘Behind Closed Doors’, which was produced and co-arranged by longtime collaborator Petros Klampanis – bassist, producer, and founder of Pkmusik. He also produced her previous albums ‘Hidden Trails’ and ‘Sole Voyage’.
Both artists are well known and loved in New York among Greeks and non-Greeks alike, and the album “continues their shared vision of fusing tradition with innovation” according to Manousaki’s social media post.
Alekos Roupas. (Photo: TNH/C. Sirigos)
Behind Closed Doors was inspired by the COVID lockdown and is a product of “inner reflection” standing “as a hymn to loss, hope, and rebirth” the post ads. The album includes five original instrumental tracks, plus a reimagined cover of ‘Love Song’ by The Cure. The original is a modern classic – but Manousaki and her band ‘rocked the cover’ at the NO, snapping some of the strings on her bow with her energy and passion.
Maestra and audience alike appreciated the contributions of Dimitris Verdinoglou on piano, Michalis Evdaimon on bass, and percussionist Alekos Roupas.
The music is a heady – and passionate – blend of “Jazz from New York and sounds from the island of Crete – with a bit of Middle Eastern flavor,” Manousaki said. Asked if she developed that over time or it just came to her, she said “that sound came to me when I was in New York. When you leave your home town – wherever that is – you get nostalgic, and as a musician that’s where I found my voice.” Her first album – Sole Voyage – in 2015 speaks to that experience.
At the NO, Zoutsas and Manousaki offered a lovely rendition of ‘Thalasaki Mou’ and then turned ‘Misirlou’ into a hypnotic duet. “That just came up – it was spontaneous” she said.
Manousaki, living today in Platania near Chania, Crete and often in New York, was born in Johannesburg, studied under scholarship at the renowned Berklee College of Music in Boston, and has lived in New York.
She is now preparing for the Vlatos Jazz World Music Festival founded in 2019 in the village of Vlatos in Western Crete. The dramatic setting features acoustic performances in a ruined church where “the gigs are lit by flickering candlelight, casting shadows that dance like ghosts of the church’s past” according to Manousakis’ social media.
