Lefteris
Kordis is an Athens-born and Boston-based pianist. Mediterrana (Goddess of
Light), his fifth album as a leader, is an engaging, Tristano-esque exploration
of traditional Mediterranean sounds. The
album was released July 26, 2016 on Inner Circle Music (INCM 052CD).
Kordis has
been in the US, often in the orbit of Boston's esteemed New England
Conservatory, for nearly two decades, accumulating jazz credentials with the
likes of Steve Lacy, Greg Osby, and Sheila Jordan. For this record he's
assembled a piano-trio-plus-guests, with drummer Ziv Ravitz and bassist Petros
Klampanis at the core. Boston stalwart John Lockwood also performs on one track
along with numerous other guests.
Kordis comes
from a heady post-bebop tradition. He's absorbed not just the language of
Tristano, but also of two Boston piano icons. From Ran Blake, he borrows a wild
harmonic imagination and an impeccable touch: hear how he finds unfamiliar
beauty in "And I Love Her", by the Beatles. And from studies with the
influential late Boston pedagogue (and fellow Greek-American), Charlie Banacos,
he's developed ear-bending facility. Kordis has the fingers and the musical
mind to immediately follow any hint of redirection from his quick-witted
bandmates.
His thorough
connection to Greek music begins in heritage - Kordis is the grandson of a
Byzantine cantor - but goes much deeper. Paralleling his impressive career as a
young jazz pianist, Kordis has quickly become an in-demand instrumentalist in
the international Hellenic community, collaborating with noted composer Mikis
Theodorakis, traditional clarinetist Vasilis Saleas, and the singer Panayotis
Lalezas, among others.
A variety of
timbres on this album highlight the Hellenic tinge. Harris Lambrakis, on ney,
opens the first track (In the Land of Phrygians) with grit and an earthy,
disruptive joy. His playing is full of intimate ornamentation and inflections
common to 'folk' music but too little heard in the context of modern jazz.
Vasilis Kostas - on laouto (a Greek fretted lute), Roni Eytan - on chromatic
harmonica, Sergio Martinez - on percussion, and Alec Spiegelman - on clarinet,
all inject raw and unguarded lyricism into the music.
So does
Kordis; with an analog synthesizer (as found in many Eastern Mediterranean
wedding bands), he bends and wails and moans like an Epirot clarinetist. What's
more technically impressive is how he bends and wails and moans, in equal
measure, on that unforgivingly tempered and quintessentially Western
instrument, the piano!
You may, of
course, listen with none of that in mind. All of the aforementioned
instrumental mastery is in service of the music. And Mediterrana is an engaging
and original set of music by a pianist constantly creating new sounds.
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