The forecast for the upcoming months is hot jazz in the Music Palate and in Half Note. It is expected that many world celebrities will pass by and make your blood boil by the swing, boogie woogie, rock, funk, and groovy sounds – virtuously presented by some of the best musicians.

Half Note

Hip-hop, flamenco alternative dances and flirt with the music can be heard on the street – a passionate combination by a flamenco dancer, who has taken off her polka dot dress because of the music… LaShica fans will be able to enjoy her between 6th and 12th of February in half Note (http://www.halfnote.gr/). Everybody says that the singer, who has shaved her head is influenced by many music styles – from Lola Flores, Marisol, Diego Karasco, and even Bjork. This is because her songs and modern lyrics give freshness, which is needed in our time. Elsa Rovallo or “LaShica” (http://www.lashica.com) is 1.58 meters high, born in Ceuta 32 years ago. From 15 years old she leaves for Madrid as a flamenco dancer until she decides to put in her wardrobe a polka dot costume and present us with one deep and meaningful album, which deserves its name “Chinese Work”. This album is a result of her trip around Spain and around the world for more than a year. And the result is really spectacular.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_9RhqCrs7s&feature=related

In the week between 13th and 19th of February Jump ‘n Jive will play in Half Note. They are the most authentic representatives of the European boogie woogie, jump blues and swing stage tracking Louis Jordan and Cab Calloway and with the accompaniment of one exceptional tap dancer. Following the steps of Louis Jordan and other classic jump blues and R&B performers, the style showered America right after the war and spread to all parts of the world, going through Rock n Roll. Right now, Jump ‘n Jive are the best live band, which plays in Europe. Even though they are Dutch they reproduce the exact atmosphere that the Andrews sister, Fats Domino, and Ray Charles had created. The 11 member band includes the exceptional tap dancer Peter Kuit (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Xfi8smzZ3Q), the vocalist and leader of the band Bert Vrieling, three back-vocalists and one 6 member rhythm section with dynamic wind instruments, guitar, drums and Hammond. They sweep us away with boogie woogie, jump blues, and swing energy from the 20’s and 30’s and share their experience with us from their work with ray Charles and Fats Domino.

The most favorite king of funk Milo Z (http://miloz.com/) will play with his band in Half Note on February 20th till 26th. The audience should expect nights full of playful funk, soul, rock, and groovy sound mixture, which will enchant them. Behind the mad combination of jazz-funk, hip-hop, groovy, and soul rhythms stands Milo Z – the unconditional number one in New York funk. For the last few years he has created his own trend and fanatic fans in New York and in Athens. He will prove to us again that jazz thing and street beat can find their representative in the persona of this New York artist. He has exceptionally combined the good old soul of the 60’s and 70’s, the funk of Sly &The Family Stone, the War, the Kool & The Gang and of the Parliament-Funkadelic, the sounds of the 80’s Prince and the alternative sound of hip-hop and rock. The result is an alternative music, where the psychedelic mixes and the guitar eruptions create one hot and cultic atmosphere. “Make in a way for them to dance, make in a way for them to sweat, make it in a way for them to want more…” All this is completed with the groups’ costumes, the choreography and the unpolished a la Mick Jagger sexuality of Milo Z – details, which conspire among each other in order to offer us one of the most firing experiences…

For more information: www.Ticketnet.gr and tel: 210 8840600

The Palate of Music

One whole night dedicated to the spontaneity and improvisation of jazz will be organized on Saturday, January 17^th from 11:00 am until the sunrise on Sunday in the Palate of Music in Athens. (http://www.megaron.gr/)

The emblematic bassist Ron Carter (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-J7szWDytCw) and the exceptional blind piano player Markus Adzmon www.gilad.co.uk/ and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEDjgdjmCfA&feature=related), the Greek band of Giorgios Fakanas (http://www.fakanas.gr/fakanas-4_2.htm), the exceptional piano player Markos Alexiou (www.mustout.gr/markosbio.html), the classic quartet of  Takis Paterelis (http://www.parafono.gr/htmls/paterelis_group.htm and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rtUg2HfGTs), the Latin sextet of Dimitris Sevdalis (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVwq5X7VdP4) and the culmination – jam session, which will start at 2:00 am, which promises to give the audience one great experience. This music is born to cure the pain from the traumatic experience and the suppression and to develop into an infinite search for values and beauty in one inhospitable world.

The big event of the night is Ron Carter’s concert, who together with Herby Hancock and Wayne Sorter will add to the list of the great jazz dinosaurs. They will appear on the stage of the Palate of Music in Athens this year. The respect, which Ron carter receives for 76 years now in the world of music cannot be compared to anything and the fullness and wholeness of his sound are indisputable when he combines them with perfection and balanced feel of time.

Blind from 5 years old, the genius piano player Markus Roberts is a perfect performer and composer. He meets Markos Alexiou, who is in the vanguard jazz circles in Greece, and together they improvise and play the piano bebop jazz – just the way they like it.

Riot musician, writer and political activist Gilad Adzmon together with his band The orient house Ensemble combines sounds from the East, North Africa, and East Europe, and electronic music into the jazz.

Giorgios Fakanas’ band meets the Camera, the Orchestra of the Friends of Music and assures us that classic orchestras can be led softly into the jazz sounds. Toni Lakatos will play his saxophone together with them. He is son of Hungarian gipsy violin players, and he himself goes from the violin to the saxophone in order to become one of the big names in the jazz circles.

Besides the concerts, many lectures will take place in the Palate of Music by Ron Carter (at 3:00 pm in Banquet Hall), Markus Roberts (at 1:00 pm in Skalkotas Hall), drum studios (at 11:00 am), and one saxophone lecture with Gilad Adzmon (at 12:00 pm). There will also be a bazaar and one very interesting exhibition of the left in history record covers of the sound recording company BLUE NOTE, which celebrates it 70 years birthday this year.

The ticket sale has started and whoever buys tickets for two different concerts gets a 20% discount, and for 3 or more – 30%.