Nikos Chatzitsakos Tiny Big Band I + II

Release 09.02.2024

Joey Curreri – trumpet
Robert Mac-Vega Dowda – trumpet
Salim Charvet – alto sax
Art Baden – tenor sax
Armando Vergara – trombone
Gabriel Nekrutman – bari sax

Wilfie Williams – piano 
Nikos Chatzitsakos – double bass
Samuel Bolduc – drums
Alexandria De Walt – vocals
Eleni Ermina Sofou – vocals 

nikoschatzitsakos.com

Ein Geben und Nehmen in Hülle und Fülle Jack Browers von Allaboutjazz

Chatzitsakos hat Swing-Arrangements mit einer zeitgenössischen Kante versehen, die von seiner Band mit Verve gespielt werden. Joe Lang Jerseyjazz

You Know I Care
Nikos Chatzitsakos, Armando Vergara

Standards werden mit Schwung vorgetragen: eine junge engagierte Band um den aus Athen stammenden und in New York ansässigen Bassisten Nikos Chatzitsakos herum spielt schmackhaften Swing, gut konzipierte Arrangements und hat Musikerinnen um sich versammelt, die einander die Hand reichen in Konsistenz, Spielfreude und Leistungsdichte, seit 2018 gibt es die Formation.

Beide Aufnahmen im Ringtausch hören, hintereinander weg, über Random oder Stück für Stück im Vergleich mit den Standards, auf denen sie beruhen. Und nicht wirklich sagen können, wer wen überflügelt – die Arrangements sind raffiniert, die Melodiefolgen bestens abgestimmt, die Übergänge ebenfalls raffiniert und ausgeklügelt – es gibt zwei Favoriten – von Bigband 1 Willow Weep For Me – von Big Band 2 The Windmills of Your Mind – zugegeben: bekannte Melodien verfangen leicht und schwingen quasi mit wie Erinnerungen an schöne Soundwolken – lass mich es so sagen:

Faszinierend ist, wie sie zu elft einen Sound hinbekommen, der sich anhört wie von einer großformatigen Bigband. Schön auch die jeweiligen Übergänge vom Voluminösen in die kammermusikalischen Anteile, vom Orchestrierten zum Trio und von dort wieder zurück ins Orchestrale.

Auch angenehm: die Vocalistin mit sehr ausgefeilten Stimmsätzen wird nicht etwa in den Vordergrund einer sie begleitenden oder unterstützenden Bigband gestellt, sie wirkt vielmehr wie ein eigenes Instrument der Tiny Big Band – und hat pares inter pares trotzdem einen eigenen Auftritt – so wie die einzeln hervortretenden Stimmen in ihrem jeweiligen Solo aufblühen: Saxophon, Trompete und auch Posaune – jeweils exzellente Stimmen.

Wer wem den Rang abläuft, scheint demnach die falsche Frage, dazu wirken die Instrumente jeweils zu stark besetzt, die Messlatte ist per se sehr hoch.

– Was aber ist eine Big Band anderes als eine Ansammlung starker Instrumentalisten zu einem Chorus oder einem Überhall oder Übersound : der die Räume ausfüllt und nicht mehr loslässt? Lässt man sich auf die Stücke im Einzelnen, im Gesamten und im Repeat oder Random ein, bleibt kein anderer Schluss:

das ist facetten- und abwechslungsreich – und, das Beste an ihren Aussagen: sie werden, je häufiger du sie hörst, auch in den Details interessant, weil: da ist nichts Routine, es ist gut ausgearbeitet und das, was so intensiv und mit großer Detailliebe zusammengestellt ist, hört sich von Mal zu Mal ausgefeilter und aufregender und spannungsgeladener an – das ist eben keine Bigband Musik im Sinn von Stangenware für Akkorde – hier hast du das Spiel als reife Leistung und die zeigt auf, dass Formationen, die in Raumakkorden agieren, erstrecht zu unterschiedlich spannenden Aussagen fähig sind.

: ich schalte auf random und vernachlässige, dass es eine Zeitfolge oder logisch wie logistische Gegenüberstellung gibt – da ich beide Aufnahmen mehrfach gehört habe: und sie sich jedes Mal anders darstellen, gehe ich davon aus, dass wir ein sehr durchdachtes und dazu erzählerisches Werk vor uns haben: was du hörst, eröffnet Tür und Tor und Fenster. Und lässt sehr frische Luft rein: Frische Tiny Big Band Luft.

Das Repertoire reicht dabei von Cole Porter bis Michel Legrand – Antonio Carlos Jobim bis Donald Byrd und verbindet wunderbar arrangiert Jazztradition mit heutiger Klangwelt. Gerne weitersagen!

Der preisgekrönte Nikos Chatzitsakos stammt aus Athen, lebt in New York und war Mitglied der Ralph Peterson GenNext Big Band. Er ist Gründer der „Nikos Chatzitsakos Tiny Big Band“.

Er studierte Musikwissenschaft an der Nationalen und Kapodistrianischen Universität von Athen. 2016 zog er nach Boston, wo er sein Studium am Berklee College of Music mit einem Vollstipendium in Jazzkomposition und -performance abschloss. In Berklee studierte er mit Linda May Han Oh, Billy Kilson, Ralph Peterson Jr, John Patitucci, Ben Street und Joe Lovano.

Seine Arrangements wurden vom Manhattan School of Music Jazz Orchestra im Rahmen des „Venus Project“ unter der musikalischen Leitung von Ingrid Jensen, der „Jazz Academy Big Band“ aus Moskau, der „Novosibirsk International Student Jazz Festival“ Big Band, der City of Athens Big Band und beim Berklee 2022 Graduation Concert für Lalah Hathaways Ehrensatz aufgeführt.

Line-Up

All or Nothing at All is a song composed in 1939 by Arthur Altman, with lyrics by Jack Lawrence. It was the first great Hit of Frank Sinatra

Get Out of Town is a 1938 popular song written by Cole Porter, for his musical Leave It to Me!, where it was introduced by Tamara Drasi

The song Fly Little Bird Fly was written by Donald Byrd and was first recorded and released by Duke Pearson in 1966

Where or When is a show tune from the 1937 Rodgers and Hart musical Babes in Arms. It was first performed by Ray Heatherton and Mitzi Green. That same year, Hal Kemp recorded a popular version. The song also appeared in the film version of Babes in Arms two years later.

I Didn’t Know What Time It Was is a popular song composed by Richard Rodgers with lyrics by Lorenz Hart for the 1939 musical Too Many Girls.

The song You Know I Care was written by Duke Pearson and was first released by The Duke Pearson Nonet in 1966

The Windmills of Your Mind is a song with music by French composer Michel Legrand and English lyrics written by American lyricists Alan and Marilyn Bergman. French lyrics, under the title „Les Moulins de mon cœur„, were written by Eddy Marnay.

Fotografia (also known as „Photograph“) is a bossa nova song written and composed in 1959 by Antônio Carlos Jobim. English lyrics were published in 1965

Line-Up

The song In the Land of Oo-Bla-Dee was written by Mary Lou Williams and Milton Orient and was first recorded by Dizzy Gillespie and His Orchestra in 1949
Taking a Chance on Love was written by Vernon Duke with lyrics by John La Touche and Ted Fetter (see 1940 in music) Cabin in the Sky.
Somewhere (There’s a Place for Us) or simply There’s a Place for Us, is a song from the 1957 Broadway musical West Side Story that was made into films in 1961
Tangerine was written by Victor Schertzinger, the lyrics by Johnny Mercer.The song was published in 1941 and soon became a jazz standard.
I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face is a song from the 1956 musical My Fair Lady, with music by Frederick Loewe and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner.

You Stepped Out of a Dream is a popular song with music written by Nacio Herb Brown and lyrics by Gus Kahn that was published in 1940. The song has become a pop and jazz standard, with many recorded versions.

„Willow Weep for Me“ is a popular song composed in 1932 by Ann Ronell, who also wrote the lyrics. The song form is AABA, written in ⁴ ₄ time, although occasionally adapted for ³₄ waltz time.

„Good Morning Heartache“ is a song written by Irene Higginbotham, Ervin Drake, and Dan Fisher. It was recorded by jazz singer Billie Holiday on January 22, 1946

Tenderly is a popular song published in 1946 with music by Walter Gross and lyrics by Jack Lawrence. Written in the key of E♭ as a waltz in ³₄ time, it has since been performed in ⁴₄ and has become a popular jazz standard.

Lined with a Groove by Mike LeDonne was written by Ray Brown [US] and was first released by Ray Brown / Milt Jackson in 1965

The song Social Call was written by Jon Hendricks and Gigi Gryce and was first recorded and released by Gigi Gryce Orchestra in 1955

Listen up !
Ralph Peterson's Gen-Next Big Band — Listen up !
Ralph Peterson’s Gen-Next Big Band

English Version

Bassist Nikos Chatzisakos leads a flexible semi-big band of 11 members with clever arrangements of swinging jazz standards. George W.Harris Jazzweekly

Chatzitsakos has provided swing arrangements with a contemporary edge that are played with verve by his band. Jerseyjazz

with an abundance of colorful give-and-take among the sections Jack Browers von Allaboutjazz

Standards are performed with verve, a young, dedicated band centred around bassist Nikos Chatzitsakos, who hails from Athens and is based in New York, plays tasty swing, well-conceived arrangements and has gathered musicians around them who have been lending each other a hand in terms of consistency, joy of playing and performance density; the formation has been around since 2018.

Listen to both recordings in rotation, one after the other, so to speak, via random or track by track in comparison with the standards on which they are based. And you can’t really tell who is outperforming whom – the arrangements are refined, the melody sequences perfectly coordinated, the transitions also refined and ingenious – and: there are two favourites – from Big Band 1 Willow Weep For Me – from Big Band 2 The Windmills of Your Mind – to admit: familiar melodies catch easily and resonate like memories of beautiful clouds of sound – let me put it that way:

It’s fascinating how the eleven of them manage to create a volume that sounds like a large-format big band; the transitions from the voluminous to the chamber music parts, from the orchestral to the trio and from there back to the orchestral are also beautiful.

Also pleasant: the vocalist with her very sophisticated vocal phrases is not placed in the foreground of a big band that accompanies or supports her, but rather acts as a separate instrument in the Tiny Big Band – and still has her own performance pares inter pares – just as the individually prominent voices blossom in their respective solos: saxophone, trumpet and also trombone – each excellent voices.

Who outperforms whom therefore seems to be the wrong question, as you can clearly hear that the instruments are so strongly manned that the bar is very high per se.

But what is a big band other than a collection of strong instrumentalists to a chorus or an over-reverb or over-sound that fills the room and never lets go? If you listen to the pieces individually, as a whole and on repeat or random, there is no other conclusion:

this is multi-faceted and varied – and, the best thing about their statements: the more you listen to them, the more interesting they become in the details, because: there is nothing routine, it is well worked out and what is put together so intensively and with great attention to detail sounds more sophisticated and exciting and charged with tension from time to time – this is just not big band music in the sense of bar music for chords – here you have the playing as a mature performance and it shows that formations that act in spatial chords are all the more capable of different exciting statements.

I switch to random and neglect that there is a time sequence or logical and logistical juxtaposition – since I have heard both recordings several times: and they are different each time, I assume that we have a very well thought-out and narrative work in front of us – what you hear opens doors and windows and lets in very fresh air: The Fresh Tiny Big Band Air.

The repertoire ranges from Cole Porter to Michel Legrand – Antonio Carlos Jobim to Donald Byrd and combines jazz tradition with today’s sound world in wonderful arrangements. Gladly spread the word!

The award-winning Nikos Chatzitsakos comes from Athens, lives in New York and was a member of the Ralph Peterson GenNext Big Band. He is the founder of the „Nikos Chatzitsakos Tiny Big Band“.

He studied musicology at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. In 2016 he moved to Boston, where he graduated from Berklee College of Music with a full scholarship in Jazz Composition and Performance. At Berklee he studied with Linda May Han Oh, Billy Kilson, Ralph Peterson Jr, John Patitucci, Ben Street and Joe Lovano.

His arrangements have been performed by the Manhattan School of Music Jazz Orchestra as part of the „Venus Project“ under the musical direction of Ingrid Jensen, the „Jazz Academy Big Band“ from Moscow, the „Novosibirsk International Student Jazz Festival“ Big Band, the City of Athens Big Band and at the Berklee 2022 Graduation Concert for Lalah Hathaway’s honour set.