The Greek jazz scene constitutes a close-knit and highly active community, with its artistic potential now extending beyond the geographical borders of Greece. Young, skilled artists, with studies in Greece or at higher education institutions abroad, demonstrate a very high level of technical and/or compositional creation.
AUTODIA was present for the first time at the international music exhibition jazzahead!, organized every year in the spring in Bremen. Creators/performers, festival organizers, managers, producers, importers, and distributors from Greece attended the Greek pavilion of the Ministry of Culture & Sports, which hosted them for four days, April 27-30.
The event is a successful 17-year-old institution in Bremen and is supported by public and private organizations in Germany. In addition to the exhibition, it hosts live performances by artists on three appropriately designed stages at the Messe Bremen Exhibition and Trade Center, as well as in numerous venues across the city every night.
It also hosts discussions and presentations regarding the European jazz network, international developments, and the future of the genre in the era of digital technology, which affects all stages of production and distribution of musical works.
Three Greek artists were selected, among others, to present their work live within the framework of jazzahead:
Greek-German composer and double bassist Athina Kontou with her quartet "Mother" and moving jazz approaches to traditional and other Greek songs, such as "Tzivaeri", "Fysa psychi mou", and "Stin archi tou tragoudiou", as well as the brothers Michalis and Christos Kalkanis (Duo Kalkanis), on piano, double bass, and clarinet, with their multifaceted talent, 'chemistry', and exceptional, energetic improvisation.
AUTODIA representatives Ilianna Antoniou and Anastasis Grivas held a series of meetings with the full spectrum of involved entities and artists / performers, both Greek and foreign, presenting the identity and role of the Greek Collective Management Organization for music copyright.
Finally, on Saturday 29/4, we had the pleasure of welcoming German Minister of Culture & Media Claudia Roth to the Greek pavilion for a short time, who conversed in German with Chrysoula Koulouraki from the Performing Arts & Cinema Directorate of the Ministry of Culture & Sports regarding the rising Greek jazz scene.
