Dimitris Angelakis
Jazz vibraphonist and Fulbright Scholar (Philadelphia 2013-2015), Dimitris Angelakis, has been on the music scene for more than a decade. He has performed in several clubs, events and festivals in the USA (Philadelphia, Delaware), China (Shenzhen, Guangzhou) and Europe (Spain, Cyprus, Holland, England, Ukraine, Germany, Belgium and Greece). Some of the artists he has performed/recorded are “Horacio El Negro” (George Fakanas group), Giannis Pavlidis (Dave Liebman), Paris Strother (Prince), George Kontrafouris, among others. Besides that, Dimitris has recorded several albums produced together with leading European and American musicians. He is also an active clinician giving workshops and clinics across Europe, since 2010. His latest project is called “Native Speakers” with London based jazz saxophonist Vasilis Xenopoulos.
No submissions for Beyond Music Project Volume 4.
Open Up is a chant celebrating creative spirits, freedom, and all the good values of life. Again - I considered these to be part of the process of healing and communal togetherness, which are inevitable coming through the crisis. Musically speaking we literally 'opened up' the music - and all the 3 soloists of us in this tune (myself, Carlos on tenor, and Dimitris on vibes) were given space to express ourselves.
The title is kind of a word game- meaning both 'entertainer' and also an homage to the late great McCoy Tyner, whose music I find incredibly inspiring - not only in a musical sense but also in terms of vitality and wisdom and similar attributes. I seriously think we need this 'entertainment' aspect as well, while we are finding our way out of these current crises and conflicts. As for ourselves as musicians, we simply had a ball recording this one!
This recently composed tune is meant to catch the positive spirits and hopes about getting through these challenging times - conflict times. Story-wise the song moves from contemplative moods slowly towards more open views and finally finding energy and strengths. In a musical sense, the main theme is presented various times in different shades and colors, with still lots of improvisation. All of these musicians showed a great deal of musicianship while putting this piece together.
No submissions for Beyond Music Project Volume 2.
No submissions for Beyond Music Project Volume 1.