Monday, June 25, 2012

Summer Groove

Another bunch of songs from the "usual suspects", artists that were related with one way or another with Aphrodite’s Child and have been already presented on previous posts. The common element here is their groovy, funky, soul sound.

Harry Chalkitis left his footprint on the late 70s euro-disco arena with his disco project Queen Samantha. Their successful album Queen Samantha II (1979) was followed by a solo Chalkitis album, Tiger in The Rain a year later (1980) in the same euro-disco style. The album was released again in 1981 under another title (So Long) with exactly the same songs of Tiger in The Rain plus a maxi version of So Long.




Tiger in The Rain (M. Swirid, M. Chalkitis, H. Chalkitis) stands out as a super funky track



A few years earlier (1974) he released his (first?) 7” Time is Over, another super groovy track, written by M. Sundahl / M. Swirid / A. Koulouris.



Artemios (Demis) Ventouris Roussos, member of The Idols, We Five and Aphrodite’s Child, has quite a few groovy moments in his solo career. His collaboration with Alec R. Constandinos in 1975 left a very successful album, Souvenirs including the great Midnight is the Time I Need You (A. Koulouris - R. Costandinos).



The album was re-released in 1998 with the addition of 6 more tracks that were left out of the original release.
Among them The Secret in Her Eyes, a composition of R. Constandinos and S. Vlavianos



In 1978 Dino Fekaris and Freddie Perren wrote the disco anthem I Will Survive for Gloria Gaynor. The same year they also wrote for Demis Roussos the disco track L.O.V.E. Got A Hold On Me which was released as a single and was included in Demis Roussos album of 1978.





Finally a disco/funky track from Dimitri (Tambossis).
You Are A Sinner (1977) was released as a b-side to Dimitri's single I Am.
You're A Sinner is written by S. Vlavianos / P. Mieucens / S. Woods.

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

The Athenian Project

Priamos Morakis has carefully selected a set of 50s and 60s standards of what is called “elafro” song (similar to chanson and bel canto) and transformed them into today’s jazz tunes.

The Athenian Project is an 11-track album (7 songs penned by his father, the famous composer Takis Morakis, 1 song by Kostas Kapnisis, 1 by Priamos Morakis, 1 by Penelope Tzanetaki and Henri Betti’s C’est si bon).

The album features some of the best Greek, jazz musicians:  Priamos Morakis (guitar), Dimitris Kalantzis (piano), Pericles Trivolis (bass), Filippos Papas (saxes and flute), Socratis Ganiaris (percussion), Christos Rafailides (vibes), Manos Loutas (bass), Leandros Fratnik (drums), Dimitris Kakavoulis (drums).
Also featuring a string quartet and of course the beautiful voice of Penelope Tzanetaki.
The Boy and the Dolphin, Takis Morakis most famous song, opens the album and is also featured in its Greek version, Ti Einai Afto Pou To Lene Agapi (What’s this thing called love).
Another 50s song by Takis Morakis, Tha s’ Agapo (I Will Love You) is recorded for the first time on this record.

Priamos Morakis Quintet - Tha s' Agapo (I Will Love You)


You can buy the album here 
Priamos Morakis page (under construction): http://www.priamosmorakis.com/
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