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Spyros Manesis

Jazz pianist Spyros Manesis is born in Athens, Greece on 1978. His studies include degrees on classical and jazz piano at Athenaeum Conservatory (Athens, Greece, with M. Aivazova, G. Kontrafouris, S. Syrros) and Bachelor and a Master's degree on jazz piano from prestigious Conservatory of Amsterdam (K. Boehlee, H. Vroomans, K. Goessens, R. v. Bavel and H.Fraanje) and a Musicology degree from the University of Athens.

On 2008 he made his first album as a co-leader with project TRIOISM (ANKh JAZZ). On 2011 he released “Undelivered” (JACC Records) with almost exclusively original compositions and arrangements for piano trio with Joao Hasselberg on double bass and Kaspars Kurdeko on drums. He has recorded his own arrangements for solo piano of songs of Lena Platonos’s which was his subject on his master research and was presented with huge success on 2012 at Michael Cacoyannis Foundation. He has been a member of Chronos Project along with Dimitra Galani, Christos Rafalides, Thomas Konstantinou and Petros Klampanis. On 2016 he released “First Takes” (Unit Records), a duo album with original compositions by him and saxophonist Christine Corvisier. On 2017 he released "Spiral Trio" (with Arionas Gyftakis and Anastasis Gouliaris) and on 2018 he released "Well excuse me" with his project TFATFY (Minas Liakos, Stelios Provis and Serafeim Gianakopoulos). On 2022 he released “Broken Blue” with Spiral Trio (Odradek Records).

Among his collaborations are very important names of the greek and international music scene, such as Dean Bowman, Olivier Gatto, Gilad Hekselman, JD Walter, Marc Abrams, Bodek Janke, Max Pollak, Heather Cornell, Jaques Morelenbaum, Paula Morelenbaum, Joana Espadinha, Pablo Reyes, Christine Corvisier, Dimitra Galani, Savina Yannatou, Christos Rafalides, Dimos Dimitriadis, Petros Klampanis, Andreas Polyzogopoulos, Arionas Gyftakis, Anastasis Gouliaris and many more, and has performed in many countries including Cyprus, Greece, Holland, France, Germany, Sweden, Spain, Portugal, Latvia, Lithuania, United States, Colombia and China. He has also collaborated with Orquestra do Norte (Portugal), Greek Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Municipal Symphony Orchestras of Athens and Thessaloniki. On 2015 he was awarded with the 1st prize in the 1st Greek jazz competition for jazz ensembles, “Apollon”, with his project Spiral Trio (Spyros Manesis, Arionas Gyftakis, Anastasis Gouliaris)

Spyros Manesis teaches regularly jazz piano at Jazzart music school, has taught jazz piano at Athenaeum and Musical Praxis music schools, has served as guest teacher at Ionian University (2010-11) and has organized and guided a four-day jazz piano workshop commissioned by Greek National Opera (2018).

Awards

On 2015 he was awarded with the 1st prize in the 1st Greek jazz competition for jazz ensembles, “Apollon”, with his project Spiral Trio (Spyros Manesis, Arionas Gyftakis, Anastasis Gouliaris)


Tags

9
Album Review

Spiral Trio: Broken Blue

Read "Broken Blue" reviewed by Ian Patterson


Pianist Spyros Manesis, bassist Arionas Gyftakis and drummer Anastasios Gouliaris came together as Spiral Trio in 2011 at the Athenaeum Conservatory in Athens. Manesis was teaching there, Gyftakis and Goulapis were studying. But there is no hint of hierarchy on Broken Blue where a genuine sense of egalitarian adventure defines the music. The trio has come some way since its standards-dominated debut, Spiral Trio (ANKh Music Productions, 2017), its sophomore recording featuring only one non-original—the surest sign of growing collective ...

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5

Recording

Spyros Manesis Trio Debut Cd "undelivered", Released By Jacc Records

Spyros Manesis Trio Debut Cd "undelivered", Released By Jacc Records

Source: Spyros Manesis

With Joao Hasselberg on bass, Kaspars Kurdeko on drums and Spyros on piano, the trio which formed in Amsterdam in 2010 has recorded its debut album for the Portuguese label JACC Records. The album, Undelivered was officially released in Europe. Greek pianist Spyros Manesis composes new music, arranges old jazz standards and plays the piano together with Portuguese double bassist João Hasselberg and Latvian drummer Kaspars Kurdeko, who embrace Spyros's musical ideas with deep musicality and remarkable dedication. The understanding ...

Primary Instrument

Piano

Location

Athens

Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Broken Blue

Odradek Records
2022

buy

Tfatfy "Well, excuse...

Ihaveadrum Records
2017

buy

Spiral Trio

ANKh records
2017

buy

First Takes

Unit Records
2016

buy

Undelivered

Unknown label
2011

buy

Blue Flower

From: Broken Blue
By Spyros Manesis

Videos

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