Charis Ioannou & Ioannis Vafeas Jazz Quartet

A.Vafea Jazz Projects and its associate artists are presenting an exceptional jazz performance based on the rhythms of Straight Ahead Jazz with the Ioannou/Vafeas Group, on Friday, 10th of February, at 8pm at Technopolis 20 in Pafos.

In collaboration with the saxophonist Charis Ioannou, the drummer Ioannis Vafeas, the bass player Greg Makamian and the pianist Demetris Miaris, A.Vafea Jazz Projects proposes a unique journey for those who love jazz with the sounds of Chris Byars an innovative composer and musician. Their upcoming album with the title BRIDGE OF LOCKS will be released beginning of 2017.

Ioannou/Vafeas Jazz Group was created in 2016 after many years of collaboration and friendship between the two artists.

Both Ioannis and Charis perform regularly in festivals and Concert Halls in their homeland and all over Europe. They have numerous collaborations in cd’s, recordings and theatre productions.

They are both graduates of the Berklee College of Music in Boston Massachusetts, and they hold a Master’s Degree in Jazz Music. They are also members of the faculty in the Department of Music in the University of Nicosia.

Entrance: 10 euro
Reservations necessary at 70002420

A few words about the musicians

Charis Ioannou was born in Nicosia, Cyprus in 1976. In 1997 he was enrolled at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he studied saxophone performance and Jazz Composition. Charis won the Woodwind Achievement Award in the last year of his studies in Boston and in 2001, after graduation, he moved to New York where he stayed for three years. While in New York, Charis earned his Master’s Degree in performance from the New York University and in the meantime performed and taught around the state. Charis left the United States in 2005 and moved back to Cyprus.
Collaborations
The return to his homeland country found Charis collaborating with various musicians and appearing in all the major clubs and festivals around Cyprus as well as various venues around the world including performances in Greece, Kuwait, Germany, Lebanon, Kazakhstan, Poland, Serbia, Spain, England, Italy, Luxembourg, Belgium, Holland and the U.S.A. Charis has also collaborated with the American Embassy in Cyprus in a Bi-Communal Jazz program called Jazz Futures through which he has appealed all over Cyprus performing alongside the group of Ari Roland and Chris Byars for 6 years during the period 2007-2013.
Awards
In 2015 he led BopCy, a quartet with all Cypriot musicians and won the 2nd place in the first Greek Jazz Competition held in Athens in the same year and appeared in Syros as part of the International Jazz Day 2015.
Academic Path
Charis is currently teaching the saxophone and the jazz idiom at the University of Nicosia as well as making guest faculty appearances in workshops held in Italy, Lebanon and Greece and continuing to perform and record as a leader as well as a sideman in Cyprus and abroad.

https://www.facebook.com/charis.ioannou.1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKgwqIoemRQ

Ioannis Vafeas (www.ioannisvafeas.com)
Ioannis Vafeas was born in Cyprus in 1970 and currently leaves in Nicosia. He performs regularly in festivals and Concert Halls in his homeland all over Europe. He has numerous collaborations in cd’s, recordings and theatre productions. Since 2009 he is a member of the faculty in the Department of Music in the University of Nicosia.
Early Years
Ioannis is the son of the late professional drummer Aristos Vafeas. Thus he was exposed to musical stimuli throughout his childhood. At the age of 18 he joined the army and was a member of the military band for two years.
Studies
He studied Jazz at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. After his graduation he enrolled at the Master’s program of the Boston’s Conservatory from where he graduated in 1998 with a Master’s Degree in Jazz Studies. His Master’s thesis was titled “Rhythm, History,
Development and Influence on the twentieth Century Music”.
Collaborations
The years that followed found Ioannis busy in the music industry performing, recording and teaching music. He has performed music of different styles such as pop, funk and ethnic, and participated in numerous cd’s, recordings, theatre productions and films always distinguished by his personal technic and style.
By 2003 Ioannis started focusing on Jazz, and along with fellow musicians formed several bands performing music of that idiom through the island of Cyprus and worldwide; e.g. Ioannis Vafeas Project, Ioannou/ Vafeas Group, Michael Messios Symmetry Band, Tassos Stylianou Trio, Ioanna Troullidou Sextet, Glafkos Kontemeniotis Trio, Café Balkan and the Cyprus Big Band.
Ioannis attended festivals and Venues in Poland, England, Lebanon, Kuwait, Italy, the U.S., Greece and Serbia and shared the stage with great artists the Cyprus Symphony Orchestra, the Moscow Symphony Orchestra and others.
Teaching
His teaching experience started back in 1998 with private drum lessons at the Lynn College of Music. Since 2002 Ioannis is teaching the music idiom in public schools. He is also a member of the faculty of the University of Nicosia since 2009. His credits also include drum seminars on soiling and brush playing in various Universities and Music Schools.
Ioannis is endorsing Zyldjian Cymbals since 2009.

Greg Makamian is a double bassist and bandleader based in Cyprus. Greg has had the opportunity to perform next to the legendary Freddie Redd at Smalls in NYC. He has also played with great musicians such as Chris Byars, Pasquale Grasso, Zaid Nasser, Pete & Will Anderson, Keith Balla, Phil Stewart, Ofer Landsberg, Stefano Doglioni, John Mosca, Charis Ioannou, Ioannis Vafeas, Marios Toumbas and many others.

Recently Greg performed with the Cyprus Symphony Orchestra and the Charis Ioannou Group, presenting the music of Charlie Parker-Bird with Strings.

In 2015, Greg performed at the Apollon Theater for Syros’ Jazz Festival. As the bandleader of Mood Indigo, Greg has organized public concerts, club engagements and music for private parties all around Cyprus, presenting the finest Cypriot Jazz musicians. In summer 2014, Greg taught as Assistant Jazz Faculty at the Cyprus Academy of Music Summer School and Festival (CAMSSF). Inspired by bassist/composers such as Oscar Pettiford and Ari Roland, Greg has been working a book of his original compositions.

Greg works frequently with Charis Ioannou and Chris Byars and has performed at small Jazz Club (NY), Fat Cat (NY), Garage (NY), Apollon Theater (Syros, GR), The Aphrodite Hills Jazz Festival (CY), Pomos Jazz festival (CY), Rialto Theater (CY) and the Ancient Amphitheater at Kurion (CY).

Dimitris Miaris was born in Nicosia in 1991. He started playing classical piano from 6 years old. At the age of 16 Dimitris had his first connection with Jazz through the “Jazz Futures” workshops that took place in Nicosia with great musicians such as Sacha Perry, Vahagn Hayrapetyan, Ari Roland and Chris Byars. Since then he took part in almost all the “Jazz Futures” workshops and had various live performances in Cyprus and Greece. He also attended the monthly Bicommunal Workshops with Charis Ioannou.

The last two years he participated in Dr.Barry Harris’ workshops in Rome. He is also a member of “Neorebetes”, a Greek traditional band, where he plays the accordion. The band has performed in Cyprus, Greece, Kazan (Russian), Sydney and Melbourne (Australia).

He received his Bachelor Degree for Jazz Piano at the Ionian University’s Jazz Department in 2009 under the instruction of George Kontrafouris.