Alekos Vretos

Greek oudist, pianist, and composer Alekos Vretos has been merging jazz, Arabic, Greek, and Latin music in a masterful blend of sounds from traditional instruments, such as the oud or the nay, with modern ones. As a bandleader, Alekos has developed a unique atmosphere for his music: keeping the traditional sound in the front line, he expands it through jazz improvisation and explosive rhythmic development. In 2014, Alekos released his 2nd personal CD "K. on Top". A long way musically from his previous work "Mergin'", "K. on Top" is a statement of how World music and Jazz should be mixed without becoming two separate genres in one piece. Mature and stable, he is walking the line of good and tasteful musicianship overall. For his work and help towards the music scene (especially World Jazz), he was included in the 2013 list of the 100+1 most influential people in the Greek music scene published by the Athens Voice newspaper. Some of the venues where Alekos has performed—with great reviews on his playing and composing—are: The Herodion (GR), The Athens Concert Hall (GR), the Berklee Performance Center (USA), Mount Holyoke College (USA), the Tombs of Kings in Palestine, The Argos Ancient Theatre (GR), The Half Note Jazz Club (GR), The Vortex Jazz Club (UK), The 1er Piso Jazz Club (MEX), the 2nd Athens World Jazz Music Festival (GR), the 1st Medieval Byzantine Festival of Kastoria (GR), the 2nd Fougaro Jazz Festival (GR), and more. He has collaborated with legendary composer Mikis Theodorakis, as well as Gilad Atzmon, Simon Shaheen, Haig Yazdjian, Theodore Antoniou, The Greek Contemporary Ensemble, The Kamerata (The Orchestra of the Friends of Music), the Jazz Upstairs Big Band, Yorgos Fakanas, Dimitris Maragopoulos, The Athens State Orchestra, Lakis Chalkias, Kostas Thomaidis, and Takis Paterelis, to name a few.