The unique concert, “The Greek Project,” given on Sunday night, June 1, by the legendary Maria Faradouri and Charles Lloyd, during the International Jazz Festival of Melbourne in collaboration with the Greek Centre for Contemporary Culture of Melbourne’s Greek Community, was a great success. The Melbourne Town Hall was filled with an audience of more than 1,500 — most of them of Greek origin.
The audience was impressed by Faradouri’s magical voice and by Charles Lloyd on sax. Pianist Takis Farazis, bassist Reuben Rogers, drummer Eric Harland and lyrist Sokratis Sinopoulos accompanied the two artists on stage.
It was an ambitious and extraordinary concert, which was the result of a ten-year friendship between the two artists. Worldwide known jazz artists and classical Greek musicians combined their forces to perform the works of Lloyd and Theodorakis and compositions of the “Greek Suite.” Together they explore the subtle connections between contemporary improvisation and traditional Greek music to create a wholly new sound that is archaic, dramatic and hauntingly beautiful.
“Our main goal was to build a musical bridge between two supposedly irreconcilable musical worlds: the African-American and the Greek one. In fact, Lloyd’s admiration of Greek history, culture, poetry and music, the wide horizons of this legend of jazz with the sound of lyre, as well as the help of the Greek music arranger, Takis Farazis, contributed in making this happen,” Maria Faradouri stated.
They will perform once more on Wednesday, June 4, at 7:30pm at the City Recital Hall Angel Place in Sydney.