| DISCOGRAPHY YIORGOS PSIHOYIOS |
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Ethnos Newspaper Yiorgos Psihoyios “Love obsession … a jazz sensation 2” A long time ago, a couple of reader-friends of my column wrote very good comments about this little album. I had not yet received it by that time. It arrived a little while later. Instead of placing it on top of the CD pile which are standing by for me to listen to them, I let it take its turn to the sound speakers. There are some foolish things I do; and I find the few albums released which are worth listening to after a long time… and after the “rags” have covered me with endless hours of foolishness. Where am I? At “Love Obsession IV”! Short of breath, since the musical tempest I hear can only be compared with Shakespear’s “Tempest”. Right now, I listen to exploding and superhuman skillful things. And I climb … the piano’s scales and roll on the violin’s and the cello’s strings, and I dance to Natasha Bofiliou’s voice that insists on asking “Ti in’ afto pou to lene agapi?” (translated “What is this thing called love?”) And I move to and fro with the breaths of the saxophones and then surrender myself to the sweet sadness of the piano again for comfort. Yiorgos Psihoyios surprises me for the second time with his musicality and with the way he manages to communicate with the rest of the musicians’ souls reaching such a deeply moving result. And so beautiful. Even if you are not a “fan” of jazz music, you must have this album. For it includes pieces of your life and memories of your great loves. Excellent! Which tracks did you notice? I noticed how “vivid” and direct the Live recording sounds. It took place in the concert hall of the Greek Athens Music School, free of fake ‘depths’ and technical tricks. I noticed the sound of the accordion that took me to the shores of Seine River, from where the double bass lifted me to bring me gently to my bed. Where I lay, I close my eyes, listen to the next track and recall… Some things I know… The electronic addresses are: www.liveartway.com and www.psihoyios-music.com An album which… may be much more colourful than Yiorgos’ previous album, but still as sensual and deeply humane. Should I buy it then? May you be in a moved emotional state when you buy it, and prepared to listen to it for great emotional experiences. Cheers. Georgia Lemos ------------------------------------------------------- Exodos magazine The remarkable jazz genius I arrived at the French Institute right after Yiorgos Psihoyios’ concert had started. After he and his band had played a jazz tune with Brazilian lyrics, he explained to the audience that jazz is an exchange of views between musicians on a familiar theme. Indeed, if one would pay attention to the expressions on the musicians’ faces, they would detect a silent agreement between them. ‘Bossa Cubana’ by ‘Luis Chaniveky’ followed. After he finished playing the song, Yiorgos told us the story of the next song, the second of his album «Love Obsession - A jazz sensation 2», which is the aria of Eurydice from the opera Orpheus and Eurydice by Mimis Plessas. He decided to arrange this song into a disco adaptation, which was allowed by the composer. The result was really pleasant. Among other tunes, they played ‘Blue Monk’ by Thelonious Monk, ‘How Insensitive’, and ‘The Girl from Ipanema’ by Antonio Carlos Jobim – international bossa nova hit in the 1960s- the last track on the album with Lefki Kolovou on the cello, Duke Ellington, all with passion, excellent skillfulness, sound colour, imagination and feeling. It is not by chance that the artist, among others, has received Euphemistic Praise of Remarkable Genius, neither that Keith Jarett praised him by saying that his improvisation is an unbelievable gift from God. Apart from the music pieces which he plays with the band, he doesn’t rehearse the rest of his pieces. He is the only pianist I’ve ever seen- apart from the great Chick Corea – that played with the strings of a grand piano. At some point, he noticed his accordion teacher in the audience and played ‘Love dies in Paris’, on the accordion naturally. Track No 4 of his album followed, which is about love reaching the point of crime, a very powerful and passionate work. The concert ended with the beloved piece ‘Besame mucho’. The introductions of the musicians followed- Christos Assonitis on the drums and Yiorgos Konstantinou on the double bass. The concert was a remarkable experience. I wish them all a successful career, more album releases and more concerts for us to attend. Published by: Music Fan Categories: Greek music stage - Eleni Eliopoulou blog ------------------------------------------------------- “VRADINI” DAILY NEWSPAPER Yiorgos Psihoyios’ second album «Love obsession…» was recorded live at the Greek Music School of Athens, thus revealing the noblest aspect of jazz music through the melodies coming out of his piano. Psihoyios, who is equally good at playing the piano as well as the accordion, expresses a lot of emotion while passing through jazz, easy listening, classical and bosa nova music in 7 compositions of his own, two of his teacher Mimis Plessas and one of L. Chaniveky, Mario Flores and Takis Morakis. The eroticism of his compositions «Emmanuela», «Love dies in Paris» and «Emmanuela loves cello» gives a different feel in his work. The song which gives its name to the album is broken into 4 parts, each of unique interest. Psihoyios is one of the most developed jazz and classical music soloists, who never fails to mention the name of Mimis Plessas, the one who introduced him to the audience. In his work, Psihoyios included the first piece of music his teacher ever written, the classic «Theme A», in a version of his own, as well as “Aria tis Evridikis” (“Eurydice’s Aria), which is the first track on the album. His inclusion of easy listening songs in the album is very pleasant, with the selection of the song “Ti ine afto pou to lene agapi” by Morakis, performed by Natasha Bofiliou, one of the “Mikri Arktos” stars (winner of the competition). Yiannis Alexiou ------------------------------------------------------- New c.d. Yiorgos Psihoyios - ‘‘Love obsession … a jazz sensation 2’’ This is the second successful “visit” of Yiorgos Psihoyios in discography, after his last year’s –very successful as it seems- album “Resurrection: A Jazz Sensation I” (his debut album in discography, which introduced him to the audience as much as a pianist, as well as a composer and orchestrator). Yiorgos Psihoyios is a very knowledgeable musician, with several certificates. As opposed to many other of his skillful colleagues, he is aware of a very important issue regarding music composition: a technically perfect music piece does not automatically imply that it is aesthetically beautiful. With “Heart and mind against showing-off one’s skills” as his motto, he delivers an album- full of emotional richness- of his own original compositions and several adaptations. Psihoyios’ background in music is Classical Music. Nevertheless, he manages to wed, with great skillfulness, his musical origins with his love for jazz and improvisation. We’ve witnessed in the past what a skillful musician is able to offer, when we set him free in an important composition. Psihoyios leaves you with your mouth wide open listening to his adaptations in this album. Specifically, he makes an amazing reading of the Cuban composer’s Luís Chaniveky “Bossa Cubana”, he uncovers hidden sentimental aspects of Mario Flores’ “Me Voy” and he performs a beautiful duet with Mimis Plessas in Plessas’ composition “Theme A”. But, his ultimate achievement is his adaptation of “Ti Ine Afto Pou To Lene Agapi” (translated “What is this thing called love?”) by Takis Morakis and Yannis Fermanoglou, which was first heard in the film “Boy on a Dolphin” (1957), performed by Sophia Loren and Tony Maroudas. Natasha Bofiliou, who sings the adaptation of this song in Psihoyios’ album, plays a major part in the adaptation’s success. She offers a shiny and sentimental performance, with vocal shades that resemble those of Tania Tsanaklidou (famous female Greek singer). She only spoils the song a bit, towards the end, as her performance becomes much “rougher” than it would suit the song. His compositions are admittedly very well performed (participation of exquisite musicians has contributed to this fact). Undoubtedly, these compositions are sufficient as statements. Nevertheless, they sometimes “betray” Psihoyios’ music origins to a great degree, while at other times they put more mind rather than heart to it (as is the case, for example, in the four-partite “Love Obsession”). “Emmanuela” is the exception, mainly thanks to the beautiful game taking place by the vocals of the Greek Music School Choir. But, I believe Psihoyios is in the right track. Charis Symvoulidis Avopolis – music portal ------------------------------------------------------- “DIFONO” (Music Magazine) The second album of the exquisite pianist and accordionist Yiorgos Psihoyios is here to prick up our ears and shut our eyes… while, it is possible to shut some people’s mouths as well. Eleven tracks and a song were recorded in the concert hall of the Greek School of Music. They sound as if they had been endlessly processed in studio. Right from the beginning, the tunes create a passionate atmosphere and sensual associations through completely jazzy sounds. More specifically, out of the eleven tracks on the album, seven are Yiorgos’ compositions, two are Mimis Plessas’ (his familiar personal style is evident in both tunes) and the two remaining tunes are arrangements of the compositions of the Cuban composers, Louis Channiveky and Mario Flores. Natasha Bofiliou deserves to be praised for her performance in the one and only song of the album. The song is an arrangement of Takis Morakis’ “Ti ine afto pou to lene agapi” (translated “What is this thing called love”) from the original soundtrack of the film “Boy on a Dolphin”. In general, up-beat tunes are the ones to impress the audience the most. With a predominant piano sound in most of the tracks, they give a very pleasant hearing. Michalis Gelasakis |