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Jazz in Cyprus: The Breakdown of Borders

By

Michael David Papapavlou

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in the Aaron Copland School of Music in the Graduate Division of

Queens College of the City University of New York, May 27, 2015.

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2015 MICHAEL D. PAPAPAVLOU

All Rights Reserved

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For Andreas, Maria, Christine, Nicolakis and Stephie

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Table of Contents 1. Introduction 1

1.2 A brief introduction to Cypriot history 4

2. The Cypriot jazz scene 7

2.1 Jazz around the globe 7

2.2 Toward a construction of a Cypriot Jazz history 8

2.3 The character of the jazz scene and its members 19

2.4 The jam session 22

2.5 A labor of love 23

2.6 Questions of authenticity and Ethnic jazz 24

2.7 Jazz and issues of language 27

3. Aphrodites dance, jazz meets local music 29

3.2 Halalin tou 30

3.3 Aphrodites dance 34

3.4 Ramifications of Aphrodites dance 40

4. U.S jazz diplomacy in Cyprus 42

4.2 The U.S Embassy for Cyprus bi-communal efforts 45

4.3 The Jazz Futures 46

4.4 The Jazz Futures impact 48

4.5 Music within a conflict transformation context 50

4.6 Conclusion 52

5. Final notes 55

References 56

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1. Introduction

While Cypriot audiences have generally been receptive to the variety of international music styles imported on the island, two broad genres have prevailed on Cypruss popular music scene, on both sides of the divide: rock and jazz ("Cyprus." Grove Music Online).1

This Masters thesis examines the Cypriot jazz scene, as it existed in the past and as it

thrives currently. In documenting the islands jazz history and introducing important

local figures, this study uses jazz to explore local manifestations of particular social,

cultural, aesthetic, and musical issues. In particular, it documents the jazz scene as it

has developed in the southern Greek Cypriot side of the island, although an effort is

made to document the northern part. This discrepancy exists solely to lessen the

magnitude of the topic at hand. Furthermore, this study is less concerned with

presenting a purely descriptive narrative history but rather it is an effort to gather

preliminary data to help construct the jazz scene in Cyprus as on object of musical,

anthropological and sociological study.

As attested in the literature, jazz music spread vigorously around the world in the

early twentieth century (Atkins 2003). Innovations in communication technologies,

sound recording, radio broadcasting and mass print media coincided with the height

of colonialism and a new ethos of cooperative diplomacy emerging after the First

World War. Under these developments jazz became an international genre and indeed

nowadays one would be hard-pressed to find an urban-center anywhere in the world

without an established (or at least burgeoning) jazz scene.

Specifically, the current thesis reviews relevant literature on jazz dissemination and

the creation of jazz subcultures outside the United States, literature on musics in

Cyprus, and is informed by fieldwork conducted in the winter of 2014. In employing 1 The emphasis is the authors.

2

these methodologies it analyzes aspirations and aesthetics Cypriot jazz musicians

have, illustrates what kind of models of jazz they are influenced by and grapples

with social imaginaries that they have created.

A hurdle to this study has been the lack of literature on the Cypriot jazz scene and

thus this thesis constitutes the first intellectual inquiry of its kind.2 The existing

literature on music in Cyprus consists of historical and ethnographic accounts of

Greek Cypriot folk, traditional and popular music (Giorgoudes 2003, 2005,

Demetriou 2011, 2012, Syrimis 1998, Hadjiloizou 2009), music education in Cyprus

(Rousha 2013, Miralis 2006, Economidou-Stavrou 2006, Pieridou-Skoutella, Avra

2011) and other accounts of Cypriot music ranging from the 12th to the 21st centuries

(Samson 2013, "Cyprus." Grove Music Online). Among the few publications on

musical subcultures are Mike Hajimichaels and Evros Stylianous accounts of hip-

hop in Cyprus (Hadjimichael 2013 and Stylianou 2010).

In order to overcome the lack of any extensive literature on jazz in Cyprus, the

theoretical orientation and modus operandi employed here are opportunistically

eclectic, borrowing ideas and methodologies from a variety of disciplines in the belief

that, in a complex and interdisciplinary field of inquiry such as ethnomusicology,

multivalent engagement of interrogatory and interpretive perspective is optimal.

The first chapter begins with a view of jazz around the globe and how its relationship

with globalization has made it possible to reach the far corners of the world. The

subchapter a construction of Cypriot jazz history examines when jazz reached

Cyprus and how it has developed since. The Cypriot jazz history could be divided into

three periods, pre 1980, 1980-2000 and post 2000. The following subsections describe 2 With the exception of a one page entry on "Cyprus." Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online and a number of journalistic articles posted online, of which the lengthiest is, (The history of Cypriot jazz).

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the characteristics of the Cypriot jazz scene and its members, the function of the jam

session in building a community, jazzs character as a labor of love, and issues of

authenticity and ethnic jazz. These subsections are much less historical and much

more critical in nature.

The second chapter presents transcriptions and an analysis of the piece Aphrodites

dance, as performed and recorded by the Cypriot piano trio Anakreon on their album

Music of the Wings. This track serves as an example of the interaction between

local and jazz music and more specifically it forms a jazz reinterpretation of a Cypriot

popular song. The underlying purpose of this chapter is to observe how jazz has been

employed and treated for the reinterpretation of a non-jazz tune. Thus this

investigation should be of interest to both the jazz listener and that of Cypriot music.

Finally some ramifications are outlined as to the importance of this recording and the

group itself.

The third chapter notes the very much significant involvement of the Jazz Futures, a

group of American jazz musicians who have visited the island several times since

2008 and have spread love for jazz amongst locals, under the sponsorship of the U.S

Department of State. The chapter begins with a background into jazz in Cold world-

era cultural diplomacy, in order to situate the diplomacy in Cyprus into the greater

context of jazz diplomacy. The subsections that follow illustrate the character of the

Jazz Futures and the impact the group has had on the local jazz scene. Supplementing

these sections are interview responses from Cypriot jazz musicians and a member of

the Jazz Futures, to various questions pertaining the jazz scene.

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1.2 A brief introduction to Cypriot history

As Stylianou puts it, Cyprus is an ancient place, but a relatively new state, having

only just emerged from the yoke of a myriad of colonial powers into the divided

island you see before you today. Modern Cyprus has been born in the midst of

enormous global changes and influences that are constantly challenging the idea of

what Cypriotness really is (2010, 217).

Many foreign rulers have occupied Cyprus. In 1571 it was taken under the control of

the Ottoman Empire resulting in an ethnically mixed Muslim Turkish Cypriot

minority and a Christian Greek Cypriot majority. Britain occupied the island in 1878,

making it an official British Crown Colony in 1914. From the beginning of colonial

rule, Greek Cypriots requested union with Greece though no notice of these requests

was taken at that point. The armed struggle for independence from British colonial

rule began in 1955, when a large part of the Greek Cypriot community supported the

campaign for union put forward by EOKA (the National Organization of Cypriot

Fighters). Alarmed by these developments, Turkish Cypriots countered that if the

island were to join Greece then they should be permitted to live in a separate distinct

part of the island, thus proposing a partition of Cyprus. The Turkish Cypriot armed

organization was established in the same year as EOKA. From 1955 onward the

seemingly peaceful relationship between Greek and Turkish Cypriots grew hostile,

with the first communal fighting breaking out in 1958 and the first Turkish Cypriots

forced to flee their homes.

The desired union with Greece never occurred but did result in the reluctant

independence of the island under the London-Zurich agreements of 1960, with Britain,

Greece and Turkey as Guarantor Powers (for more details see Theophanous 2011,

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Dikomitis 2012, Mallinson 2005 and Samson 2013). The birth of a new-nation state

did not restore amicable relations between the two communities and more fighting

broke out in 1963. The next years were marked by continual unrest, with the threat of

a Turkish invasion felt. The final blow occurred when Turkish troops invaded the

north of the island in the summer of 1974, following a brief Greek Cypriot coup

orchestrated by the military regime in Greece. The occupation resulted in the captivity

of thirty eight percent of the northern part of the island, a massive forced demographic

change and an increasing radicalization between the two foremost ethnic communities,

the Greek and Turkish Cypriots. The unsettling partition of the island has been the

reality for Cypriots since the invasion, and continuing international and inter-

communal negotiations to settle the Cyprus problem have not been effective

(Mallinson 2005). Subsequent to the invasion, military free zones were established

and patrolled by the United Nations Peacekeeping Force. These buffer zones partition

the island into the area controlled by the Government of Cyprus in the South and that

under the administration of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus in the North, a

republic only Turkey recognizes. The borders dividing the two ethnic communities

opened in 2003, twenty-nine years after the invasion, however the UN-controlled

buffer zones remain.

The two major ethnicities in the island constitute conflicting nationalisms (Bryant

2012). Bryant argues that these conflicting nationalisms have created singular and

ethnic identities, described as ethnic estrangement. Communal belonging and

political belonging came to overlap in the island and this resulted in incompatible

political claims from the two ethnic communities. Even in 2015, at the level of

politics, nationalism continues to hinder the search for a workable compromise.

According to Samson, the events of 1963 were a catalyst in separating the

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communities and dividing their cultures. At that point Cypriots became Greek-

Cypriots and Turkish-Cypriots rather than Turks and Greeks. This is also the point

that marks the end of Greek-Cypriot press referencing Turkish-Cypriot musical

activities (2013).

There have been several bi-communal projects in the island many of which have used

the soft power of music to develop unity. These include, but are not limited to,

Uniting Through Traditional Music [UTTM], formed and led by Panikos Giorgoudes

in 2004 and funded mainly by the UN, the Jazz Futures group, a EU-funded project

in Lefkoa, and a currently running United Nations Development Programme project

in Famagusta. Smith notes that prior to the referendum of 2004 there were several bi-

communal projects, notably associated with meetings in Ledra Palace, symbolically in

the so-called dead zone separating the two communities in Nicosia. They include

various projects promoted by Jeunesse musicale de Cyprus, and a bi-communal choir

("Cyprus." Grove Music Online). Although these bi-communal projects have been

making efforts and paving the way for a union of the two ethnic communities, the

status quo remains two communities with rather minimal interaction.

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2. The Cypriot jazz scene

2.1 Jazz around the Globe

Atkins notes that practically from its inception, jazz was a harbinger of what we now

call globalization. Jazz was both product and instigator of early-twentieth-century

processes and trends that were global in scope: the mass manufacture of culture,

urbanization, the leisure revolution, and primitivism (2003, xiii). Stokes describes

jazzs impact outside the United States as a veritable explosion, an idiom greeted in

Europe, Japan and other parts of the globe with obsession (1991). According to

Zwerin, Europeans consider jazz musicians to be artists, and even poor artists earn

respect over here if they are honest and happy (2005, 535). It was after World War I,

Zwerin notes, when African-American jazz musicians started crossing the Atlantic

and began performing and integrating in these countries (2005). Unlike European

countries such as Holland, France and others however, Cyprus has not had the

privilege of well-known American and African American musicians performing or

even settling in the island until 2008.

According to "Cyprus" Grove Music Online, international music styles started to

gain momentum in Cyprus only after the establishment of the Cyprus Broadcasting

Service in 1953. Their popularity was furthered in the 1960s by the formation of

cover bands to entertain tourists and locals in various venues. Additionally, after the

islands independence from Britain in 1960, a rapid urbanization is noted, which

ensued changes in traditional social structures and gave an additional boost to

international music styles. Jazz however appeared roughly a decade before that.

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2.2 Toward a construction of a Cypriot Jazz history

First wave, 1930s- late 1970s

The origins of jazz music in Cyprus according to "Cyprus." Grove Music Online, are

to be found in the 1950s, while according to the article

(The history of Cypriot jazz), there are traces of jazz in the island from the 1930s.

What is certain is that one could not talk about a jazz scene until the late 1980s.3

states that while most contemporary Cypriots are aware

of jazz, either through musical taste or trends, this was not always the case,

particularly in the earlier decades of the twentieth century. Back in the early days a

small community of aficionados would exchange vinyls, receive vinyls from the few

people who returned from travels, and listen to the half hour program of foreign music

on the local Cybc radio station.4

The most notable among the Cypriot musicians to first adopt jazz is Michalakis

Yiasemides. He was born and raised in what Panikos Giorgoudes notes the flourishing

Greek-Cypriot music scene of the 1920s and 1930s, a period which he considers as

the foundation on which the achievements of the next musical generation were to be

based (2005). Yiasemides, now in his nineties, is not only regarded as one of the first

jazz musicians in the island but also as a multi-instrumentalist, known to be proficient

on around thirty instruments. He has been particularly fond of learning, mastering and

performing all sorts of music, including jazz, classical, dimotika and gypsy. As he

said, I wanted to be part of it all.5 A child prodigy, he was brought up in a musical

3 The article was published on 04/27/2015 at http://www.parathyro.com/?p=35679 4 . 5 The author conducted an interview with Mr. Yiasemides in January 2015.

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family with a violin and laouto maker father who presented him with a violin at the

age of five. He then picked up the piano and in his late teens the clarinet and

saxophones. Yiasemides got his first taste of jazz in 1943 at the age of twenty, when a

Cypriot friend of his brought him records of Artie Shaw and Benny Goodman from

England, followed by records by saxophonists Coleman Hawkins and Johnny Hodges.

After listening to these records, he quickly decided to learn and master this new

style by playing along with the records and transcribing them. Without any hesitation

Yiasemides began to perform jazz with various local and foreign musicians at hotels

and cabarets.

According to pianist Akis Pharmaklides, groups that performed jazz existed before

the 1980s, but not a jazz club, and these groups performed music according to the

needs and requirements of the existing venues and cabarets.6 Indeed during the 1950s

and 60s any extant traces of jazz would have been located in cabarets and hotels,

whose patrons were local families both middle and upper-class, generally constituting

the cultured people of the island.

According to Yiasemides, in the 1950s and 60s many musicians and orchestras from

Spain, Italy and England visited the island for performances at the cabarets and hotels

and would regularly collaborate with local musicians. The cabaret scene involved

shows, which included music, dancing and even acrobatics. Both local and foreign

musicians would perform arrangements from a catalog of jazz and other American

standards, flipping pages from song no.34 to no.61 so on and so forth. Yiasemidis

points out that some of the numbers they regularly performed at the cabarets were

challenging, and there was a sense of structure to the overall show. The hotel gigs on

the other hand were less structured and the musicians would play a bit of everything.

6 , translated from Greek to English by the author.

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Amongst the significant contributions of Yiasemides was managing and orchestrating

the first orchestra on Cypriot radio in 1956, three years after the radio station at the

Cyprus Broadcasting Service was founded.7 Noteworthy musicians he collaborated

with in the 1950s, 60s and 70s includes Aristos Vafeas, Giannakis Hristodoulou and

Lewnidas Petsas. Additionally Pharmaklides cites Yiorgos Salahwris, Filipa, and the

members of the Cybc orchestra as significant figures in the growth of the jazz scene at

the time.8

Not much is known about the jazz scene in the island in the 1970s but it is likely that

the scene was dormant considering the intercommunal fights of the time as well as the

1974 invasion. On the other hand the invasion may not have been the issue since

heavy metal and rock scenes have been traced in the 1970s ("Cyprus." Grove Music

Online). The 1980s however, in particular the mid to late period of the decade, is

when a burgeoning Cypriot jazz scene can be traced. This decade appears to be a time

of cultural growth in Cyprus since besides the jazz scene, hip-hop first arrived early in

the decade (Hajimichael 2013, Stylianou 2010).

Second wave, early 1980s- late 1990s

It is shared knowledge amongst the current local jazzers that a group of people

interested in this kind of music, began to form in the 1980s. Amongst the mentioned

names is Polys Charalambous, who is noted to have been very knowledgeable in jazz

and regularly shared jazz discussions with fellow musicians. A pivotal event for the

scene, referenced by many older Cypriot jazz musicians in our discussions, is the 7 The British authorities founded the Cyprus Broadcasting Service during colonial times and it was renamed Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation (CyBC) after independence from Britain in 1960. 8 (The history of Cypriot jazz) Accessed May 5th 2015.

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departure and consequent return of Andros Papapavlou from his studies at Berklee

College of Music in Boston.9 The first Greek-Cypriot to go to Berklee, the guitarist

obtained his degree in jazz composition and orchestration in 1984, opening the doors

for many more Cypriots to follow.10 In the words of Akis Pharmaklides, We had the

great luck to have the first Cypriot graduate of Berklee. When he returned to Cyprus

he brought with him new ideas, recordings, vinyls and styles of jazz.11

The establishment of a road to Berklee is a vital part of the islands jazz history since

most of the Cypriots who attended there, after being influenced by a Berklee-an

understanding of jazz performance, history and pedagogy, returned home to become

the local jazz performers and instructors. The attraction and influence of Berklee from

musicians outside the U.S is not uncommon, and as Zwerin notes, currently some 40

percent of the students at Berklee are of foreign origin (2005, 547).

Berklee alumnus Ioannis Vafeas, a significant drummer in the Nicosia jazz scene,

remembers that although Papapavlou did not revolve around jazz directly, he

influenced many jazz musicians, perhaps because he was the first to make the move to

Berklee. Upon arriving back home in 1983, Papapavlou formed Ecstasy who

performed music influenced by the sounds he had heard in the United States. The

group did not focus on jazz however, partly because they could not find a saxophone

player to join them at the time. According to Vafeas, Ecstasy were innovators of their

time and he recalls the following; we went to see them perform live and our jaws

dropped. Whenever we had a day off from our Army service, I, Michael Messios and

John Savvides would go and attend their performances whenever we could, both

9 There is no relation between the author and Andros Papapavlou. 10 Including but not limited to Alexia Alexiou, Spyros Spyrou, Charis Ioanou, Ioannis Vafeas, John Savvides, George Krasides, Marios Toumbas, Marinos Neophytou, Stavros Lancias, Eirineos Koulouras and Michael Messios. 11 , translated from Greek to English by the author.

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Papapavlou in Nicosia and drummer Dwros in Limassol. Another Berklee alumnus

Eirineos Koulouras, upright bassist and integral member of the Limassol jazz scene,

attended Ecstacys performances with colleague George Koulas and remembers

they did not play jazz, but jazz to us was anything other than Greek music.

Papapavlou himself does not consider himself a jazzer either, however he is aware

that what we did inspired our jazz friends today.12

Besides Papapavlou and his impact on Cypriot jazzers, Berklee alumnus Alexia

Vassiliou is another figure who Cypriot jazzers mention. After her graduation in 1985,

Vassiliou moved to New York where she performed for several years and gradually

became the lead singer of various jazz and fusion bands. When she returned home,

she then made a name for herself in the greater Cypriot music scene, earning a series

of gold and platinum records. Amongst the albums Alexia released is "In a Jazz

Mood," in 1996, in which she collaborated with Chick Corea and John Patitucci. This

is particularly noteworthy since not many Cypriot jazz musicians have collaborated

with such internationally known jazz musicians.

Alexia notes that her fascination with jazz and improvisation began before she left

the island as is illustrated below:

I first began being fascinated by improvisation, since I was exposed to some of the most amazing jazz musicians when I was still in high school in my country, the island of Cyprus.13

Considering she must have been in high school in the late 70s, early 80s, this confirms

that there were several young adults interested in and performing jazz at the time.

In the mid-1980s, one of the first groups entirely dedicated to jazz appears, the

Limassol Jazz Quartet. 14 This group was outnumbered by foreigners living in the

12 , translated from Greek to English by the author. 13 http://alexiamusic.com/index.html

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island then by locals, consisting of the Lebanese guitarist Louis Nahas, Greek Cypriot

drummer Panos Economou, pianist Vic Salvo from the United States and Lebanese

bassist Walid Itaym. According to Ityam there was still no actual jazz scene at the

time:

back in the mid-80's the Cyprus jazz scene was for practically non-existant. In fact, with the exception of the Greek music that was being played in nightclubs and tavernas, there didn't really exist any form of a live music scene. Among the Cypriots and foreigners who loved rock, jazz and blues there was a hunger for live music that consistently remained unsatisfied for most of the early 80's.15

Since there is evidence of jazz musicians or at least of musicians cognizant and

admirers of jazz existing in the 1980s, it can be assumed from Itayms comment that

the scene was still not established or well connected. According to Pharmaklides, the

issue that jazz musicians of the 1980s faced was the absence of a specialized venue to

host them. To solve this issue came the Cotton Club, established in the capital of

Nicosia in 1986. The idea of running a jazz club did not happen overnight however.

Pharmaklides worked as a pianist at the Hilton Hotel during this time when,

at some point our manager- who was a foreigner- came to me and asked for a weekly Sunday jazz night, something unheard of at the time. Although some difficulties existed in setting up a group, we managed to run the jazz nights Sunday by Sunday wherein we saw the growth of an audience.16

The audience consisted of patrons of the Hilton Hotel, personnel from the embassies

and the United Nations, amongst which included musicians. Pharmaklides with his

colleagues Akis Kapetanios and drummer Yiorgos Iakwvides, notes that the audience

14 To hear the group caught on camera follow the YouTube video uploaded on February 7th 2010 entitled Limassol Jazz Quartet Live 1986.. Accessed Dec 16, 2014. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCnvZtpL2zM 15 This description is linked to the above url link to Youtube. 16 , translated from Greek to English by the author.

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mingled with us, groups were created and ideas were thrown around. From 1984 then,

Cyprus had its first jazz nights.17

After it became evident that many musicians were getting interested, the big decision

was made to open up the Cotton Club in 1986. As Pharmaklides notes, for me jazz

was a way of life, I wanted it to spread and be heard as much as possible.18 Upon its

launch, the club, with a main repertory of classic jazz songs, burst of activity.

Furthermore, a space had finally been established that could hire jazz musicians, and

so that was another reason for one to study this music, knowing that there was at least

this opportunity for employment. But as Pharmaklides reminds us, most importantly,

the musicians at last had a space to express themselves; A jazz musician always

chooses artistic expression over money.19

While the circles of musicians and groups widened, Pharmaklides took yet another

decision to raise the stakes, by hosting groups from abroad. I found a good contact

in Holland and we started bringing groups from there with tremendous success,

groups which also influenced the local musicians.20 The Cotton Clubs patrons were

noted to encompass all group of ages, ranging from 20 to 80. Many of the patrons

were employees at embassies, foreign companies and even foreign politicians. This

further suggests that foreigners exuded influence on the jazz scene of the time. One of

the patrons even began her career at the Cotton Club, Sarah Fenwick, when she

knocked on Pharmaklides house door and said, Hello, I am a jazz singer. There were

no jazz singers at the time in the island as he recalls, and so they began

collaborating.21

17 , translated from Greek to English by the author. 18 Ibid,. 19 Ibid,. 20 Ibid,. 21 Ibid,.

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In Limassol in the meanwhile other than the Limassol Jazz Quartet, guitarist and

Berklee alumnus Marinos Neophytou, began performing with his guitar trio (guitar,

bass, drums) at the Jazzy Bar in 1988. In our interview he concurs with Itayms

observation that jazz was still mostly unheard of to most people.

Back in Nicosia, the Cotton Club shut down in 1992 when Pharmaklides accepted

an offer to work abroad. This had a negative effect on the jazz scene since the local

musicians went back to not having a space to work and collaborate. And so the jazz

scene had a decline in the 1990s. Guitarist and composer Petros Mendonis mentions

that even until the mid-1990s there was a lack of a jazz scene in Nicosia, at a time

when he was residing there. He received his first taste of jazz in the early part of the

90s through guitar lessons with a well-known Lebanese guitar instructor who lived on

the island.22

It was in this desert island where bassist Evelthon Michaelides returned from his

studies. He notes that Cypriots would wait for request time on the radio to hear

foreign music or go to hotels to hear live music. There was nothing else he

remembers.23 In 1991, after what is understood as pure luck he found several local

musicians and formed the New Dimensions, one of the longest standing Cypriot jazz

groups, originating from Limassol.

Third wave, late 1990s- present

By the end of the 90s and early 2000s, waves of musicians dedicated to jazz were

either leaving from or returning to Cyprus, finally consolidating a jazz scene. Besides

Berklee, Holland became a major location for Cypriots who yearned for a superior 22 As did several others. 23 , translated from Greek to English by the author.

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jazz education at a more affordable price then education in the United States.

Drummer George Koulas is noted to be the first Greek-Cypriot to study jazz in

Holland, specifically at the Rotterdam Conservatory. Just like Papapavlou at Berklee

College of Music, many followed Koulass footsteps.24

Pianist Marios Toumbas notes that during this period many musicians chipped in

towards the growth of the jazz scene and acknowledges that Eirineos Koulouras in

Limassol and Charis Ioannou in Nicosia in particular, were the ones that were running

around, booking shows and concerts. It is hard for a jazz scene to be created without

the musicians running around and persuading club owners. Because jazz is a genre

that is primarily performed in small spaces, it is hard to convince a small club or bar

to pay for live music.25

Since the 2000s a number of groups were created including the Eirineos Koulouras

Trio, the Petsteppers, Michael Messios Symmetry Band, Charis Ioannou Trio,

Ambodis Jazz Quintet, Ioannis Vafeas Project, Havana Ensemble and the Up Town

Beat. These groups have performed in a number of venues throughout the years,

including Granazi, Windcraft, Vino Cultura and Academy 32 in Nicosia and also the

Trade, Jazzy B, Jazzy Bar, the Library and Marmia kafeneio in Limassol. During the

same period, Radio host Zeki Ali worked on the official Turkish Cypriot station BRT

Radio playing largely jazz, blues and world music (Hajimichael 2013).

According to as Hajimichael, you will find more of a jazz scene historically in

Limassol.26 This is due to the establishment of the Jazzy B in 2002. Considered a

milestone in the Cypriot jazz scene, it is the only venue still currently running,

24 This includes Cahit Kutrafali, Andreas Rodosthenous, Giorgos Morfitis, Ermis Michael, Alexis Kasinos, Antreas Panteli, Gabriel Karapatakis, Christos Yerolatsitis, Rodos Panayiotou and Stelios Xydias amongst others. 25 , translated from Greek to English by the author. 26 Personal communication between the author and Mr. Hadjmichael.

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specifically dedicated to jazz. Saxophonist George Krasides notes that this place has

written history and continues to do so. The owner and jazz fanatic Kyriacos

Michaelides, notes that:

we began in 2002 with my friends Eirineos Koulouras, Giorgos Krasides and George Koulas. It was the trio that made it considered a jazz club. I did not have experience as a jazz club owner but I gained some gradually through Eirineos advice. We managed to keep a jazz club that hosted all the jazz musicians of Limassol, Nicosia as well as foreigners. At Jazzy B we want the audience to feel the magic that is a live jazz performance.27

In addition to the Jazzy B, in 2009 the University of Nicosia established a

concentration in Jazz Performance for the four-year bachelor of Music program; the

concentration contains courses in applied jazz harmony, improvisation, composition

and related ensembles. More recently the university has established a Mmus Master of

Music program with an available concentration in Jazz Performance and Pedagogy.

Similarly the Arte Academy and the European University Cyprus also in Nicosia-

offer jazz courses and related ensembles. The establishment of jazz departments and

programs in the local universities have had the dual effect of employing existing jazz

musicians and also giving students the opportunity to receive a jazz education without

having to depart the island.28 Samson notes similar developments in the northern part

of the island, with a highly successful tango group and several jazz ensembles

affiliated with music institutions there (2013).

As far as evidence suggests, so far the jazz scene in the south appears to have been

developing separately from the one in the north, and the interaction between Greek

and Turkish Cypriots jazz musicians was limited. Nevertheless, the northern part

appears to have also enjoyed an increase in jazz activity post 2000, as has been noted

by reporter Heidi Trautmann in 2010: 27 , translated from Greek to English by the author. 28 This is also the case for the jazz scene in Athens, see Tsioulakis 2011.

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Lately I have discovered here in North Cyprus that more and more restaurants are inviting bands for the entertainment of their guests, not folk or bar music, but good old jazz. Also hotels are opening up their entrance halls to have this kind of old fashioned entertainment, and even to establish jazz clubs.29

She acknowledges the increase in jazz activity as a movement towards revival,

towards live groups coming back to small places, to let this kind of music enter our

daily lives. She uses the example of fashion to express the notion that fashion always

come full circle and the same happens with music. According to her, jazz

representatives of North Cyprus have been Arman Ratip, Vic Lundie, Ersen Sururi,

Rauf Kasimov, Tony Jones, Mustafa Ozak, Ahmet Elmas and Cahit Kutrafali who

have given performances both in hotels, jazz clubs, restaurants and bars around the

island as well as the annual Efes Jazz Festival.30

The limited interaction between Greek and Turkish Cypriots jazz musicians remained

untouched until the arrival of the Jazz Futures in 2008, a jazz ambassador group

sponsored by the U.S Department of State. The groups involvement and implications

in the island will be the subject of the third chapter.

Finally, the past two decades in particular have seen a proliferation of Cypriot jazz

musicians and the growth of the jazz scene. Just a few events that took place in 2014

alone were the 15th annual Paradise Jazz Festival in Pomos, Paphos, where it began

in 1999 featuring Cypriot groups as well as groups from abroad.31 The Aglanjazz

festival in the Aglantzia Old Square in Nicosia had its eighth run, while the Cyprus

Academy of Music and the Cyprus Jazz and Blues Association sponsored an

International Jazz Day at the Academy 32 bar in Nicosia. 2014 also saw the first

29 http://www.heiditrautmann.com/category.aspx?CID=8373432144#.VTqIBLctHcs 30 Ibid,. 31 Pomos is a small village in the north-west of the island.

19

Cyprus Jazz and World Music Showcase.32 Furthermore, efforts are being made to

strengthen the scene through an association, namely the Cyprus Jazz and Blues

Association.

The Cyprus Jazz and Blues Association was founded by Cypriot jazz singer Sarah Fenwick and was formed in April 2014 to support and promote the great arts of jazz and blues in Cyprus and the region. Its activities include cultural events, musician networking and educational events, and there are plans to establish an annual festival and awards for Cyprus jazz & blues talent. The Associations board is composed of leading members of Cyprus Jazz scene musicians and fans.33

Over the past two decades there have been enough jazz groups, events and festivals

that is not possible to document and investigate them all at present.

2.3 The character of the jazz scene and its members

Most Cypriot jazz musicians have immersed themselves in different cultures and

communities and received a professional jazz education at an institution outside

Cyprus. The spread of new technologies, media, and travelling cosmopolitans have

also affected those in the community that have not travelled. Furthermore Cypriot

locals have now more than ever been able, past their immediate environment, to

imagine, contemplate and make associations with other localities (Tsioulakis 2011).

Being a small scene, musicians have found about each others existence through

common colleagues and frequently went on to form closely-knit groups. This is

32 The word Aglanjazz is a fusing of the words Aglantzia (Placename) and Jazz. This is an example of what Cypriot linguist Andreas Papapavlou considers to be Linguistic Emancipation. That is Cypriots nowadays feel comfortable in generating new vocabulary to capture novel ideas, something that was inconceivable in the past. This fusion of words I would argue is also a product of the cosmopolitan nature of the contemporary Cypriot jazz scene. 33 http://jazzartsclub.com/cyprus-jazz-blues-association/

20

hardly a Cypriot idiosyncrasy however; jazz sociologists Merriam and Mack observed

that US jazz communities in the 1960s were, a relatively closely-knit group, which

shares behaviors and the results of those behaviors in common and in

contradistinction to people outside the group (1960). Merriam and Mack use the term

jazz community to denote a typical community of jazz musicians worldwide, not a

group with a geographical locus.

Although many have never released material with a record label, they have all

contributed to the dynamic of the Cypriot jazz scene. Indeed the Cypriot jazz scene

cannot not measured by the artists with official or unofficial eps or albums released,

for the simple fact that, there are many groups without any releases who are more

active and have more gigs than the ones who do.

A common observation in regard to the Cypriot jazzers is the tendency to treat music

on a functional basis, as an activity that is integral to life, providing vigor and agency

and partially structuring peoples everyday reality (Iyer 1998). This functional

treatment is apparent in the response of active jazz bassist Greg Makamian to the

following question addressed in an interview by Sarah Fenwick.

SF: If there was one thing you could have in the Cyprus jazz scene, what would it be? GM: More jam sessions. There should be jam sessions every day. And every jazz musician should attend the jam sessions. The more musicians the better, jazz is a style of music that is performed in a group. 34

In another interview in the same series, saxophonist Charis Ioannou shares a similar

point of view:

34 Cyprus News Report. Jazz in Cyprus Interview with Double Bass Player Greg Makamian. Accessed Dec 8, 2014. http://www.cyprusnewsreport.com/?q=node/7915

21

I think that a lot of musicians who want to play jazz do not live the jazz life that it takes for the music to start happening. When I say this I am definitely not talking about drinking and doing drugs that jazz is often associated with. The jazz life I am talking about consists of 3 basic things, which need to happen on a regular basis. I really want to emphasize the everyday aspect of the formula because thats probably whats missing the most! These are: playing with other people EVERYDAY, listening to jazz music EVERYDAY, and practicing EVERYDAY.35

The two prevailing notions in Makamians argument are the necessity for

performance, and the necessity to perform collectively, while for Ioannou you must

live the jazz life in order to thrive in a burgeoning scene, which consists of a triadic

formula: Listening to, practicing, playing jazz and all of these, every day.

While this activist approach towards jazz could be accounted for from the roots of the

genre and the functional treatment of music by African Americans, other non-jazz

Cypriot musicians are no strangers to this approach. Demetriou observes a similar

musical treatment from the folk musicians of the southeast. In the area of

Kokkinohoria exists the largest and most talented community of poet singers of

improvised fifteen-syllable rhyming couplets, tsiattista, a form of improvised verse in

Cypriot Greek dialect that can be either recited or sung to recitative- like tune

(2012,113). Being able to improvise these couplets on the spot was an integral part of

everyday life in Paralimni, not only to prove your skill and wittiness, but also because

it is a form of socialization and unity amongst neighbors36 (for more on tsiattista see

Cassia 2000 and Yiangoullides 1982). Indeed considering the functional musical

economies that structure African and African-American musicians and musical

traditions and those of traditional musics in Cyprus, I argue that jazz may appeal to

Cypriot musicians because they draw parallels to these economies.

35 Cyprus News Report. Jazz in Cyprus Interview with Saxophonist Charis Ioannou. Accessed Dec 8, 2014. http://www.cyprusnewsreport.com/?q=node/7902 36 Tsiattista are recited less nowadays then in the past.

22

2.4 The jam session

The jazz jam session has been a venue for development in the Cypriot jazz scene both

before and after the arrival of the Jazz Futures, where in opportunities are provided

for performing standardized repertoire and spontaneous musical communication

(Davis 2010). What jam sessions have to offer to musicians are discussed at length by

scholars such as John Lewis and Paul. F Berliner, and includes networking and the

potential of new group formations (Berliner 1994, Lewis 2008). Hajimichael notes

that open mike freestyle battles have been a similar venue for development in the

Cypriot hip-hop scene (2013).

Indeed the jam session has been both the place where Cypriots first got a taste for

jazz but also where they could hone their practice and develop their identity as jazz

musicians. The ways in which Cypriot jazzers have developed their musical identities

is the way every jazz musician around the globe has, including learning from older

musicians, attending jam sessions, listening to recordings, transcribing patterns,

practicing with collaborators, and memorizing repertoire (Berliner 1994).

2.5 A labor of love

It is widely acknowledged amongst Cypriot jazzers that jazz has had humble origins

in the island. According to Vafeas:

Jazz in Cyprus is the dedication and love that few musicians had with this music, people who made many sacrifices, especially economical sacrifices in order to grow a jazz scene in an island without jazz.37

37 The author conducted an interview with Mr. Vafeas in January 2015.

23

Hajimichael explains a similar situation in the Cypriot hip-hop scene. As an island

with a population of less than a million, there is a small music market, with limited

opportunities of promotion and selling music. Making music is thus often a labor of

love, a passion or a pastime (2013, 38). Furthermore the jazz scene and its members

are generally disappointed with the state, which they consider has always been absent

from their efforts for promotion of jazz music in Cyprus.38 Therefore the development

of jazz in the island was up to a few Cypriot musicians who in spite of knowing jazz

would not pay nearly as well as other popular genres in the island, persisted to

perform the music they loved and fostered the growth of a scene.

Krasides notes that I wanted to buy a saxophone but got a clarinet instead because it

was cheaper. When a finally got a saxophone, I had no one to show me how to play. I

looked at photographs to find out how to hold it correctly! It is the greatest

satisfaction to now have jazz students who graduate universities and excel.39 Indeed

the new generations do not even need to move abroad to study jazz since the

establishment of musical high schools and the jazz programs at the universities. For

Michael Messios this is imperative, and notes that it is vital to have new generations

of jazzers, for the scene to continue. The current generation of students is truly

interested in this music and will take the scene to the next level.40 Nevertheless even

todays increase in performers, groups and venues to perform, there is still a lack of

significant recording and concert activity, widespread critical acclaim, and/or

sufficient financial remuneration. Nonetheless jazz musicians persist in pursuing their

art and craft in spite of these conditions. The perseverance of jazz musicians in spite

of favorable conditions is noted even in places such as New York City (Greenland

38 http://www.parathyro.com/?p=35668 39 , translated from Greek to English by the author. 40 Ibid,.

24

2007). As Zwerin reminds us, Jazz is still music for intellectuals, minority music, not

for everyone; but more people in more places than ever are dealing with it, and it

gives them a great deal of joy (2005, 545). Indeed when considering why some jazz

scenes thrive more than others, sociocultural, political and economic factors must

come to mind. Germany for example has given birth to some important jazz players,

thanks to a large degree to the fact that it is the third largest economy in the world;

There is lots of well-paid work there (Zwerin 2005, 543).

2.6 Questions of Authenticity & Ethnic jazz

What makes jazz authentic? This is of course a common question in this day and age

where jazz has reached the entire planet. In the Cypriot jazz scene you have groups

that could be placed on any point of the authenticity spectrum. The group Mood

Indigo for example not only performs but also puts on a show that is distinctively

emulating jazz and swing music from the 40s and 50s in the United States.

Led by Jazz chanteuse Irene Athanasiou, Mood indigo becomes a passage, by which your guests will begin their journey into a long-gone era that will leave them starry eyed, making any venue sparkle with romantic, dreamy and swingin tunes. Add a second sax and a trumpet for an extra degree of hip & the swinging 6 & 7 piece Mood Indigo Orchestra will keep your toes tapping!41

Similarly singer Michael Antoniou regularly hosts night of classics, from Sinatra,

Dean, J.Cash, Elvis and much more. Singer Sarah Fenwick and guitarist Marinos

Neophytou released the album Jazz Way in 2013, which contains two blues

originals and seven jazz standards from composers such as Gershwin, Porter, and

41 http://moodindigomusic.com/

25

Rogers and Hart. On the other hand the group It is what it is present a night of

improvised music, exploring the possibilities, an endless journey. 42

As Atkins suggests, jazz does not solely function as an idiom in itself but also as a

tool for local popular music production. Jazzs potential can be in its application as

a technical and performance resource in the pursuits of contemporary local music

projects (2003), an application that is clearly evident in the Cypriot jazz scene.

Regarding authenticity in jazz, Greek-Cypriot drummer Marios Spyrou had the

following to say:

If I am to perform jazz, swing or bebop music, it is important to do so in an authentic fashion, just like the creators of the genre in the United States. As a Cypriot, I do not feel I have a strong musical heritage, therefore I do not feel the need to implement my Cypriot musical background into my jazz playing.43

There are of course jazz musicians in Cyprus with different dispositions, who might

argue that for a contemporary Cypriot musician to perform in an all-African-

American Charlie Parker-esque jazz style, without incorporating any local musicality

is unauthentic. Some scholars have argued that authenticity does not even exist per se,

in other words there are no universally authentic cultures or traditions (Piedade 2003).

Traditions can be seen as inventions, sets of symbolic control devices that exist for a

community to govern its behavior, not actual patterns of behavior (Hobsbawm and

Ranger 1982) & (Geertz 1973, 218). Authenticity can be seen as social construction

that partially deforms the past, making the artificial of the past, the natural of the

present (Peterson 1992) & (Piedade 2003). Hajimichael goes so far as to say, No one

is original in any form of music. Everyone is, either consciously or latently,

influenced by some sound or notation process that came before them (2013, 37).

Another factor in whether questions of authenticity should be of any concern is that

42 https://www.facebook.com/groups/7750895987/ 43 The author conducted an interview with Mr. Spyrou in January 2015.

26

jazz has always been an art form mediated between experimentation and stability. In

locations such as New York City, a constant influx of new personalities and ideas

exists that would seem to threaten the identity and the stability of a traditional art

form. Jazz has long mediated between these two apparently conflicting aesthetic

goals: that of maintaining a core musical identity and that of striving for constant

renewal (Greenland 2007).

Amongst the diverse Cypriot jazz groups are the ones that fuse elements of jazz with

elements of local music. This includes the Andreas Georgiou Ethnic Jazz Trio, the

projects of pianist Marios Takoushis and bassist Gabriel Karapatakis, the

Amalgamation Project, who fuses Balkan, jazz, and music of the Middle East,44 and

Nihan Gorgu, a Turkish Cypriot female jazz singer, has recently been singing Turkish

popular songs (in Turkish) along with a jazz piano accompaniment. Most recently

(2015) the world jazz group Tricoolore are presenting their debut album Oregano

Infused with a mini tour in Cyprus, Greece and the UK.45 They describe themselves

as:

Explosive grooves meet nostalgic melodies that carry the flavour of tradition. Folk dance patterns combine with the African soul of New Orleans. A blending of musics of the world that creates a riot of colours and shades.46

A future publication can address exactly the ways in which these groups and others

not mentioned, fuse jazz with local music.

44 http://theamalgamationproject.com/ 45 www.tricoolore.com 46 Ibid,.

27

2.7 Jazz and issues of language

With the exception of Nihan Gorgu, Cypriot local jazz singers (of which most are

female) almost entirely sing in English, and in most cases use an American accent. At

a glance, this is a critical difference between the Greek Cypriot jazz and hip-hop

scene, in which vocalists sing and rap in their native tongue, which involves some

decision making. Stylianou notes that hip-hop presents a rare instance where Cypriot

artists are forced to confront Cypruss language situation head on in a way that many

other arts or genres do not require (2010, 207). The language situation Stylianou

refers to, are the disparities between the Standard Modern Greek language and Greek

Cypriot dialect (henceforth SMG and GCD). While all Greek Cypriots speak GCD,

some consider it rude and inappropriate in formal situations, and it therefore lies as a

non-standard variety at the periphery of the standard as spoken in Athens (see

Stylianou 2010, Pavlou and Papapavlou 2004, Terkourafi 2005 for more). Stylianou

continues saying:

Greek Cypriots are educated and receive their news as well as all official correspondence in SMG, even though they grow up speaking the GCD which bears phonological, morphological, syntactic and lexical differences from SMG (Pavlou and Papapavlou 2004, 248-9, Terkourafi 2005, 311-7).

Stylianous study explores the language attitudes of Greek Cypriot rap artists, who

either rap in SMG or GCD while in everyday speech use GCD. Some use both in their

performances for different reasons, contexts and results. The importance of presenting

these language attitudes is that they clash with the perennial hip-hop imperative of

keeping it real, not selling out, showing no fear and being yourself. The

argument Stylianou makes is, how can a Greek Cypriot rap artist use SMG and yet

support and live up to this imperative? Indeed he is right in noting that hip-hop

presents a rare confrontation towards the Greek Cypriots language situation. The

28

Greek Cypriot jazz scene on the other hand is oblivious to this situation since it is not

idiomatic to sing in Greek. It would be an interesting to know, when the time came

that local Greek Cypriot singers decided to sing jazz in their native language, whether

they would use SMG or GCD. I would argue that it is more likely they used SMG

since GCDs purported crudeness or harshness would not be considered

cosmopolitan and smooth enough in a jazz context. One could argue that the fact that

the islands jazz singers sing almost entirely in English makes the jazz scene rather

less native and authentic (authentic meaning closer to the local scene) then the hip-

hop scene. The reality that both Greek and Turkish Cypriots have established hip-hop

scenes in which they rap in their native tongue, might account for the fact that there

has been more popularity towards hip-hop in Cyprus than jazz.

29

3. Aphrodites dance, jazz meets local music

A flirtation between jazz and Cypriot local music characterizes the music of Anakreon.

The piano trio consisting of pianist Glafkos Kontemeniotis, bassist Kyriacos

Hadjitoffis and drummer Manos Papayiannakis recorded Music of the Wings, their

first and only album, in New York City, in 2001. A reviewer of the Sunday Mail

writes,

Most of the tunes have been inspired by Greek songs, such as an old rebetico. At the moment Im listening to Aphrodites dance and Im tapping my foot away to it as I write and actually typing in tune to it too! Its got a really funky feel too, uplifting and rejuvenating.47

The final track in the album, Aphrodites dance, forms a jazz reinterpretation of a

Greek-Cypriot popular song. It is based on Michalis Violariss song Halalin tou,

translated as In vain in his greatest hits album. Michalis Kyriakou, known by his

stage-name Michalis Violaris, is a popular singer and composer of modern Greek and

Cypriot music and responsible for popularizing Cypriot songs sung in the Greek-

Cypriot dialect in Greece.48 Halalin tou is one of Violaris many hits, and was

released as part of the album T in 1970. 49 It is also included in the

Complete Guide to the Music of Cyprus by Various Artists album released in Dec 4,

2014 by FM records.

Aphrodites dance demonstrates the application of jazz rhythms, harmonies and

sensibilities on to a Cypriot melody. It exhibits dialogue, call and response, collective

synchronizations, as well as semiotic dimensions, enabling sonic symbols to refer 47 http://kth-music.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/anakreon_review.jpg 48 http://www.e-orfeas.gr/artists/interviews/5114---------.html 49 T translates to The Cypriot songs.

30

actively to other parts of the same piece, toother music, or to contextual and extra

musical phenomena, such as is associated with the vast genre of jazz (Iyer 2004). It

presents vital components of the kind of improvisatory skill associated with jazz,

including adaptability, efficiency, fluency, flexibility, and expressiveness (Pressing

1988). Furthermore its execution is in the jazz vein of having a plan, an abstract

homomorphism, that represents the essential structure of the performance, and letting

the finer details generate and locate themselves during execution (Shaffer 1980).50

This chapter focuses on the verse and chorus of Aphrodites dance and through

comparing it with Halalin tou, aims for a compelling case study of jazz being

employed for the reinterpretation of a non-jazz tune. Thus this investigation should be

of interest to the listener of Cypriot music, world music and jazz.

3.2 Halalin tou

Halalin tou is a pleasant love song in a major key, sang in the Greek-Cypriot dialect,

with the lyrics of the chorus roughly translating as: for your heart and your embrace,

by god, all for your sake. The classic recording from the T album has

the composer Violaris himself singing. A transcription of this recording is illustrated

below. The recording begins with a violin iterating the chorus with the gentle

accompaniment of a guitar strumming chords. Measure six marks the second repeat of

the chorus, with the appearance of a second violin, a viola, electric bass and drums

with brushes. In measure seven a tenor recorder appears and in measure eight a

xylophone. Measure eleven marks the start of the verse with the vocals coming in,

lasting four measures before repeating. With the second repeat of the verse at measure

50 This has been verified through personal communication with Kyriacos Hadjitoffis.

31

fifteen, a zither appears performing a repetitive sixteenth-note pattern. Measure

twenty marks the return of the chorus.

32

Figure 3.1 .

33

Figure 3.2.

A reduction of Halalin tou appears below illustrating the melody and harmony at the

most fundamental and skeletal level.

Figure 3.3.

A distinctive feature is the 7/8 compound time signature with a rhythmic feel of

3+2+2. Demetriou notes that a variety of compound rhythms, including 5/8, 7/8 and

9/8, are used particularly in Cypriot dances ("Cyprus." Grove Music Online). Another

feature is the diatonic melody, which consists of two phrases, the first forming

measures 2 to 5 and the second from 6 to 9. It should also be noted that the first

measure is a pick up and only performed as an introduction to the song; every other

iteration of the chorus does not include it.

The melody in the verse also remains diatonic and also consists of two, four-measure

phrases.

34

Figure 3.4.

3.3 Aphrodites dance

Although the melody is the same in both songs, the images and feelings each piece

evokes are poles apart. The sweet sounds of rural Cyprus in Halalin tou, with

multiple instruments evoking images of love and longing, are transformed into a

swinging jazz piano trio performing at a smoky bar.

One element that differentiates the pieces is form. Aphrodites dances form is that

of jazz standards as performed at jam sessions, consisting of a largely composed and

characteristic melody (the head), played at the beginning, then complemented by a

series of solos on the harmonic progression of the head and followed by the repetition

of the head at the end (Berliner 1994: 63).

35

36

Figure 3.5.

At a first glance Aphrodites dance incorporates a change of rhythm, meter and

tempo.51 An obvious difference is the use of quarter triplets in 4/4 in place of the eight

notes in 7/8.

Figure 3.6.

The tempo is almost doubled and the harmony is significantly augmented. The

harmony includes chordal tensions such as major 7th, 9th, 11th and sharps 5th chords,

as well as secondary dominants, all of which are idiomatic in jazz harmony.

In the verse of Halalin tou the bass iterates a 7/8 ostinato figure.

I IV V I

Figure 3.7.

In the same section of Aphrodites dance the bass is transformed to a 4/4 ostinato

figure that provides a quite groove. Notice also the transformation from triadic

harmony to that of typical jazz harmony.

51 The transcriptions are the authors.

37

I IV III7 VI7 ii V7

Figure 3.8.

Moreover, the harmonic rate of the verse doubles, going from a one chord per m.

progression I/IV/V/I, I/IV/V/I to a two chord per measure Imaj7-IVmaj7/ III7-VI7/

ii7-V7/ Imaj7 Imaj7, Imaj7-IVmaj7/ III7-VI7/ ii7-V7/ Imaj7 Imaj7. Indeed this

elaborated chord progression is itself idiomatic of standard jazz harmony. Prominent

features that give the verse a jazz feel are the eight note and quarter note triplets in

the piano, which have the effect of making the melody sound slightly behind the beat.

The dotted eight-note and sixteenth note figures in the bass, have the opposite effect,

and sounds slightly ahead of the beat. In addition, two gestures are introduced, the

three-note gesture in the fourth measure, which is the so-called Charleston rhythm

placed on beat 3, and the seven-note gesture on the last measure.

Figure 3.9.

The seven-note gesture in the last measure consists of a chromatic lower (second

triplet in beat 1 and 2) and upper neighbor note followed by the target note (first

triplet of beat 2, beat 3).

38

39

Figure 3.10.

The chorus similarly transforms the one chord per m. IV/I/V/I, IV/I/V/I harmonic

progression, into series of dominant chords, VII7/ VI7/ ii7-V7/III7-VI7/ VII7/ VI7/

ii7-V7/ Imaj7. In the last measure of the chorus appears yet another seven-note

gesture. Being that these gestures are odd in their number might function as echoes of

the 7/8 time signature of Halalin tou.

What is particularly noteworthy about the comparison of these two pieces is although

the differences in harmony, rhythm, tempo and instrumentation are plentiful, the

identity of the tune remains discernible in Aphrodites dance.52 What makes it

discernible is the retention of the basic intervals between the pitches of Halalin tous

melody in the verse and chorus. Margulis notes that it is indeed the intervals of the

pitches, not the pitches themselves, which determine the identity of a piece. She uses

the example of Happy Birthday to illustrate that no matter what key it is sung in, it

will still be recognized as the same song (2014, 30).

What we have in Aphrodites dance is Anakreon extracting a Cypriot melody and

placing it in a jazz form (head, solos, head) and layering it with jazz elements. The

Cypriot-ness of Aphrodites dance lies in the melody, yet beyond that, is

unrecognizable.

52 Although I cannot prove how many Cypriots have recognized Aphrodites dance as a reinterpretation of Halalin tou with a scientific graph and numbers, I have casually asked a number of Cypriot friends, and almost everyone did.

40

3.4 Ramifications of Aphrodites dance

A reviewer at the Cyprus Weekly writes the following concerning Music of the

Wings:

From the first to the last note it is jazz all the way improvised, live and tight. It is also experimental even soul searching By head-nodding their rich past, these players are not only acknowledging where were coming from but also essentially exploring where it is at53

Hadjitoffis explains that this album is the result of a natural bridging of his Greek and

Cypriot heritage and culture; the sounds he heard while growing up, and the sounds of

jazz he learned to love later in life. For him making a jazz album that recreated the

sounds of any given period of U.S jazz was not natural because the context in which

that music arose from was not the context he had experienced.

An element the album evokes is that of nostalgia. While living in New York City,

Hadjitoffis never forgot where he came from and always had his motherland close at

heart. The albums title Music of the Wings, refers to the sensation that music is

able to take you, on a flight, to anywhere you like. For the piano trio, the albums title

refers to an imaginary trip from New York to Greece/Cyprus.

Although this kind of nostalgia referred to above is personal nostalgia, the album

could be argued to also evoke something greater, a mixture of historical nostalgia with

a present urban vitality. The New York urban sounds of a jazz piano trio blend with

the sounds of rural/urban Cyprus. Another way of looking at this is as a figurative

53 http://kth-music.com/-/

41

tension between African American jazz and Greek/Cypriot folk and popular music, as

well as a one between urban and rural sounds.

In closing, this chapter presents the employment of jazz in reinterpreting a Cypriot

popular song, and as such, provides an example of what Atkins notes jazzs potential

as an application of technical and performance resources in the pursuits of

contemporary local music projects (2003).

42

4. U.S jazz diplomacy in Cyprus

In 1955 the New York Times claimed, Americas secret weapon is a blue note in a

minor key (Von Eschen "The Real Ambassadors," 2004, 189). Jazz music,

international politics and diplomacy were all closely involved during the Cold War

and musicians from Louis Armstrong to Dizzy Gillespie were sent on tours to the far

corners of the world. The prominence of jazz in Cold War era cultural diplomacy is

described in studies by Penny M. Von Eschen, Lisa E. Davenport, Danielle Fosler-

Lussier, Paul Devlin, Burton W. Peretti, Uta Poiger, S. Frederick Starr, and E. Taylor

Atkins. Yet post-Cold War jazz diplomacy, let alone of the past decade, has attracted

little attention.

This chapter focuses on jazz diplomacy in Cyprus since 2008 and the impacts as well

as relationships the Jazz Futures have had with local Cypriot musicians.54 Scholars

examining jazz diplomacy have been particularly interested in the differences

between the political objectives that motivated it and the personal agendas of the

funded musicians (Ansari 2012, 42), where as this chapter examines the influence the

Jazz Futures have exerted on the Cypriot jazz scene. To begin, this chapter will

present an overview of jazz diplomacy since its inception in the United States in order

to provide the necessary background to inform the focus on jazz diplomacy in Cyprus.

54 Interestingly, although the first State sponsored musicians arrived in the island in 2008, Cyprus appears to have a history with jazz ambassadors since 1958, when Dizzy Gillespies group was rushed to Athens to perform, after the American Embassy in Athens was getting is ass kicked, being stoned by Cypriot students who were protesting U.S support of the current Greek political regime (Aidi 2011, 27, Saul 2012). Although humorous, this story does not reflect on the current involvement of the Jazz Futures in Cyprus, which has been nothing but peaceful.

43

The first tour sponsored by the U.S Department of State began in 1956, with Dizzy

Gillespie in the Middle East and South America. Over the next two decades hundreds

of musicians were sent on tours of Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union, South and Latin

America, Asia and Africa. These programs have been described as a self-conscious

campaign against worldwide criticism of U.S racism, using musics potential as a

Cold War weapon, and promoting African American artists as symbols of a racial

equality (Von Eschen Satchmo Blows Up the World: 2004, 4). Furthermore, an

essential paradox of the tours was the simultaneous attempt to insist on the universal,

race-transcending quality of jazz while depending on the blackness of musicians to

legitimize Americas global agendas (Satchmo 2004, 4). At the same time, the jazz

musicians involved in these tours benefited from the official recognition of jazz and

were able to spread its sound and ethos to the far corners of the world.

The scope of the cultural programs involved many realms of the performing arts,

however jazz was the pet project of the Department of State; it was the genre born in

the United States and could be claimed as a uniquely American art form beyond any

doubt. While its identity was American, its popularity was worldwide, particularly in

the Soviet Union that was known for its classical music, ballet and theater. This made

it an ideal 'Art form' to use in the cultural Cold War against the Soviets.

As Von Eschen explains, the exportation of jazz and the tours were fundamentally a

product of Cold War foreign policy. Musicians involved were situated in politically

sensitive locations and circumstances, into preludes and aftermaths of coup dtats,

invasions and wars. The State Departments agenda was to present the music to

neocolonial elites and this very often conflicted with the desires of the musicians, who

wanted to perform for the people, to new audiences who may not have heard jazz

before, and to meet and interact with local musicians and communities. Indeed the

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touring musicians often dismissed the governments official narrative and gave their

audiences an unprecedented vision of the black American experience, both in concert

and after hours, through political statements and romantic liaisons. As attested in the

literature, the ambassadors were never pawns of the U.S and managed to lead highly

successful jazz tours up until 1978. Thousands of people, including high-ranking

diplomats went to hear Gillespie, Satchmo, Ellington and others.

After several decades, the Department of State has revived subsequent waves of arts

diplomacy initiatives, including the Rhythm Road in 2005 administered by Jazz at

Lincoln Center, the Brooklyn Academy and the Kennedy Center (Aidi 2011) as well

as the American Music Abroad (AMA) program.55 Karen Hughes, the undersecretary

of state for public diplomacy, introduced the Rhythm road after being appointed by

President George W. Bush in the wake of Abu Ghraib and the resurgence of the

Taliban (Aidi 2011, 28). Both the Rhythm Road and the AMA program describe

themselves as designed to communicate American music to the global music scene.

The AMAs mission is to foster cross-cultural connections between American

musicians and global audiences.56 The new generation of musical ambassadors

attempts this by focusing on reaching beyond concert halls, to younger and

underserved audiences. The AMA groups have traveled 75 countries around the world

as of 2011 and have developed the scope of the program to include any

characteristically American musical genres including but not limited to: Blues,

Bluegrass, Cajun, Country, Folk, Latin, Native American, Gospel, Hip Hop/Urban,

Indie Rock, Jazz, Punk and R&B. Another development is the ability for any

interested American group to apply to the program.

55 American Music Abroad program, Accessed Nov 22, 2014, http://amvoices.org/ama/ 56 Ibid.

45

All American music groups under the State Department family reflect the

Departments ideals, objectives and missions, to one degree or another. An official

documentation on the Evaluation of the Jazz Ambassadors Program, released in

2006, states the following:

The Jazz Ambassadors Program is a vehicle for improving understanding of U.S. society and for opening doors to a variety of publics. Jazz is a metaphor for many of the values we hold dear as Americans, and helps foster the people-to-people connections that promote mutual understanding.57

4.2 The U.S Embassy for Cypruss bi-communal efforts

The United States is pleased to continue to support Cypriot efforts to build the bridges and the trust that will ensure a prosperous future in a reunified Cyprus. 58

Beginning in 1997, the U.S Embassy in Cyprus focused their cultural presentation

programs to emphasize interaction between the two ethnic communities in the island,

which had been separated since 1974.59 In 2000 the Bi-communal Development

Program was created by the United Nations Development Program, in cooperation

with the United Nations Office for Project Service.60 The program included projects

in the areas of environment, public health, urban revitalization, cultural heritage, civil

society strengthening, the organization of youth camps, concerts and competitions to

demonstrate the value of multiculturalism. 61 Through mitigating the disparities

between the two ethnic communities, the U.S Embassy in Cyprus has aimed to assist a

reunification of the island. As the U.S Embassy in Cyprus states, these U.S-funded

57 Evaluation of the Jazz Ambassadors Program. Final Report, Volume 1, March 2006, The Department of State official documentation. 5 58 Embassy of the United States in Nicosia/Cyprus website. Bi-communal Development project. Accessed Nov 1, 2014. 59 Ibid. 60 Ibid. 61 Ibid.

46

programs have resulted in tens of thousands of Cypriots making contacts, connections

and friends with members of the "other" community.62

4.3 The Jazz Futures

In March of 2008, the New York based Chris Byars and Ari Roland group was sent

to Cyprus as part of the The Rhythm Road: American Music Abroad cultural

program, to further the US Embassy mission to increase mutual respect and

understanding between nations. The racially integrated group offered performances,

rigorous training and jam sessions, first in the capital of Nicosia and then other cities.

Roland and Byars are professional jazz musicians who have worked with many of the

most well-known figures in jazz and as Jazz Ambassadors have traveled around the

world in the past years. At the conclusion of their first visit, they proposed a bi-

communal jazz workshop that would enable all Cypriot musicians to play jazz

together, specifically aimed at pairing artists from the divided North and South. The

US embassy agreed, and funded over two-dozen additional visits for the group, with

the last visit in October of 2013.

As the Jazz Futures, the group began serving Cypriot diplomacy not American, as

Byars explains, although they still remained under the exclusive sponsorship of the

U.S State Department. The groups each visit offered around five days of workshops,

concerts and club performances, as well community outreach in schools and

universities. Amongst the members of the Jazz Futures other than Roland on the

double bass and Byars on saxophones, are Keith Balla on drums, Yalla Ballin on

vocals, Vahagn Hayrapetyan on piano and Zaid Nasser on saxophones. Among the 62 Embassy of the United States in Nicosia/Cyprus website. Bi-communal Development project. Accessed Nov 1, 2014.

47

curriculum they have taught in workshops is jazz harmony and how to approach it,

using jazz standards as case studies on how to simplify the underlying harmony of a

complex tune and similarly how to complicate the harmony of a simpler one. In their

jazz improvisation classes they have demonstrated what scales would be more

appropriate for a particular harmonic situation as well as how to approach scales, licks

and patterns, in a similar way as Charlie Parker and Lester Young would, for example.

The workshops included group instrumental sessions, group vocal sessions, and

everyone together practicing known or lesser-known tunes from the Great American

Songbook.

This endeavor was further developed when local jazzers took the initiative to

continue running the group and directing bi-communal workshops and jam sessions,

in the absence of their American friends. These musicians include Charis Ioannou and

Ahmet Elmas on saxophones, Cahit Kutrafali on electric bass, Dimitris Miaris and

Michael Toumbas on piano, Ioannis Vafeas and Marios Spyrou on drums and Stefan

Melovski and Orestis Miaris on guitar. Since 2008 the Jazz Futuresboth in its

American and Cypriot realizations- have created musical networks throughout the

island, brought about an increasing awareness of jazz and continue to pursue their

mission: to build musical bridges across the divide. Many children, adolescents, adults

have participated in these events. Concerning the two largest ethnic communities, this

has meant that participants who knew little or nothing about the other community

are now working together and performing on a weekly basis in venues on both sides

of the dividing Green Line.63

63 http://cyprus.usembassy.gov/jazz_futures_mar12.html

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The American musicians which make up the Jazz Futures are described by the U.S

Embassy as a group heavily and consciously inspired by the Golden Age of jazz

music from the 1930s to the 1950s. The ensembles repertoire includes pieces by

jazz legends such as Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and Billie Holiday, as well as

their own critically acclaimed original compositions.64 Thus it is obvious that the

initiative relies heavily on black music, which is not uncommon of most American

cultural diplomatic initiatives (Aidi 2011, 28). The stylistic choices of the American

musicians have influenced the tastes and perceptions of the locals, since the Jazz

Futures events all encapsulate the music and aesthetics of the 1930s to the 1950s. The

Cypriot realization of the Jazz Futures has not strayed far from this encapsulation.

The stylistic choice of the American realization of the Jazz Futures is not surprising,

for the State Department has a history of requiring groups with a focus on more

mainstream music (Fosler-Lussier 2010, 67). In the case of the Jazz Futures however,

this stylistic choice was not adopted for the visits in Cyprus but it is a self-made

choice that the American musicians keep outside the State Department tours. Whether

the group was chosen by the State Department for this exact reason can be speculated.

4.4 The Jazz Futures impact

The Jazz Futures have influenced established local jazz artists as well as people who

had never heard of jazz before or perhaps had had very little exposure. For Marios

Spyrou as well as others, including the author, the Jazz Futures workshops comprised

the first musical encounter between musicians of the two largest ethnic groups. This

64 http://cyprus.usembassy.gov/jazz_futures_mar12.html

49

encounter even resulted in changing the perceptions of some the musicians, regarding

their preconceptions. Marios Spyrou says the following regarding this issue:

M.P: Do you believe that the workshops brought you closer to Turkish Cypriots from the north part of the island? M.S: Yes. These workshops brought me to the realization that we are one and the same with Turkish Cypriots. The importance of the bicommunal workshops was also a political one as it was a musical one.65

Marios Spyrou went on to say that the jazz scene had evolved and improved since the

Jazz Futures have been involved.

The Jazz Futures group kick started the jazz scene, ignited an old flame into life. It is as if the opened up a university for jazz, in which you could enroll with no knowledge of the music, and with time and diligent studying, you could learn everything there is to know about this music. The aim was to make each and every person who attended a very competent and inspiring jazz musician. Through the workshops, not only did members with some idea of jazz improve their skills, but a strong foundation was shared among the members who had never heard the music before.66

Ambassador Byars also has had a positive and optimistic outlook on the program.

Local jazz singer and journalist Sarah Fenwick had asked him during an interview

what differences he noticed between the scene in 2014 and when his group first

arrived in 2008, to which he had to say:

So many differences. Repertoire is one: so many more songs are familiar to the Cypriot musicians. But even more important is the confidence with which they play these new songs. Also I see musicians more empowered to take their own initiatives in their careers.67

Byars expressed an encouraging response from the Cypriot jazzers. He points out that

the musical community is very clearly in love with music, and in love with jazz. I've

encountered nothing but cooperation from everyone I've met in Cyprus. I've seen and

65 The author conducted an interview with Mr. Spyrou in January 2015. 66 The translation from Greek to English is from the author. 67 Cyprus News Report. Jazz in Cyprus Interview with Saxophonist Chris Byars. Accessed Jan 4, 2015. http://www.cyprusnewsreport.com/?q=node/7989

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heard a lot of improvement from the people that I worked with, but they probably

would've gotten better without me just as well.68

The Jazz Futures in both realizations have in more than one occasion joined together

to perform for various events. In October 2009 they shared the stage and performed in

honor of the memory and legacy of Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal reporter who

was kidnapped and murdered by violent extremists in Karachi, Pakistan in 2002.69

Another occasion is one that Byars remembers proudly, the final Jazz Futures concert

in October 2013, which involved two dozen musicians from Cyprus and everywhere

else in the world.70

We played for the people of the United States Embassy who had sponsored our visits for six years, and gave them an onstage view of what peace and cooperation looks like and sounds like. This is a highlight because it was a summary of many great things; but I enjoyed every moment along the way just as well.71

4.5 Music within a conflict transformation context

Bergh & Sloboda note an increase in the use of music and the arts within a conflict

transformation context since the early 1990s (2010). By no means however do they

claim that the use of music for conflict transformation is a new innovation. What they

do assert is that the literature on conflict transformation generally exerts an overly

optimistic view of what mus