Café Balkan

Café Balkan has its roots in earlier collaborations and long- standing friendships. The idea for the band was conceived in Thessaloniki in the winter of 2012 and took shape at a reunion on stage at the Axiothea Mansion in September 2013.

Through Café Balkan, Alexander Gagatsis and Vassilis Kom- matas build upon their common origin and different experiences, balancing between traditional and modern sound along with their collaborators Ioannis Vafeas and Glafkos Kontemeniotis in an effort to express themselves in a personal language through traditional melodies of the Mediterranean and the Balkan Peninsula.

The band is welcoming for the first time Maria Pseiropoulou on the vocals and Cahit Kutrafali on the bass guitar.

The band’s quest for musical identity (or rather the outcome of this quest) is based on improvisation (jazz or other), on deconstruction and maybe reconstruction of rebetiko songs and melodies from Greece, Bulgaria, FYROM and Turkey.

Alexander Gagatsis: vibraphone
Vassilis Kommatas: clarinet
Glafkos Kontemeniotis: piano
Ioannis Vafeas: drums
Cahit Kutrafali: bass guitar
Maria Pseiropoulou: vocals

Ticket price: €10
Students/Discounted tickets: €5
Ticket card for all September – October events: €40

For information and reservations:
Monday to Friday 9.30 – 13.30
Tel. 22894531-2
e-mail: [email protected]