Yako Trio - The Dance of Zalongo

The key element for forming the Trio was the work of the well-known Greek musician and composer Yannis Konstantinidis, in particular his arrangement to familiar melodies and rhythms of Greek traditional music. His intention was to save the unregistered Greek traditional musical material through the synthesis process. He has been heavily influenced by classical composers such as C. Debussy, M. Ravel and B. Bartok. All members of the Yako Trio have a deep knowledge of Konstantinidis’ work and also a great admiration for it. They formed this trio in order to edit it and introduce it again to the audience through their own musical sounds and experiences. That’s why they named the band “Yako Trio”, after the initial letters of Yannis Konstantinidis’ name.

Their objective is to create a new dynamic, imaginative approach to well-known Greek traditional songs, merging traditional idioms, classical harmonies and contemporary jazz music elements, incorporating jazz improvisations. This is their way to revive authentic traditional music, and also present their own compositions on this particular music style, forming their musical identity, always aiming at an outward-looking tone through interaction with musicians from different cultures and various music styles. This “ethnic-jazz” trend that they follow, becomes more and more popular among the general public all over the world, blowing away preconceptions about the boundaries between genres, constantly gaining more and more non-jazz listerners.

The Dance of Zalongo arranged by Konstantinidis at 1950 and re-arranged by Yako Trio at 2016.


Yako Trio :

Leandros Parias - piano
Vangelis Vrachnos - bass
George Klountzos Chrysidis - drums


We want to thank Paul Papadopoulos for the titles.