#158 Christos Rafalides- Vibraphone & Marimba Great, Composer & More!
Bio
Born in Kozani, Greece, Christos Rafalides can't remember a time when he wasn't surrounded by music. The influence of his older brother led him to the piano at the age of seven. He began his studies in classical percussion at the age of fourteen, and by the time he was twenty he was working with some of the best known orchestras in Greece. Christos believed he would continue his career as a classical percussionist, until one evening when he heard pianist George Cables with the group of Billy Cobham, “here was this guy, playing with his shoes off, conveying so much feeling through his instrument... I knew I wanted to be able to express myself like that." From that moment forward, Christos knew he would be a jazz musician.
Since moving to New York City, Rafalides has performed with Ronnie Cuber, Randy Brecker, Victor Lewis, Chaka Khan, Joe Locke, Antonio Sánchez, Steve Hass, Donny McCaslin, Scott Colley, Ravi Coltrane, Christian McBride, Wynton Marsalis, Mike Stern, and Ron Afif among many others. Rafalides has toured extensively throughout the world both as a leader and guest soloist. Some highlights include performances with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra and Wynton Marsalis, a tour with the Charles Mingus “Epitaph” Band featuring bassist Christian McBride and conductor Gunther Schuller, performances at the Kozani Jazz Festival, a recording with the Harmony Ensemble of NY of Henry Mancini’s “Peter Gunn” featuring Lew Soloff, a tour through India and China with Dario Boente, a guest faculty member at the Zeltsman Marimba Festival, and an Artist Residency at the “Music Village” in Greece. Christos has led groups at many of New York City's top venues including the Blue Note, the 55 Bar, the Jazz Standard, and Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola.
Gig Alerts
This Thursday Marcos is playing with his Dad’s trio at Tablao in Ridgefield. On Friday and Saturday Marcos will be subbing for Victor Pablo for the show “Evolution Of A Sonero” written and performed by Bronx-native actor, singer, and HBO Def Poetry Jam alum Flaco Navaja. The show is running Jan 9th-19th at the Pregones/PRTT's Off-Broadway theater house, located on 304 West 47th Street.
Also on the 17th Marcos will be at Casona from with 6-9PM and at Gonzalez y Gonzalez with Arturo Ortiz & 7 Con Calle.
Marcos just finished recording some videos with friend of the show Paulo Stagnaro for his website Congachops. Marcos is working on the next portion of the site, Bongos!
Damon will be at the NAMM convention Jan. 16th-19th, he will be doing some work with LP, hanging out, and lock down some interviews. On Jan 31st Damon will be at the Cisco Brewery in Portsmouth, NH with Billy Ruegger.
Morgan James is on tour with her new album “Memphis Magnetic.” Damon recorded percussion for this album and he will be a guest artist during one of the shows at the Fairfield Theatre Company (FTC) Stage 1.
Education Spotlight
Damon talks about checking out the Day of Percussion events in the various domestic and international chapters. You can see some of the first ones of 2020 listed HERE.
Drum Camps
There are some 2020 Drum camps that have been announced. Some of those are Benny Greb’s camp in Italy, Mike Johnston’s camp in Northern California, and the Drum Fantasy camp.
Iconic Recording
The iconic recording this week is “In Your Eyes” by Peter Gabriel from the “So” album. It features France’s own, Manu Katche on drums and percussion, as well as some drums played by Jerry Marotta.
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The song leading up to the interview is All or Nothing at All by Christos Rafalides
Christos Rafalides Interview
Damon and Christos start off the interview by talking about traditional greek music! Traditional greek music has a lot of odd meters and Christos mentions how the reason may have to do with the language having an odd amount of syllables and it flows a lot better when its not in a straight 4. A lot of the subdivisions are quite simple, one only comes across groupings of 2’s and 3’s. Christos also mentions how there is no syncopation in Greek music and how everything is on the downbeat.
They talk about how the greek neighborhood used to be in Washington Heights and the neighborhood moved to Astoria and then eventually moved farther into flushing and Long island as they community prospered!
Christos was first inspired by the listening to the Grammy Award winning album by Chick Corea and Gary Burton “In Concert, Zurich, October 28, 1979.” Christos tells us how Gary Burton didn’t think this was a good show until much later when he listened back to the tapes! After listening to the album, Christos traveled to a record store in Thessalonikis for any albums with a vibraphone. The albums Christos picked out introduced him to Milt Jackson, Lionel Hampton, Bobby Hutcherson.
At 16, Christos started studying classical percussion and jazz drums in Thessalonikis, a city where you could see an orchestra and other live music as compared to his hometown of Kozani. Christos realized his love for Jazz but decided to finish his classical percussion studies. He eventually got a scholarship to attend Berklee College of Music where he studied with Ed Saindon. Since he didn’t get to study with Gary Burton, he transferred out to Manhattan School of Music where he studied with Joe Locke.
Joe Locke asked Christos to record a duo on Marimba and Vibraphone after seeing Christos play a show at the zinc bar with Ravi Coltrane (Sax), Keith Carlock (Drums), and John Benitez (Bass).
Damon talks about the old Zinc Bar that used to be on Houston St. and about how he found out about Christos when he was checking out John Benitez’ band at the Zinc bar.
Christos prefers to play both big concert hall venues and small intimate ones. He mentions how important the energy he gets from the audience or venues enhances his playing.
Since Christos was already performing, recording, and composing his own music he felt the need to write it down and publish it to make it available for other musicians to buy and play his music.
Christos was asked by Nancy Zeltsman to write two originals and arrange four pieces from South America. Christos describes his publication operation step by step. He gets the artwork for his publications from a photographer from his hometown in Greece, has a graphic designer who puts everything together, and he gets it printed in NJ. You can find his work on his website or on SteveWeissMusic.
Christos goes in depth about his process when it comes to composing. He believes that musicians should write their own music. He talks about his insecurities when it comes to writing but he embraces it as part of the art of creating. Damon mentions keeping new ideas on his voice memos and Christos mentions a folder on his computer labeled “Composing” where he has ideas from his travels from all over the world.
“If you have something to say, package it nicely and put it out there and move on to the next one. It’s that simple.” - Christos
Christos is old school and likes physical copies of books and music. He pays a lot of attention to the details on how he presents his publications.
Christos talks about the Pearl Malletstation EM1 and briefly mentions his new project “Elektra.” Damon compares the innovative Roger Linn drumstation, the Lm-2 used by Prince to the EM1.
John Benitez was a very important part of how Christos learned how to play Latin Jazz on vibes in a trio setting. Christos would get to together with John in the bronx to learn how to play Montunos and he also sat in with John during his gigs and played cowbell.
Some moments where Christos felt accomplished was his first Concerto in Athens Concert Hall, his first orchestral composition premiere, and a tour in Japan with Hector Martignon.
Christos remembers what he was wearing as Joe Locke reveal to him that a ii7 on a blues can also be V#11. The experience from being in the bandstand specially getting his butt kicked was something Christos used as motivation. Back in his College days Christos was really shy so if he went back in time he would socialize more and try to play with more people.
Christos is working on a new duo album “Silver Lining” for Piano and Vibraphone with Maestro Giovanni Mirabassi. You can also check out his new band elektra where he incorporate the EM1.
Christos is Endorsed by Musser, Pearl, and Balter Mallets. Musser is working on a new vibraphone with bars similar to the old 1960’s bars. Malletstation just came out with a new software that gives more control over the dynamics, and Christos is working on a new Mallet series with Balter!
You can find Christos Rafalides on his Website, Instagram, Youtube, and Twitter!
“You are like the Greek Chick Corea” - Damon
The song leading out of the interview is Teddy by Bobby Hutcherson performed by Christos Rafalides Trio.
