BIO
Born in Athens, Greece but based in New York, bassist, arranger, and composer Nikos Chatzitsakos is an award-winning musician as a member of Ralph Peterson’s GenNext Big Band and leader of the Nikos Chatzitsakos Tiny Big Band. Influenced by Black American music of the 1940s-60s, he attempts to find new ways to honor the era and connect it to other idioms.
Nikos is a graduate of Berklee College Of Music in Boston, where he studied performance and jazz composition with a full-tuition scholarship. There he continued his graduate studies on a full-tuition scholarship.
Nikos has performed alongside distinguished musicians such as Ralph Peterson, Frank Lacy, Stacy Dillard, Josh Evans, Quiana Lynell, and George Kontrafouris. Nikos has also taken the stage at venues including, Dizzy's Club at Lincoln Center, DC Jazz Festival, Smalls Jazz Club, Scullers Jazz Club, Agganis Arena, “Jazzed In Siberia” festival, The Berklee Performance Center (BPC), and the Onassis Cultural Center.
MUSIC
TINY BIG BAND
Info:
“Tiny Big Band”, the project of acclaimed bassist and arranger Nikos Chatzitsakos, presents the listener with a delightful array of tunes, with repertoire ranging from Cole Porter to Michel Legrand – Antonio Carlos Jobim to Donald Byrd. Tastefully arranged for 6 horns and vocals, this band packs a punch, channeling an affinity for traditional jazz with a contemporary outlook. Familiar songs are presented in a new light, inviting the listener to come on a journey as Nikos’ arrangements weave strong melodies, rich harmonies, daring solos, and irresistible grooves. The “Tiny Big Band” combines the intimacy of a small jazz ensemble with the dynamic energy of a big band sound, it highlights the individual musical voices while it unites them into a powerful collective expression
Awards:
2022 Pathways to Jazz grant
2020 DownBeat Student Music Award arrangement category
2019 Seven Virtual Jazz Club Competition second place
Quotes:
Jack Bowers on All About Jazz: "The ensemble plays with assurance and enthusiasm, investing Chatzitsakos' charts (he arranged every number) with an ample supply of intensity. "
Joe Lang on Jersey Jazz Magazine: "Chatzitsakos has provided swing arrangements with a contemporary edge that are played with verve by his band."
Jazz-Fun.DE: "This youth pours out from many places like a volcano of pure energy, a source of irrepressible ideas from which one can hear genuine joy."
Line Up:
Joey Curreri - trumpet
Robert Mac-Vega Dowda - trumpet
Salim Charvet - alto sax
Art Baden - tenor sax
Armando Vergara - trombone
Gabriel Nekrutman - bari sax
Wilfie Williams - piano
Nikos Chatzitsakos - double bass
Samuel Bolduc - drums
Alexandria De Walt - vocals
Eleni Ermina Sofou - vocals
I Didn't Know What Time It Was - Nikos Chatzitsakos Tiny Big Band
I Didn't Know What Time It Was - Nikos Chatzitsakos Tiny Big Band
Nikos Chatzitsakos: Berklee Two Track I Purpose
Get Out Of Town - Nikos Chatzitsakos Tiny Big Band
Mary Lou Williams - In the Land of Oo-Bla-Dee (Nikos Chatzitsakos Tiny Big Band)
Ralph Peterson's Gen-Next Big Band - Acceptance (360 Video)
Tenderly - Nikos Chatzitsakos Tiny Big Band
REPRESENTATION
Booking & General Inquiries:
Nikos Chatzitsakos
(617) 870-9172