The Next Step Quintet - The Next Step Quintet (2013)

Five young musicians, with an age average of 25, have created an original, direct and technically complete album. This is an album that is novel and seminal which at the same time can be listened to throughout effortlessly.

The first tune, “Regression”, captures the listener from its first notes and mesmerises him/her as it progresses. “Connection”’s subtle power already stands out on the radio, while “Esbjorn” is a tribute to the premature loss of Esbjorn Svensson of E.S.T.

The whole album, however, is of very high standards which proves that the jazz scene in Greece is equivalent to international standards and that the time has come that such musical styles, like Next Step Quintet’s, are to be embraced by a broad audience, not just by the jazz scene followers.

Thodoris Kotsifas (guitar), John Papadopoulos (piano), Dinos Manos (double bass) and Vasilis Podaras (drums) all met when they were students at the Ionian University in the department of Musical Studies, where they participated in various musical projects. Once they graduated and moved to Athens, they met again in a jam session with the Greek-Swedish Orpheas Tsoukalas (saxophone) and realized that the five of them had the same vision and approach to music.