Home » Jazz Musicians » Petros Klampanis

Petros Klampanis

"What comes as a beautiful surprise is the diversified approach
he utilises in his compositions and performance."

All About Jazz

“A formidable player and composer.”

JazzTimes

“Petros Klampanis is a musician who has always spoken from the heart.”

DownBeat Magazine

"I admit that I am always impressed when I hear a musician like Klampanis give us the gift of his creativity performed on such a timeless vessel."

Bass Musician Magazine

Declared a “bass ace” by Bass Player Magazine, acclaimed bassist, composer and producer Petros Klampanis grew up in Greece, surrounded by the confluence of Mediterranean and Balkan folk music.

Now living between New York and Athens, Greece, he is curious in his approach, always seeking unique ways to integrate elements from multiple genres, ranging from classical music to pop. His varied musical life journey marries aggressive melodicism, beautiful intonation, and uniquely personal sound on all the projects he leads or produces.

Klampanis has collaborated with world-acclaimed artists such as Greg Osby, Jacques Morelenbaum, Oded Tzur, Arooj Aftab, Anoushka Shankar, Shai Maestro, Gilad Hekselman, Jean-Michel Pilc, Snarky Puppy, Kinan Azmeh, Dimitra Galani and Maria Farantouri, among many others. His extensive list of performance credits includes Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, The Blue Note, The Kennedy Center, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA NYC), Barbican (London), Roskilde (Denmark), NOSPR (Poland), Glastonbury (UK), Rock in Rio (Lisbon), JazzAhead (Bremen), Jazzkaar (Tallinn), Athens Jazz Festival, XJazz Festival (Berlin), as well as Megaron Mousikis Athinon, Megaron Mousikis Thessalonikis, Onassis Foundation (NYC) and the Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center (Athens).

Awards

• Ιndependent Music Award 2018 for Best Live Sounding Album for "Chroma"

• Ιndependent Music Award 2020 for Best Jazz Producer for "Irrationalities"

• Ιndependent Music Award 2020 "Vox Pop" for Best Jazz Song for "Easy Come, Easy Go"

• Ιndependent Music Award 2020 for Best Jazz Song for "Easy Come, Easy Go"

• Best Traditional Ethnic Music prize in the quarterly German Record Critics' Award (May 2023) | Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik

Gear

• Petros plays Pirastro strings (Evah Pirazzi, Obligato, Eudoxa)

• 5/8 Juzek bass circa 1935.

• 3/4 Romanian folding bass circa 2010, by Antonio Seccion.

• Charlie Chadwicks's folding bass.

Petros Klampanis: Tora Collective

Read "Tora Collective" reviewed by John Chacona

by John Chacona
May 15, 2023

Some ideas work better on paper than on record. Take the attempts to fuse jazz and Greek popular music. There is, to be sure, a certain logic to the notion. Both traditions share an emphasis on virtuosic improvisation and a foundation in dance rhythms. Rebetika, the mournful songs of heartache, alienation and drug use brought to Greece in the population exchanges of a century ago, is, with some reason, called “the Greek blues."

Album Review

Oded Tzur: Isabela

Read "Isabela" reviewed by Mario Calvitti

by Mario Calvitti
August 15, 2022

A due anni di distanza dall'eccellente disco di esordio su ECM Here Be Dragons, preceduto da due CD pubblicati per Enja, che aveva sollevato lodi sperticate da parte di un po' tutta la critica, il sassofonista israeliano (ma basato a New York) Oded Tzur prova a bissarne il successo e non fallisce. Il nuovo lavoro ribadisce in pieno l'ottima impressione suscitata dall'album precedente e conferma il sassofonista come uno dei più interessanti tra gli astri nascenti del nuovo jazz internazionale. ...

Album Review

Oded Tzur: Isabela

Read "Isabela" reviewed by David Bruggink

by David Bruggink
May 25, 2022

Saxophonist Oded Tzur burst onto the jazz scene in 2012 with a remarkable approach to his instrument that drew upon his studies with Hariprasad Chaurasia, a master of Hindustani Classical music. Joining pianist Shai Maestro, bassist Petros Klampanis, and drummer Ziv Ravitz, he formed a New York-based quartet that began performing locally and ultimately released a debut album, Like a Great River (Yellowbird), in 2015. On that thrilling recording, the wider world was exposed to Tzur's unique mélange of Indian ragas, ...

Album Review

Oded Tzur: Isabela

by Chris May
May 18, 2022

Oded Tzur's 2020 album, Here Be Dragons, the Israeli-born, New York-based tenor saxophonist's first release on ECM, triggered an eruption of purple prose. Critics competed to see who could convey the most enthusiasm. A few even suggested that the Tzur quartet was the inheritor of the mantle of John Coltrane's classic quartet. That might have been over the top, and was certainly premature--Here Be Dragons was only Tzur's third album in a recording career which had begun as recently as ...

Album Review

Eric Binder: Hard Bop

Read "Hard Bop" reviewed by Phillip Woolever

by Phillip Woolever
September 25, 2020

Eric Binder is a drummer based in the Chicago area gaining recognition as a teacher and technician who combines slick sequencing and academic awareness to create modern masterworks with a classic jazz sound. This abbreviated yet consistently inspiring album affirms Binder as a rising force on the US jazz scene. Authenticity is obviously vital to Binder, who earned a doctorate from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and teaches at three colleges. He has multiple, academic-based publications to ...

Album Review

Petros Klampanis: Irrationalities

by Angelo Leonardi
August 11, 2020

Giunto al quarto album, il bassista greco attivo tra Atene e New York, cambia organico confermando la personale cifra espressiva nel nuovo contesto. Fattosi apprezzare per le composizioni melodicamente suggestive, in sofisticate orchestrazioni con archi, Petros Klampanis presenta un trio tutto europeo, con il batterista polacco Bodek Janke e il pianista estone Kristjan Randalu. I due nuovi partner si conoscono dall'adolescenza (entrambi emigrati con le famiglie in Germania) ed hanno già inciso un disco in duo (Grupa Janke ...

Album Review

Petros Klampanis: Irrationalities

Read "Irrationalities" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
October 23, 2019

You'd expect a strong pulse on Irrationalities by bassist Petros Klampanis. What comes as a beautiful surprise is the diversified approach he utilizes in his compositions and performance. Not that we don't hear a variety of approaches on he previous outings. Both Chroma (Minos-EMI, 2017) and Minor Dispute (Inner Circle Music, 2015) concentrated on a chamber sound with string ensembles. Here Klampanis pares down his expression to the a simple trio. A piano trio maybe actually be the ultimate ...

Recording

Petros Klampanis Blends the Colors of Emotion and Experience into a Rich Portrait of Humanity on his first Large Ensemble Album, "Chroma"

Source: All About Jazz
March 28, 2017

Motéma Music Debut, out now, features the Bassist/Composer’s Gifted Jazz Quintet (Gilad Hekselman, Shai Maestro, John Hadfield, Keita Ogawa) with a Vivid String Section Recorded in association with The Onassis Foundation USA Bassist/composer Petros Klampanis has absorbed a vibrant palette of colors over the course of a varied musical life journey, including Mediterranean and Balkan folk music of his native Greece, classical colorings of studies in jny: Athens, jny: Amsterdam and jny: New York City, and vibrant splashes of musical ...
read more

231

Recording

Inner Circle Music Releases Petros Klampanis's Debut Album "Contextual"

Source: Michael Ricci
March 4, 2011

Petros Klampanis draws a sonic portrait of the double bass in his debut album Contextual set to be released on April 18th, 2011 by Inner Circle Music. Much like an impressionist painter alters his color palette depending on how light falls upon his subject, bassist and composer Petros Klampanis alters the musical context in every track of his album in order to point out different characteristics of the double bass. Adding to the album's aural and textural smorgasbord is an ...
read more

"A formidable player and composer, bassist Petros Klampanis makes his auspicious Stateside debut with Contextual" Jazztimes "Magical performance", Difono Music Magazine, April 2010. "A true discovery", Die Rheinpfalz, May 2010. "Contextual is an amazing project" Greg Osby Excellent writing and playing. I love Petros' aggressive melodicism, beautiful intonation, and uniquely personal string writing Drew Gress, "Contextual is one of the most exciting projects I have heard from a bassplayer in years. The writing and playing is excellent, with an excellent sound and a wide spectrum of musical ideas" Arild Andersen "I admit that I am always impressed when I hear a musician like Klampanis give us the gift of his creativity performed on such a timeless vessel" Bass Musician Magazine "Klampanis plays solo bass with a loop pedal to create a “double bass orchestra” on “Basscope” and “Blue Cave,” which are done so masterfully that you’d think it was a full symphony" No Treble Magazine.