Personal Stories

New Era Jazz Quintet - Personal Stories

Manos Kourtis - Guitar
CharIS kaPeTAnakIS-Sax
Phlippos Kostavelis - Keys
Agamemnon MardaS-Bass
GiorGoS KlouNtzOs/chRYsidis - Drums

Manos Kourtis is composer and band leader of the New Era Jazz Quintet . At the age of 18 he meets Vaggelis Tsotridis, with whom he starts private lessons in jazz guitar. At the same period, he studies classical harmony at the concervatorium of Kostas Matsigkos. He completes his studies in 2005 and recieves his diplomas in Classical Harmony and Electric Guitar. All over the years he's worked with several famous singers and musicians of his country.
While building his career, he is also teaching jazz harmony and guitar at music schools and conservatoriums. At the same time, he is playing at concert halls, giving a lot of seminars and recording several albums all over Greece.

In 2006 he is encouraged by Vaggelis Tsotridis to take the exams at the Universal of Rotterdam in the Netherlands, which he passes with full success and studies there for the next years. Meanwhile he is taking classes of jazz music with worldwide known musicians, such as Jim Hall, Pat Metheny, Mike stern, John Scofield, John Ambercrombie, Joshua Redman, Charlie Haden, etc He graduates in 2011 with the title of Jazz Harmony specialized in Jazz Guitar.

All these years, his need to express his love in music, has made him compose several albums and create studies of music, having as a main goal to find and present his personal inner.

Today Manos Kourtis is a teacher and composer, with his own albums, based on his personal musical forms, always searching new paths in music harmonies and forms, in order to develop his own style.
Like this new album with his new quintet: New Era Jazz Quintet

Label: MUSIC™/ New Jazz Adventure