(Free Jazz, Experimental, Free Improvisation) [CD] Floros Floridis - F.L.O.R.O F.ly L.ow O.der R.oll O.ver - 2002, FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Exact Audio Copy V1.0 beta 3 from 29. August 2011
EAC extraction logfile from 26. August 2013, 17:53
Floros Floridis / F.L.O.R.O F.ly L.ow O.der R.oll O.ver
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Utilize accurate stream : Yes
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Fill up missing offset samples with silence : No
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks   : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations       : Yes
Used interface                              : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000
Gap handling                                : Left out
Used output format              : User Defined Encoder
Selected bitrate                : 768 kBit/s
Quality                         : High
Add ID3 tag                     : No
Command line compressor         : C:\Program Files\Exact Audio Copy\FLAC\FLAC.EXE
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TOC of the extracted CD
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        2  | 10:02.37 |  9:45.65 |     45187    |    89126
        3  | 19:48.27 |  9:43.60 |     89127    |   132911
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        6  | 48:05.15 |  8:08.47 |    216390    |   253036
        7  | 56:13.62 |  7:33.30 |    253037    |   287041
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Track  2
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Track  3
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Track  4
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Track  5
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Track  6
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Track  7
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There were errors
End of status report

REM GENRE "World Fusion"
REM DATE 2002
REM DISCID 640EF307
REM COMMENT "ExactAudioCopy v1.0b3"
PERFORMER "Floros Floridis"
TITLE "F.L.O.R.O F.ly L.ow O.der R.oll O.ver"
FILE "01. Floros Floridis - Pustseno.wav" WAVE
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FILE "03. Floros Floridis - Lahana.wav" WAVE
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FILE "04. Floros Floridis - Seriani.wav" WAVE
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FILE "07. Floros Floridis - Tis Fotias.wav" WAVE
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AUDIOCHECKER v2.0 beta (build 457) - by Dester - opdester@freemail.hu
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-=== DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE! ===-
Path: ...\Floros Floridis 2002 - F.L.O.R.O F.ly L.ow O.der R.oll O.ver (Free Jazz, Folk, Free Improvisation)
1 -=- 01. Floros Floridis - Pustseno.flac -=- CDDA (100%)
2 -=- 02. Floros Floridis - Sarki.flac -=- CDDA (100%)
3 -=- 03. Floros Floridis - Lahana.flac -=- CDDA (100%)
4 -=- 04. Floros Floridis - Seriani.flac -=- CDDA (100%)
5 -=- 05. Floros Floridis - Stergios.flac -=- CDDA (100%)
6 -=- 06. Floros Floridis - Pavlos Melas.flac -=- CDDA (100%)
7 -=- 07. Floros Floridis - Tis Fotias.flac -=- CDDA (100%)
Summary 100,00% CDDA
145485812

Floros Floridis
Real Name: Φλώρος Φλωρίδης
Floros Floridis was born in Thessaloniki, Greece. He studied Physics and got his diploma in Aristoteleion University of Thessaloniki. He then studied classical clarinet with the Romanian professor Konstantin Ugureanou and started being a professional musician in the 70s. From the beggining his main interest in music was improvisation, and that continues up to now. Since this is a tough task, he performed in a range that goes from a Symphony Orchestra to a wedding band.
He has composed music for short films, documentaries, feature films, theater (mainly for director Roula Pateraki) and dance performances. Furthermore he has been painting and doing grafical work (covers for records, books, posters, etc.) since the 70s. From 1981 on Floridis started his label j.n.d.records and after a break of 15 years restarted it as j.n.d. re-records.Again the label stoped it's activities in 2007. In the summer of 2008 organized the "Impro-days-hydra" event .
As a leader/co-leader he has collaborated with Peter Kowald, Paul Lytton, Paul Lovens, Phil Wachsman, Hans Schneider, Louis Moholo, Vincent Chancey, Jean Marc Montera, Pinguin Moschner, Mark Charig,Milos Petrovic, Okay Temiz,Nicky Skopelitis Ivo Papazov as well as with Greek musicians such as Michalis Siganidis, Kostas Vomvolos, Dimitris Polizoidis, Argyris Bakirtzis, Yannis Mourtzopoulos, Ilias Papadopoulos, Savina Giannatou, Nikos Psofogiorgos, Nektarios Karatzis, Vagelis Tsotridis,"Spyweirdos" and Babis Papadopoulos among others, resulting in the release of more than 25 CDs.
Throughout the years, he has participated in various CD-productions of other artists in Greece as well as abroad. He founded the Festival of Jazz and Improvised Music of the Municipality of Thessaloniki in 1984 and was both the artistic director and co-coordinator of eight of the nine festivals that have taken place.

Greek Jazz? The phrase itself sounds like an oxymoron, even though over the past decade, it’s been acknowledged that master musicians can come as easily from Germany (East and West), Italy, Canada, Brazil, Cuba and South Africa as from either side of the Mason-Dixon Line. Still, any one of those countries was known to have a long, classical or rhythmic history. But most North Americans’ only association with Hellenic sounds was what they heard in My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Never on Sunday or the overwrought pop symphonies of Yanni and Vangelis.
Floridis, who with pianist Sakis Papadimitriou made Greece’s first Free Jazz record in 1979 [!], has dealt with his isolation by writing for film, theatre and dance performances and by spreading his talents among many bands, including a German trio with the late bassist Peter Kowald and drummer Günter Sommer, the Inter-Balkan Orchestra, the Florina Brass Band and the two combos here.
OUR TRIP SO FAR, matches up the Hellenic musicmaker with two foreign heavy hitters, American-Greek guitarist Nicky Skopelitis, best known for his work with fellow guitarist Sonny Sharrock, bassist Bill Laswell and tenor titan Peter Brötzmann; and to show how music transcends political boundaries, Turkish percussionist Okay Temiz, a longtime associate of cornetist Don Cherry. The results meld Greco-Turkish and rock influences with improvised sounds.
F.L.O.R.O. on the other hand, finds Floridis plus a quintet of little-known --outside of Greece that is -- local musicians. Rejuvenation of some traditional Greek songs, all arranged by the saxman, takes place, with jazz, Balkan, rock and free music added to the jaunty, curvaceous themes. Balkan influences aren’t that odd, since geography places Greece and its Balkan neighbors in close proximity. They share some of the same melodies and many of the same instruments.
An example of what you can do with this blend of instruments is demonstrated most clearly on tunes like “Seriani” and “Stergios”. The former, a uncomplicated andante line, finds guitarist Vangelis Tsotridis picking out muted, Johnny Smith-type chords as drummer Nikos Psofogiorgos rumbles from his kit, while the horns -- trumpeter Pandelis Stoikos and clarinetist Vasilis Komatas as well as Floridis on alto saxophone -- blend into a reedy squeeze-box sound. As the horns work off one another in counterpoint, woody clarinet tones and trilling alto lines mix with distorted guitar reverb and a walking bass line. By the end, though, intimations of the folkloric theme have been subverted by a stop-time ending with echoes of Ornette Coleman’s compositions.
Coleman’s Prime Time band and Miles Davis’ electric period bands appear to be the models for the later tune. In it, legato clarinet lines mix with guitar fills that sound like they migrated from BITCHES BREW. As growling, gritty resonances from the alto man give way to deeper trills and split tones, the piece picks up Klezmer-Balkan overtones even as Tsotridis leans into his wah wah pedal and Psofogiorgos’ press rolls are more Baker (Ginger) then Blakey (Art).
Taking to heart the lesson fellow reedist Julius Hemphill expressed in several of his longer compositions, Floridis knows that as long as the rhythm is catchy and constant, the soloist has freedom to do as he wishes. Thus, there are times the guitarist produces the sort of effects with his pedals that sound as if they belong on a Headhunters’ session, while the honks, snorts, trills and drones from the horn section make the tunes appear to be an admixture of Free Jazz and Greek wedding ditties.
The tightness, but reticence of the other horn men leads you to speculate that they may be part of the Florina Brass Band, which is thanked in the booklet notes. And it must be admitted, that after a while to non-Virgilian ears, as with pieces built on reggae or raga scales, a certain sameness does creep into the sounds here.
Whether melancholy or exhilarated, the guitar and percussion work here is also a bit faceless, with the rhythm partners doing more decorating and backing then idea contribution. That changes enormously on the other CD, since Skopelitis and Temiz are anything but shy.
Running through 10 improvisations in about 48 minutes, OUR TRIP SO FAR’s emphasis is on exhibition as well as improvisation. Plus there are plenty of percussive colors to choose from since Temiz shows up with a cembe, an electric berimbao, a guica and an electronic pyramid as well as his regular kit. All the instruments seem to be played through electronic processing as well, with certain tracks even featuring Floridis on both bass clarinet and flute or clarinet at the same time. Overdubbing definitely took place in the studio, unless of course the reedist has the powers of a Greek god rather than a mortal.
Floridis is most impressive in non-doubled human form, though, such as on “Stars”, where his deep-toned, woody clarinet tone is mated with Skopelitis’ treatments that inflate guitar tones into massed, room-filling organ chords. Meanwhile Temiz has come up with sounds that appear alternately to be dice rolling or conga drum whacking. Adagio, “Greetings from overseas” finds Temiz shaking a bell tree to mix it up with what appears to be an acoustic guitar pealing out space-filling dissonant tones. On bass clarinet Floridis moves up and down in pitch as he plays, from chalumeau register to screech mode.
Queer, elf-like voices, ringing bells, what seem to be literal bubbles and electronic wiggles that could come from the pyramid or bow-and-gourd berimbao don’t seem to faze him at all on “Kula Baba” Imperturbably he calmly plays his clarinet even when Skopelitis lets loose with a screaming electric guitar solo.
Most of the time as well, the overdubbed reed lines give Floridis a chance to add glissandos and other extended techniques to the traditional Greek-influenced melodies; he even sounds as if he’s playing a melodica at one point. But there are also times where the rhythm team combine for sounds that seems to owe more to ProgRock than the Penloponnisos peninsula, and you start to remember that Vangelis got his start in the band Aphrodite’s Child with histrionic Greek vocalist Demis Roussos.
Despite these minor drawbacks, either of the CDs can serve as a memorable introduction to Floridis’ unique work, with the more overtly Greek F.L.O.R.O having a slight edge. Remember, you don’t have to be wary of the gifts that this Greek bears.
- Ken Waxman

Floros Floridis - alto saxophone
Pandelis Stoikos - trumpet
Vasilis Komatas - clarinet
Vangelis Tsotridis - electric guitar
Nektarios Karatzis - acoustic bass
Nikos Psofogiorgos - drums