Georges Arvanitas dies

[brownie]

Sad to report news of the death of the excellent French pianist Georges Arvanitas.

He was 74. Arvanitas died this weekend near Paris.

Arvanitas had played with many of the best musicians when they appeared in France. He played on albums by Dexter Gordon, Ted Curson, Sonny Criss, Ben Webster among many others.

Arvanitas had settled in the United States for a couple of years in 1964 and had been part of the Yusef Lateef group. With Lateef he had recorded the Impulse album 'Psychecemotus'.

The trio he formed with bassist Jacky Samson and drummer Charles Saudrais was a mainstay of the French jazz scene.

He will be sorely missed.

[king ubu]

Sad news

I'll play that Ted Curson Marge disc again soon. He's excellent on the Sonny Criss Jazz in Paris disc (Criss is fantastic there, too). Oh, and of course he plays organ on that disc, too!

[Chuck Nessa]

This weekend I played a fine Bud Freeman lp with Arvanitas on organ. Pierre Michelot is on it too.

[jazzbo]

Sad news!

[brownie]

Some of Arvanitas best albums were the two he recorded in Paris for the small Pretoria label. These vinyls fetch incredible prices nowadays.

First one was '3AM' recorded in 1958 with Doug Watkins and Art Taylor (in town with the Donald Byrd/Bobby Jaspar Quintet).

Second one was 'Cocktail For Three' recorded in 1959 with Gene Taylor and Louis Hayes (in town with the Horace Silver Quintet).

Both were reissued on vinyls by Paris Jazz Corner and are out of print again.

They were later reissued on CDs in Japan thru Sketch.

In a too generous day, I gave away my copy of the first Pretoria vinyl to the owner of Paris Jazz Corner (to thank him for having been very generous when I bought music from him) shortly after he opened shop years ago. He told me right away he would make a killing with it from Japanese collectors! Never asked him how much he got from it.

[king ubu]

Some of Arvanitas best albums were the two he recorded in Paris for the small Pretoria label. These vinyls fetch incredible prices nowadays.

First one was '3AM'  recorded in 1958 with Doug Watkins and Art Taylor (in town with the Donald Byrd/Bobby Jaspar Quintet).

Second one was 'Cocktail For Three' recorded in 1959 with Gene Taylor and Louis Hayes (in town with the Horace Silver Quintet).

←

Very nice covers!

[couw]

RIP M. Arvanitas

He is also featured on Yusef Lateef's Psychicemotus album on Impulse, which has recently been reissued in the Verve LPR series.

[clifford_thornton]

RIP Mr. Arvanitas, your block chords will be sorely missed.

A shame he did not get as much notoriety in the United States as he should have.

[Peter Friedman]

Apart from the Arvanitas recordings already mentioned, the following are some other CDs in my collection under his leadership.

My Favorite Piano Solos - Black & Blue

Bird Of Paradise - Carrere

Recontre - Columbia

In Concert - Futura

[White Lightning]

RIP Mr Arvanitas

Some additional fine recorings:

Some of the best Live Pepper Adams recordings are with mr. Arvanitas at the piano helm.

And I also like his duo recording with David Murray.

A fine pianist he was.

[JSngry]

RIP M. Arvanitas

He is also featured on Yusef Lateef's Psychicemotus album on Impulse, which has recently been reissued in the Verve LPR series.

←

I was just listenting to that album the other day. He makes a significant contribution there, and Yusef (or Bob Theile) let him finish the album with a very nice solo version of "Ain't Misbehavin'".

RIP indeed.

[B. Goren.]

RIP M. Arvanitas.

[sidewinder]

That's very sad to hear. I like the album he made with Dexter Gordon and Sonny Grey (issued on Spotlite, I think) back in the 1970s. I've a French double LP of standards material which I'll give a spin later today. RIP.

Edited September 28, 2005 by sidewinder

[mikeweil]

RIP

I liked from the first time I heard him - on a Ted Curson Atlantic LP. Excellent pianist, one of Europe's best.

Those trio LPs deserve to be reissued!

[Chuck Nessa]

Did he make more recordings on organ (I mentioned the Bud Freeman date)?

Bud told me "The producer told me he wanted to use this Greek pianist on organ and he turned out to be WONDERFUL".

[brownie]

Arvanitas recorded a couple of organ records. I have not heard them...

http://www.jwolf.com/iajo/iajofram.htm

Click on France and Arvanitas pops up...

Some samples of the album can be heard here:

http://www.amazon.fr/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000...7471457-7679433

Arvanitas played some organ on several albums. Among those:

- Sonny Criss 'Mr. Blues Pour Flirter' from the JazzinParis series,

- Georges Arvanitas 'Three of Us' which was reissued on Adda. Arvanitas plays very good organ on two of the six tracks 'High Beat' and 'Space Ballad'.

[clifford_thornton]

That's very sad to hear. I like the album he made with Dexter Gordon and Sonny Grey (issued on Spotlite, I think) back in the 1970s.

←

Is that the Parisian Concert on Futura? Or is there another?