As a poetic genre or technique, blason (or blazon) comes to us from 16th century French poet Clement Marot, who penned a poem celebrating a particular woman by listing parts of her body which he then compared to incredible things. One famous example of such a poem is William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 130, satirizing the concept of ideal beauty as a convention of literature and art during the Elizabethan era, and from which Magnanimus Trio drew inspiration and recorded in their album “No Time”:
“My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun; Coral is far more red than her lips’ red; If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun; If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head. I have seen roses damasked, red and white, But no such roses see I in her cheeks, And in some perfumes is there more delight Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks. I love to hear her speak, yet well I know, That music hath a far more pleasing sound. I grant I never saw a goddess go; My mistress when she walks treads on the ground. And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare. As any she belied with false compare”. (W.S., 1609)
Video credits:
Onassis Cultural Center, Athens’ 5th Panorama of Greek Jazz/ Christos Barbas: piano, voice, composition/ Dimitris Tasoudis: drums, keyboard/ Pavlos Spyropoulos: contrabass
Magnanimus Trio
With their scintillating and inclusive vision of jazz, Magnanimus Trio are one of the most admired and influential of Eastern-Greek jazz ensembles. They managed to evolve the form with their compelling harmonics and improv techniques, offering a diverse combination of warm and chilled grooves, and visually stimulating performances.
The band was formed in Thessaloniki, Greece, in 2010, by piano and ney player Christos Barbas, drummer and pianist Dimitris Tasoudis, and bassist Pavlos Spyropoulos. Their debut album, “A Cue” was an hour of improvisations deeply steeped in minimalism, while their sophomore “Still Time” offered a blend of original compositions and improvisations, introducing modal jazz elements, minute compositions & ballads for voice and kaval (wooden flute). With their third official release, “No Time”, the three musicians have found the way to put together their influences even more seamlessly in thirteen compositions that connect Eastern-European traditions to the modern world, including a jazz take on a Shakespearean sonnet, with a wonderful result.
Magnanimus Trio treats jazz organically, their sound is a swirling cascade of modern and minimalistic jazz, improvisation and tradition, as a symbiotic relationship that is deeply established between trio members, breaking sonic grounds while remaining lyric and fluid throughout. Since their beginning they have collaborated with important figures of world & jazz music, such as John Taylor, Erkan Oğur, Derya Turkan, Murat Aydemir, Ζohar Fresco Quartet, Ross Daly, Sokratis Sinopoulos, Zezo Olimpio, Efrén López, Thomas Strønen, and Björn Meyer, among many.
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