Monday June 9th

Live at Spike Hill

184 Bedford Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11211
(718) 218-9737 from 7pm to 8pm

MITZ, a New York based jazz group is a musical collaboration between Julien Augier and Dimitri Mikelis. After years of studying, playing and sharing ideas in many contexts, they decided to create their own concept.

Dimitri Mikelis, started out as an Oud player and moved later on to the piano. Because his compositions are strongly inspired by the musical language of the Oud, his music has a truly unique quality. This can be heard also in his tasteful blending of Greek music and jazz.

Dimitri and Julien started working together on the project as a duo. In this way the rhythms and colors of the drums play an integral role in the aesthetic of the writing. The key wasn’t to have Julien simply play tradional grooves but rather to have him bring his own experience and identity to the music.

From there, they began gradually adding elements, to the group. Alan Bjorklund joined them on trumpet, bringing with him his free and expressive sound. German bass player, Pascal Niggenkemper then joined them to complet the core unit. Playing live together for months before the recording, they constantly strived to improve the concept by discussing and playing new ideas.

Once satisfied with the result, they decided to add more elements to enrich the sound still further. Saxophonists Alex Terrier and Gilad Ronen, great musicians and composers came to contribute their sound and personalities to the project. Furthermore, the great guitar player, Lionel Loueke, was able to join MITZ and provide his unique musicianship and warmth on three tracks of this album entitled “New Work”.