Dr. Christopher Bakriges
Pianist, Composer and Educator

hristopher Bakriges was born in Detroit in 1958 and grew up near the original Motown Studios. He soon gave up his classical repertoire for lessons with Earl Van Dyke, Hitsville USA’s heralded sideman. “I learned how to approach playing in the Detroit Style of jazz piano, imitating Barry Harris, Tommy Flanagan, Hank Jones, Sir Roland Hanna, Kirk Lightsey, and trying to phrase on the piano like Yusef Lateef…and that kind of improvisation was a gradual process of teaching to be myself.” Chris began training with the Detroit Artist Collective and Temptation’s saxophonist Kusuku Mafie (Norris Patterson) which ultimately led to playing his own music with Jaribu Shahid and Tanni Tabbal.

After getting degrees from the University of Detroit, Chris had an opportunity to teach and play in the Republic of China where he developed a keen interest in the music of other cultures. Returning to the States, he began combining jazz, Mediterranean elements derived from his Greek heritage, and the rich African American cultural milieu in which he grew up, into a unique form of musical storytelling. “I heard what McCoy Tyner, Randy Weston, Abdullah Ibrahim and Mal Waldron were doing and said, ‘that’s it.’” Chris worked with Nadi Qamar in Vermont, Billy Taylor and Jimmy Giuffre in Massachusetts, and Harold Danko and Jaki Bayard in New York before entering the world music program at Wesleyan University in Connecticut. He served as Anthony Braxton’s pianist and music copyist. He later left for York University in Toronto where he studied with Oscar Peterson. “These artists encouraged me to study the entire history of jazz so that I could try and carve out my own place in it.” As a result, Chris’s improvisations blend jazz and more ancient cultures in his music.

 

Chris has performed internationally since 1990, including tours in India, Pakistan, Turkey, England, France, Canada, and the Czech Republic. In the early 90’s he was invited to co-direct “JazzFest” on Northeast Public Radio after its station director heard his ensemble Critical Theory in concert with Bobby McFerrin and David Darling. Broadcast monthly from the WAMC-FM Studios in Albany, New York, “JazzFest” became the only live jazz radio program being aired at that time in the United States.

 

Broadcast monthly from the WAMC-FM Studios in Albany, New York, “JazzFest” became the only live jazz radio program being aired at that time in the United States.

Besides performing his compositions, Bakriges was able to accompany many acclaimed artists such as Kenny Burrell, Bernard Purdie, Lee Shaw, and Pat Metheny’s original rhythm section of Danny Gottleib and Mark Egan. Chris's music reflects his diverse paths in life and his desire to interweave the past with the future, and traditional with new sounds.

Chris has lived in Southern Vermont since 1999, his second stint in the Green Mountain State, and has recently headlined both the Hartford International Jazz Festival and the Hartford Public Library's Jazz Piano Series in Connecticut as well as performances at legendary Greenwich Village haunt 5C Cafe and New York's Museum of Natural History. Chris is currently Artist-in-residence and Lecturer at Elms College in Chicopee, Massachusetts. He was music director and house pianist at Wilmington’s Mo'Jazz Café and Manchester’s Pink’s Alley from their inception until their closing late last year. Chris is currently on tour to support his latest release Transculturation. He performs with the Cleveland-based Oikos Ensemble who specialize in performing jazz and creative improvisational music in spiritual centers and sacred arts festivals (www.oikos-ensemble.com). Chris also plays in a duo with his violinist son, David Bakriges, performing music inspired by the jazz scissor-cuts of Henri Matisse.