Bio

Bassist, composer, vocalizer

Apostolos Sideris was born in 1978 in Athens, Greece, where he had his first musical training, playing the classical flute. By the time he was 15 he had switched to the electric bass. It didn’t take long for him to fall in love with the instrument ,and he was soon playing with various rock bands around Athens. By the time he was 17, his focus was directed towards Jazz music, something that led him to make the move and go to Boston, in order to attend Berklee.

During his time at Berklee, he picked up the upright bass and since then it has been his main instrument. While in Boston, he had the fortune to study with a number of exceptional bassists, including Ron Mahdi and John Lockwood. In addition, he had the opportunity to encounter many musicians from around the globe that would later become frequent collaborators.

Following his stint in Boston, Apostolos moved to New York and earned his Master’s degree in jazz Performance at the City College of NY, while being instructed by bass virtuoso, John Patitucci. During this time, and under the encouragement of Mr Patitucci, Apostolos started widening his musical horizons, drawing inspiration from a number of musical traditions beyond jazz, such us the music of his native country, the different styles coming from Brazil and South America in general as well as the sounds of the orient and North Africa. During those formative years he went back to revisit the music of Egypt, having already been exposed to it at an early age from his parents who were both born in Alexandria.

Since then he has been freelancing around the States as well as abroad. He has performed with a wide array of musicians ranging from jazz masters such as drummer Clarence Penn, guitarists Lionel Loueke and Rez Abbasi and pianist Leo Genovese, to world music sensations such as composer and oudist Ara Dinkjian, Greek ECM recording artist Savina Yannatou, Syrian vocal master Youssef Khasab and Lebanese composer Ziad Rahbani.

In addition to being a performer, he is a devoted composer, writing in many different styles, ranging from Jazz to Middle Eastern and Latin influenced music. He currently resides in Istanbul Turkey and he has been directing his creative energy mainly toward working with an Ethnic-Jazz group he co-founded, called MESEL, as well as having released his own album called ‘Σummation’ on FreshSound Records in Barcelona, which consists of his own compositions and improvisations, based on Greek and Middle Eastern themes through his own Jazz-influenced percpective. In the fall of 2022 Apostolos released his second personal album ‘Hane’ a project that he mostly recorded and produced from home during the Covid Pandemic. It is a release that showcases his love for experimental and electronic sounds as well as his affection for more popular sounding grooves inspired by the music he grew up listening to as a teenager in Greece.

In addition, Apostolos has been heavily involved in a very interesting project called Jazz Maqom which is funded by the French and German institutes and exploring the music traditions along the silk road. It is a project founded by neyzen and flutist Andrea Romani and Sideris has been featured as both a performer as well as an arranger and composer, travelling to countries such as Uzbekistan, Kirgizstan, Turkey etc. to work with local musicians and explore their sounds.

Lastly, Apostolos has been working on a new project called ‘Past Presented’, revisiting his Sextet and further exploring his love of approaching eastern microtonal music through his jazz-inspired orchestrational ideas.