Vassilis Blue Sotiriou

Guitarist Vassilis "Blue" Sotiriou has been playing and singing with top Greek and international Jazz musicians, including Nickos Kapilidis, Yiotis Kiourtsoglou, Giannis Papatriantafillou, Danny Hayes, Konstantinos Tsamertzis, Lakis Tzimkas, Yannis Pantazis, Agamemnon Mardas, Filippos Kostavelis, Manny Boyd, Charis Kapetanakis, Christos Yermenoglou, George Vasiliadis, Pantelis Stoikos, Michael Kapilidis, Paul Cox, Chico Freeman, Fred Wesley, Theo Kapilidis, Manolis Koutsounanos, George Tzoukas, Dwayne Dolphine, Jiannis Pavlidis, etc.

Vassilis "Blue" Sotiriou was born in 1966 in Kozani. He was only 5 years old when his father gave him his first guitar. That same year they moved to Thessaloniki where he resides today. The musical environment where he grew up helped him a lot since his mother loved Nat King Cole, classical music and Hollywood musicals. His father was an accordion player, his uncle contrabass and his grandfather was a guitarist, having something from Django Reinhardt. Blue's intensive love for music did not lead him through the orderly and immediate path of music schools studies but through empirical studies and direct way of passion for music. He studied everything, especially guitarists Kenny Burell and saxophonists Stanley Turrentine. His thirst for knowledge made him absorbing everything, with an increasing craziness for the magic of sounds. His military service has been decisive for his life. There he discovered Luis Salinas. Having plenty of time listening, he deepened in playing and ended that this sound is what touches him more. While being a citizen after his military service, he then became a professional by working with similar things like radio (interviews from great musicians of Jazz-Blues music, such as Etta James, BBKing, Eric Alexander, Diane Schuur, Fred Wesley, Chico Freeman, Kenny Garrett). An important station in Blue's life has always been the “Blue Rose Band” a flexible band with a history, with emphasis on blues and jazz funk references. Many and excellent musicians have participated in this music band since its founding from 1987 until today.

The greatest moment-station of his career was when he first recorded his own music pieces in a recording studio (with Greek lyrics which are still unpublished) and he played with one of the greatest trumpet players in the world the unforgettable Danny Hayes, who has been for many years a member of Big Band of the great musician and drummer Buddy Rich.

In Greece he has cooperated with many bands of Jazz-Blues-Rock both as a member and a session musician as well as for several albums and Loudias project, the best rock band in Greece. His new Jazz-Blues album entitled “Reach The Skies” is another important moment in his career while playing with Greek All Stars musicians [as Blue used to call them], the excellent singer performer Jacey Falk, and his favorite guitarist and composer (and his partner for many years, the great pianist Charles Brown) Danny Caron.