Serafeim Bellos
Seraphim Bellos teaches Jazz Drums, at Musical Praxis Conservatory.
Studies
Seraphim was born in Messolonghi in 1969. He started playing drums at the age of 16 with amateur rock bands. At 18, during his tenure, he played in the Navy Orchestra.
He has been involved with Jazz since 1991. Initially he studied at the Athens percussion workshop of Nikos Touliatos with teachers Nikos Touliatos and Leonidas Pliatsikas and participated in his percussion group.
He has also studied in New York with the best musicians of the world jazz scene, such as Joe Chambers, “Jabali” Billy Hart, Ali Jackson, Bruce Cox, Vanderlei Pereira, Adriano Santos, Jimmy Cobb, Bobby Durham, Ralph Peterson, Eric Harland, Gregory Hutchinson, EJ Strickland, Ulysses Owens Jr., Winard Harper, Darrel Green, Curtis Boyd. He has also talked to legends Elvin Jones and John Hicks.
He participated in performances at the Athens Concert Hall, such as “The Lights of the City” by Charlie Chaplin and worked in the old Boat Mostrou in Plaka with the singer Giannis Kalatzis. In ’93 and ’94 he studied in Paris at the IACP School with French and Americans Jazz teachers and works there with various jazz bands.
Professional & Educational Activity
Back in Athens he founded the Latin Jazz group Cubana Bop which is still active. He also participates in the group Tierra Brava, one of the first salsa bands in Greece and was one of the first timbale players in Greece.
In ’97 he collaborated with American Jazzists and toured throughout Greece and Cyprus, playing with Greek composers and singers such as Grigoris Bithikotsis, Linos Kokkotos, Mary Linda, Michalis Hatzigiannis and others.
He made records with Tierra Brava, Anakata, Down Town Beat, Giorgos Psychogios and Big Band Guru with Taki Patereli, Paflax by Leonidas Sarantopoulos. In addition, he had the opportunity to play with important American musicians such as Marcus Roberts, Alex Foster, Myron Walden, Bobby Watson, Bobby Few, Curtis Lundy, Eric Burdon, Tia Fuller, Amik Guerra, Deborah J. Carter, Orinn Evans and others.
Today he plays with his own bands and participates in Festivals in Greece and abroad and organizes his own Jam Session in the center of Athens.
He also continues to play with Giorgos Kontrafouris, Pantelis Benetatos, Takis Paterelis, Giotis Samaras, Dimitris Vasilakis, Kostas Konstantinou, Kostis Christodoulou, Antonis Andreou and others, while he participates in the Project of flutist Leonidas Sarantopoulos N with Goni. He is active in his own projects such as Tribute to Frank Sinatra and Celebrate the Jazz Divas but also in other projects such as Tribute to Leonard Cohen.
From 2005 until today he teaches at the Conservatory of Paleo Faliro as a drum teacher.