{"id":6745,"date":"2017-04-26T15:02:19","date_gmt":"2017-04-26T22:02:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/?p=6745"},"modified":"2018-01-14T20:48:32","modified_gmt":"2018-01-15T04:48:32","slug":"jon-gjylacis-journey-from-albania-to-greece-to-england-leads-to-new-musical-spaces","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/jon-gjylacis-journey-from-albania-to-greece-to-england-leads-to-new-musical-spaces\/","title":{"rendered":"Jon Gjylaci’s Journey from Albania to Greece to England Leads to New Musical Spaces"},"content":{"rendered":"
From the Spring 2017 issue of Classical Guitar<\/em> | BY OLLIE McGHIE<\/h6>\n

It\u2019s five a.m. and there\u2019s not a guitar in sight. First up, a grueling running regime. Then, intense firearms-training followed by a drill. Jon Gjylaci has a shaved head and fingernails cut to the quick. The heat in Corfu, in his adopted home country of Greece, is blistering. Make one mistake and his service period could be extended by a day, a week. Don\u2019t excel, don\u2019t dawdle. Get in, get out.<\/p>\n

Actually, that scene was from back in 2013. Today, Gjylaci (pronounced\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cje-latch-e\u201d\u00a0) a 33-year-old Albanian classical guitarist, sits in front of me in London sipping his caf\u00e9 Americano, relaxing the day after performing and being interviewed on the BBC Radio 3 show In Tune<\/i>, hosted by Sean Rafferty. It\u2019s hard to imagine him wielding anything other than the white guitar case tucked to his side.<\/p>\n

In 2013 Gjylaci\u2019s music career, teaching, and entire life were all put on hold. There had been delays, postponements, and intermittent communication with the Greek Consulate in Leeds (in north England) but finally Gjylaci\u2019s conscription came through. Fortunately, owing to his dual nationality and Greek-living-abroad status, the compulsory nine months of service was reduced by two-thirds.\u00a0So, after his studies in Manchester at the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM) with Craig Ogden, and in the middle of teaching at nearby Bolton School, he up and left his life\u2014his small flat in Greater Manchester\u2014to return to Greece for his statutory military service.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s something we all have to do,\u201d he says. \u201cMost people try and do it as early in life as possible. Luckily my time only lasted the allotted three months.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last night\u2019s performance included a tribute to Roland Dyens<\/a>, a musical figure who has been hugely influential in Gjylaci\u2019s life. \u201cI grew up with his music, feeling the connections he made between the worlds of classical and jazz. Though sadly I never met him on the guitar circuit.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe scores for the Dyens\u2019 arrangements are so detailed that you think the man must have been incredibly strict,\u201d he continues, \u201cbut if you watch his master classes online you can see how free-spirited he is. I couldn\u2019t improvise like him. When I\u2019m with my brother [violinist Esen-Nikolas Gjylaci] we improvise together\u2014but it is something that is much more in the Albanian musical tradition. In Miroslav Tadic\u2019s Walk Dance<\/i> on the album, my brother does a short solo which is very much inspired by this tradition.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gjylaci is currently promoting his latest album, Edges of Thought<\/i>,<\/strong><\/a> which is his personal homage to music from around the globe. \u201cThe guitar has traditions everywhere,\u201d he notes. \u201cIn Greece, we have the bouzouki. In Albania we have the cifteli<\/em> <\/a>[a two-stringed instrument, fretted diatonically]. I wanted to draw on as many cultures as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

The album was released in mid-2016, with its unofficial launch taking place during the celebrations of the 70th anniversary of the Manchester Guitar Circle, one of the UK\u2019s oldest guitar societies. The tracks on the album certainly cover a significant part of the globe, featuring everything from Alb\u00e9niz\u2019s Asturias <\/i>to Tadic\u2019s Laments, Dances and Lullabies, Volume 1<\/i> and Gary Ryan\u2019s Benga Beat<\/i>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the well-known pieces, such as Asturias<\/i>, which have been recorded so many times, I wanted to do something to complement the guitar,\u201d Gjylaci explains.\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cSo I spoke with my brother, who is the director of the Northern String Quartet, asking him if he could do something to complement Segovia\u2019s arrangement with a string accompaniment.\u201d The results are indeed a refreshing arrangement, the quartet swooping in at the right moments heightening the more sensuous passages.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did the same with Leo Brouwer\u2019s Un dia de Noviembre<\/i>. I always thought the texture of it was very thin and needed something to enhance it\u2026 Hopefully it has worked.\u201d<\/p>\n