Since 2007 her interests, revolve around jazz, folk scales and rhythms as much as exploration of vocal improvisation and extended sounds techniques.
In 2008 she creates the project «Aggeliki Toubanaki & the Buzz Bastardz» (global Balkan Bastard jazz) and in March of 2015, she released her debut album (Greece, New York) with original compositions and selected cover in seven different languages.
Nowdays, she also presents :
- an experimental «Drum & Voice Jazztronica project»,with the drummer Ilias Doumanis, using loops and Fxs.
- the «Jazz Plus» project, with the guitarist Grigoris Ntanis and bassist Kostas Konstantinou.
She has attended “Cirlce Songs” seminar with Bobby McFerrin and his team (Omega, USA), jazz improvisation master classes with Bob Stoloff, JD Walter, Rene Marie, Sheila Cooper and Deborah Carter, «SLS vocal technique» with Sofia Noiti and jazz classes (including harmony, improvisation and history of jazz) with Silvio Syrros at the «Athenaeum Maria Callas Conservatory». She has also participated in the «Veneto Jazz Workshops» (Italy), directed by teachers of the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music in New York.
She has followed seminars on Rhythmology under flamenco dancer Francisco Jose Suarez Barrera, Indian singing (dhrupad) under Uday Bhawalkar, Persian singing under Mamak Khadem, Flamenco singing under Vicente Gelo, Polyphonic Signing of Epirus, folk percussions (davul, bendir), as well as Bulgarian singing under Tzvetanka Varimezova and Classical Ottoman singing under Ahmet Erdogdular, at the Musical Workshop «Labyrinth» organized by Ross Daly.
Her performances include several festivals (Jazz on Tinos Festival 2016, Jazz in July Festival 2016, Jazz FXs Festival, Melijazz Festival, Jazz + Praxis, Fougaro Jazz Festival, Frank Zappa Festival, Festival Athens World Music Festival etc) and various musical stages, clubs and theatres (Megaro of Athens, Gazarte, Technopolis of Athens, Half Note, Pallas, Ianos, Stavros tou Notou etc) in Greece and abroad (New York, London, Oxford, Reading, Newcastle, Bassano del Grappa).
She was the director and producer of the project «Colpo Grosso» (mixing folk music with flamenco dance, theatre and video art). She had the honour of playing with the internationally acclaimed bassist Cameron Brown (Bassano del Grappa, Italy 2010) and the awesome darbuka percussionist Onur il (Descarga project 2013). She has also collaborated with the composer/guitarist Panagiotis Kalantzopoulos improvising on his old and new compositions (Pallas Yakinthia, 2014), with the jazz pianist Aleko Orfano presenting the project «Oh no… Frank Zappa», with the electric harpist Maria Chistina,to a global fusion «Harp & Voice duet» project, . She also featured musical gypsy band «Sam Roma» improvising on Greek folk gypsy compositions.
Except music, she has dedicated her time in research and received her PhD Degree in Molecular Biology from the Medical School of Athens University.
She teaches vocal technique and improvisation at Filipos Nakas Concervatory and she organizes and leads vocal circles, blending jazz, world music and improvisation.
At the 8th Jazz on Tinos,with Nikolas Anadolis, ( recipient of the Martial Solal prize at the age of 19 years old.) they gave as a duet an outstanding performance.
Aggeliki TouBanaki & the Buzz Bastardz
In a nomad, multilingual and universal fiesta… Aggeliki Toubanaki is bringing together onstage some of the best folk and jazz musicians of the Greek music scene, creating a blur of the lines between jazz and folk sounds.Balkan frenetic rhythms, Middle Eastern motifs and Mediterranean melodies are mixed with jazz harmony, experimental forms, crossover improvisations, vocalisms and original compositions.