Arden ready to sizzle

Pavlo, the Toronto-based virtuoso guitarist of Greek heritage, is on cloud nine. He’s just signed a three-year contract with CBC and Bravo to broadcast Mediterranean Nights, a two-hour special of music and dance funded on his own dime.

“It’s sweet justice,” laughs Pavlo, a risk-taker who still remembers his early days in the business shopping around his Greek-style Mediterranean flavoured CDs and being told the music was “too ethnic.”

“But I stuck to my guns. This is an incredible achievement. It’s going to be the best year ever,” he says, before excitedly launching into his recent partnership with rock-jazz guitarist Rik Emmett and Latin guitarist Oscar Lopez.

Last year the trio, with over 30 top-selling albums combined, pooled their talents and recorded Trifecta. The 11-track CD blends Pavlo’s Greek grooves and Lopez’s flamenco lines with Emmett’s world of rock, blues and jazz. And they are in the middle of a 29-stop Canadian tour that features two performances at the Arden Theatre on Feb. 26 and 27.

“Every night is different. It’s crazy. I never know what’s going to happen and the arrangements change on the fly. Last night for instance, I felt like dancing. When I sat down Oscar got up. What started as a three-minute number turned into eight minutes.”

Pavlo initiated Trifecta after long-standing inspiration from the John McLaughlin, Al DiMeola and Paco DeLucia guitar trio. “They are high calibre artists – some of the best in the last 100 years. I went to their showcase, and I appreciate them as three distinctive individuals that brought different backgrounds to the mix.”

Pavlo first contacted the Chilean-born, Calgary-based Lopez and immediately developed a brotherly rapport. Together they contacted Emmett, who hit platinum in his rock days with Triumph and was later inducted into the Canadian Rock Hall of Fame. “Rik is very organized and very calculated in the way he plays. Oscar is unpredictable, full of Latin fire and explosions. I’m in the middle and it’s blended very well.”

For the initial two-week recording, the trio rented a secluded house in Burlington complete with a chef and worked their butts off to write songs and develop a unique identity.

Although starting from radically different perspectives, they developed a common ground. “We’d leave our egos at the door. We would all listen to each other’s music, no matter what genre and we went from there.”

The result is an album that allows the spirit to soar with tunes such as the fiery Redbird 250, a romantic Moonlight on Costa Nera, and dedications to Pavlo’s youngest daughter in Viola and Lopez’s son in Niko’s Tiny Carousel.

For a sample of Trifecta’s tracks go online to www.pavlorikoscar.com.