In the Wee Hours George Cotsirilos

• 1 A Nameless Poet 01:41
• 2 Come Sunday 03:48
• 3 Gale 02:53
• 4 Haunted Heart 03:33
• 5 Do Nothing Till You Hear From Me 03:27
• 6 Providence 02:41
• 7 Like Someone in Love 03:43
• 8 In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning 04:05
• 9 The Night We Called It a Day 04:36
• 10 When Sunny Gets Blue 05:00
• 11 This is All I Ask 04:40
• Total Runtime 40:07

Info for In the Wee Hours

Bay Area guitarist George Cotsirilos returns to the intimate language of solo nylon-string guitar on In the Wee Hours, illuminating beloved standards and two original compositions with patience and depth. Recorded largely in unedited first takes over several years, his seventh recording on OA2 unfolds with the quiet authority and refined lyricism that have defined Cotsirilos's career—from his celebrated quartet release Refuge to earlier trio and solo recordings praised for their fluidity and swing. Here, classics such as "Come Sunday," "Haunted Heart," and the title ballad are rendered with a meticulous touch and subtle dynamic shadings that reveal the hidden architecture of each melody. Alternating between exquisite instruments by José Ram'rez and Alberto Morales, Cotsirilos draws out warm, singing tones that blur the line between jazz phrasing and classical resonance.

"...an impeccable sense of timing especially in revealing the hidden rhythms of complex melodies. His approach to harmony is whimsical, but patently beautiful at all times." (AllAboutJazz)

George Cotsirilos, nylon string acoustic guitar

George Cotsirilos
Originally from Chicago, George Cotsirilos has been a member of the San Francisco Bay Area jazz community for many years and has performed with a wide variety of artists, from San Francisco jazz fixtures like Eddie Marshall, Mel Martin, and Mark Levine to internationally recognized blues singer Etta James, Pharaoh Sanders, and the jazz/soul vocal group, The Whispers. His latest quartet recording of original compositions, Refuge, featuring Keith Saunders on piano, Robb Fisher on bass, and Ron Marabuto on drums, was released in May of 2022 on OA2 Records to excellent notices, has been named a DownBeat Editors' Pick, and has reached the top 30 on the JazzWeek radio charts. The quartet's prior CD, Mostly In Blue also received excellent notices and was named by DownBeat as one of the best recordings of 2018.

Cotsirilos's prior trio and solo recordings have been similarly well-received. For example, his trio CD, Variations was chosen by erstwhile Washington Post jazz critic and JazzTimes editor, Royal Stokes, as one of the most notable jazz instrumental CDs of 2013, while its immediate predecessor, Past Present received wide acclaim, including praise from the San Francisco Chronicle for its display of "sublimely fluid jazz guitar skills" and its presentation of "about as tight a jazz trio as you'll ever be lucky enough to hear." Cotsirilos's 2003 solo CD, Silenciosa, is a compilation of jazz tunes performed on solo classical guitar which All About Jazz characterized as "a superb solo guitar recital." Prior to those releases, in addition to working as an accompanist, Cotsirilos was co-leader of the San Francisco Nighthawks, which included legendary drummer Eddie Marshall, Bobby McFerrin pianist Paul Nagel, as well as former Cal Tjader bassist Robb Fisher, and which recorded for Monarch Records. An earlier quartet recording including Marshall, Nagel and Fisher was released in 2011 by Jazz School Records as part of the Bay Area Jazz Archive Series. Cotsirilos graduated from the University of California at Berkeley, studied jazz with esteemed musician/educator Warren Nunes, and studied classical guitar privately through the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

"George Cotsirilos' meticulous and tasteful guitar work is marked by remarkably subtle shifts in accents, and minute changes in expression and dynamics. He displays an impeccable sense of timing especially in revealing the hidden rhythms of complex melodies. His approach to harmony is whimsical, but patently beautiful at all times." (AllAboutJazz)

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