Eleonora Kouneni

After the soldout launch of This Eager Heart earlier this year, jazz singer and songwriter Eleonora Kouneni returns to PizzaExpress Live Chelsea with her band of longstanding collaborators for the launch of her new EP, Independently Blue — a contemporary exploration of love on uncertain ground and the second chapter of a two part story told through a single narrator.

Building on the crossover success of her independently released debut If You Just… and the momentum of This Eager Heart — a release warmly received by audiences and one that expanded her headline bookings, festival appearances and radio support — this new collaborative project with pianist Chris Lee continues Eleonora’s deepening engagement with the Great American Songbook. Where This Eager Heart traced the movement from outward story to inward truth, Independently Blue steps into the emotional terrain that follows: the oscillation between frustration, fantasy, confrontation and the possibility of renewal.

The programme will also include original songs from If You Just…, as well as songs from This Eager Heart and a preview of unrecorded originals and fresh jazz arrangements, offering audiences a blend of familiar repertoire, fresh interpretations and the evolving sound of a partnership rooted in shared musical curiosity.

Eleonora Kouneni is a Greek-born/London-based jazz vocalist and songwriter known for a vocal approach that blends jazz phrasing with Mediterranean warmth, emotional clarity and a storyteller’s instinct. Eleonora began her career in Athens in her late teens, opening for some of Greece’s most celebrated vocalists at major festivals before relocating to London and establishing herself in the city’s jazz scene.

Her independently released debut EP introduced her songwriting to international audiences, with its lead single reaching over 2.5 million streams across 170 countries and drawing over 36,000 monthly listeners. This global reach helped pave the way for several London shows, including sold out shows at the Green Note Basement, a showcase in New York City, and a recent sold-out headline show at the Monks Jazz Club in Austin, TX, with some of the best musicians in town, which was also live-streamed internationally. In 2026, she embarked on a two-part Songbook project with pianist Chris Lee, beginning with This Eager Heart (March 2026)—which led to high-profile headline gigs, festival invitations, radio play and over 30,000 streams on Spotify—and continuing with Independently Blue (out October 23rd, 2026), which deepens her exploration of the Great American Songbook through a modern, narrator-driven lens.

Chris Lee is a London-based composer/arranger/pianist who has performed and recorded with some of the leading musicians on the London jazz and Brazilian music scenes. Notable albums include Second Take, with singer Jenny Howe, which feature his arrangements of iconic pop/rock standards (“to recast well-known tunes in a new idiom is difficult enough, but to come up with such convincing results takes talent and imagination”; Dave Gelly, The Observer), and A Troubled Man, with singer Mark Jennett, a song-cycle portraying the fictional detective Kurt Wallander in Swedish author Henning Mankell’s Nordic noir crime novels ("unusual and attractive ... poised and flowing ... lean and lyrical"; Michael Tucker, Jazz Journal).

This marks their second recording venture together, and both are excited to share this new chapter with both loyal listeners and new audiences alike.