Greece - Piraeus & Athens Part I

 Arriving back from the Aegean Islands your literal first port of call is the busy harbour of Piraeus.  Inevitably many of the people born here trace their origins to the islands too, I suppose they have better hospital facilities there.

First up we meet multi-instrumentalist Michalis Nikoloudis, who was born in 1949 to parents from the islands of Chios and Ikaria respectively.  He started playing the electric guitar from an early age, playing in various bands.  He later went on to play a number of string instruments including mandola, baroque lute and mandolin.  He is particularly known for his custom-made mandola with a modified neck, strings and tuning.  His music combines both Greek influences as well as the sounds from the wider Balkan and Anatolian region.  Here is a tune called Armenistis, which originally came out on his 1995 debut album Aeolia but also features on his 2016 compilation Complete Guide to Michalis Nikoloudis:

Folk and jazz singer Eleftheria Arvanitaki was born in 1957 in Piraeus, also with roots in Ikaria.  She has appeared at several Womad festivals as well as participating in the closing ceremony to the 2004 Athens Olympics.  Her style has influences of both Rebetika and jazz.  Here is a song from her 2019 album Ta Megala Taxidia (The Long Journeys) called Ki Ego Pou Elega (And I said):

Next we are heading into the bustling and ancient capital of Greece, Athens.  I spent a couple of days there on my rough hitchhiking trip back in 1981.  We arrived late at night and we tried to find a quiet spot to sleep somewhere.  Seeing a fence with some trees behind, we decided to climb over and camp out there.  In the morning we were woken by some tourists taking a tour of some ruins and finding us sound asleep.

Legendary singer Maria Farantouri was born in Athens in 1947.  She collaborated extensively with Mikis Theodorakis, toured with him around Europe while in exile during the military dictatorship in Greece and shared Theodorakis left-wing political convictions and, like him, later served in the Greek parliament.  Her voice is a contralto spanning 2 octaves, and she has been described as the Callas of the people or the Greek Joan Baez. Here are a couple of songs from a live performance from when she was only 18 years old.  They are from the 1966 Ballad of Mauthausen, which has been re-released a couple of times since:

Singer / songwriter Nena Ventsanou was born in Athens in 1955 and was gifted with beautiful voice from an early age.  Like many of her contemporaries she went into exile during the junta years.  Like Farantouri she has always been deeply involved with the political left and has collaborated with Mikis Theodorakis amongst many others.  Here is a song called Pira Ti Strata Erhome (I took the step and I'm coming) which features on the 2004 compilation album The Rough Guide to Rebétika:

We've come across lyra master Sokratis Sinopoulos before in Istanbul as collaborator with Derya Türkan. He was born in Athens in 1974 and was taught on the lyra by Ross Daly. He is now considered one of the most eminent proponents of the lyra, leads his own quartet and teaches at Thessaloniki University. Here is a track from the 2020 album Soundplaces together with Turkan on the kemençe called Cyclades:

I've been having a bit of a busy month (blame the great weather!), so I better get this post published and continue in Athens next time. In the meantime, as usual, you can track my virtual wanderings on my Tripline Map.