We’re going wandering a little today, as far south as Crete, to explore rebetiko music in the hands of others. While rebetiko is most strongly associated with Piraeus (and, to a degree, the U.S.) it did have an influence beyond the outlying areas of Athens.
Stelios Foustalierakis, born in 1911 in Rethymno, Crete, played the bulgari: a long-necked instrument with three sets of doubled strings, tuned A-D-G, closely related to the Turkish saz. It has a distinctive sound, particularly in the hands of Foustalierakis, who treated it primarily as a melody instrument, and established it as an expressive solo instrument.
Between 1933 and 1937, Foustalierakis spent an important period of his life in Piraeus, where he met and played music with the greats of the time and absorbed the sound of rebetiko. Back in Crete, he blended the rebetiko sounds he had heard and played with the traditional music of the island to produce songs that are still heard in Crete today.
I Rejoice in My Suffering was recorded in 1938. You can hear the influence of rebetiko – the strong rhythm, the opening riff, the great Cretan singer Yiannis Bernidakis coming in with a heartfelt “aman” – all wrapped in the distinctive sounds of Cretan music.
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