Agapios Tomboulis is probably best-down for one of the most used images from Smyrneika compilation CDS: In it, he’s standing behind Rosa Eskenazi and Dimitris Semsis. He is a big, beefy man, with a high hairline and a neatly trimmed moustache, holding a 12-stringed oudla – which he apparently invented.
Tomboulis, born in Istanbul to an Armenian family – his birth name was Hagop Stambulyan, was a resident of Athens beginning in 1911 and one of the premiere rebetiko instrumentalists, although he also wrote and sang a few tunes, including the one linked below. He is probably best known as a member of the Smyrna Trio, with Eskenazi and kemance player Lambros Leondaridis and, later, Semsis replacing Leondaridis. (The kemance is a bowed string instrument, played vertically.) While Eskenazi was solely credited with most of their recordings, it was the work of Tomboulis, Leondaridas and Semsis that helped propel her to stardom.
Tomboulis was a virtuoso musician. He played oud, the oudla and the Turkish cumbus (a banjo-like instrument with metallic resonator), as well as percussion instruments. While he is not well-known, his instrumental contribution to rebetiko through the 1930s and 1940s was immense, and he continued playing until his death in 1965.
Dervish Dance was recorded in 1929, with Tomboulis on oud and vocals, and Leondaridis on kemence.
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