If you search Nikos Brachnas on YouTube, you may find a series of videos of him, apparently h=in his home, playing and singing some of the great old rebetika songs. And he sings and plays in much the way the songs may have been originally heard: most often lone bouzouki, playing simple melody lines with strong rhythmic pulses from his strumming, and the lyrics delivered in a rough baritone voice.
The recordings aren’t from the dim reaches of rebetiko’s past but from the late years of the 20th century.
Brachnas was born in Piraeus in either 12936 or 1941 (the records are apparently unclear) and didn’t pick up the bouzouki until 1952. What he played then and what he played throughout the rest of his life – rarely as a professional, recording musician – was the old-style rebetiko from 20 years earlier. He reportedly took lessons from Stelios Keromytis, one of those who clearly influenced his style.
He never achieved wide-spread fame during his life – he died at the age of 67 – but “his musicianship was known and much appreciated within a small group of rebetes and fans during his lifetime,” Wikipedia reports. That’s reflected in a lengthy series of posts at rebetiko.gr, where his work is praised by rebetiko enthusiasts. (The posts are in Greek.)
Down by the priest’s jetty, from the year 2000, was one of his rare recordings (he also wrote the song). It shows, I think, the power of old rebetiko to continue to inspire through decades of changing musical taste.
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