Sotiria Bellou is the singer on this 1953 recording, but I’m interested in the man playing bouozuki, Mihalis Daskalakis.
Daskalakis, born in 1914 in Piraeus, came of age during rebetiko’s classic era and he had a front-row seat: after graduating school and going to work, he spent his spare time hanging out at the family-owned tavern, Daskalakis, listening to and falling love with the rebetiko music – and the bouzouki – that then rang through the taverns of the port city.
In 1943, he and his brother Yiannis opened the club Ace of Diamonds in Athens, where he performed and came to the attention of recording companies. His old-style bouzouki playing didn’t seem fit with the flashier, new style, though. But while he wasn’t regularly recording, he was performing, especially after 1963 at his own club, which didn’t close until 1996. He would appear on stage with a small orchestra – guitar and bouzoukis, mainly – singing and playing without amplification. Both his voice and style of rebetiko playing well suited the old rebetiko.
During the 1980s, he recorded several albums combining old rebetiko songs and his own compositions, which wouldn’t have sounded out of place in Piraeus in the 1930s.
Athens and Piraeus seems an appropriate song, even if he isn’t singing on it.
Piraeus and Athens, late nights and retsina,
Bohemian life,
Bouzoukia and serenade,
except for Greece,
you won’t find in any other land.
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