Πάμε στο τεκέ μου

We are past the time when the old rebetes, the singers and players who launched the classic era of rebetiko, those who came of age as performers during the 1930s, are still around. Someone who was 20 when Markos Vamvakaris started recording in 1933 would be well over 100 years old today.

That wasn’t the case in the last quarter of the previous century. During the 1970s and ’80s rebetiko revival, there were a number of the pioneers still around and, in some cases, performing again to meet the new demand for the old music.

One of those was Thanasis Athanasiou. He was born in 1912 on the island of Santorini. His parents moved the family to Piraeus when he was two and while their life was hard-scrabble, when he was 17, he was able to save enough money to buy a second-hand bouzouki. He began playing on the streets with friend and gradually developed the skill and contacts to begin working in taverns. By 1933, now 21, he was accomplished enough to begin recording as a singer, bouzouki player, guitarist and composer.

During the rest of the 20th Century, he continued to record and perform, in Greece, on European tours and during an extended stay in America. Even after he “retired” to the island of Aegina – a short ferry ride from Piraeus – he continued to perform and write music. He also built and repaired bouzoukis.

And he became a living link to the old world of rebetiko music, featured in a BBC documentary and as a primary source for Gail Holst for her book Road to Rembetiko. He’s also featured in a number of short-form docs on YouTube (in Greek).

Hours and minutes is from an album recorded in 1996, six years before his death. According to the YouTube video, the album, titled Songs For My Friends, was never released. It featured then 86-year-old Athanasiou singing (along with some friends) 11 of the songs he had written, some recorded for the first time.