What’s the name of this thing?
In English letters, it’s Pame sto teke mou, which translates as let’s go to my teke. Teke is old rebetiko slang for the place where they go together to make (or listen to) music while indulging in a variety of stimulants. Teke is one of several words adopted from Turkish Sufism.
And what is rebetiko?
Rebetiko is a fascinating genre of music from Greece. I am particularly interested in the rebetiko music from the first half of the last century. It is, in its early form, often rough, urban music originally from and for the Greek underclass. There are a number of streams that created what I consider the classic era of rebetiko, roughly from the 1920s to a handful of years after WWII and the Greek civil war.
Among those influences were early recordings from Greek immigrants in the U.S., Greek folk music, and the music of Asia Minor brought to Athens and Thessaloniki by refugees from the 1922-’23 expulsion of Greeks from Turkey. Together, they helped created a musical form that has endured, and that you’ll hear in clubs and tavernas not only in Athens but in every city of the globe where there is a significant Greek population.
What makes you the expert?
I’m not. I’m an enthusiast with some research skills.
I have a large collection of rebetiko in my Music app, and YouTube has a ton of songs. I’m learning many of my favourite songs on bouzouki or guitar, and I have a large collection of rebetiko sheet music and charts.
Notes on the singers and composers come mostly from Google searches (Wikipedia in English and Greek are great, although I need a lot of help from Google and DeepL with translations). There are a number of online publications with in-depth articles, and I have several books that also help. English translations of titles are from YouTube videos, track lists, or are my best guesses, based on online Greek language resources.
As much as anything, this blog is part of my exploration of this music, giving me a chance to learn more about the music and the musicians as I go along.
So you speak Greek, right?
A little. I’m still learning.
Is rebetiko the only music you listen to?
Nope. I listen to all sorts of music, as you might expect for someone who grew up in the 1960s. Right now, I’m really taken with the Japanese bands Band-Maid and Hanabie. I’m a big fan of old soul, rock, pop, alt-rock and alt-country, some jazz, some fusion. My Apple Music app is also loaded with music from my past and from Portugal, Spain, the Balkans, Turkey, Brazil, Mexico…. Basically, I love music. Rebetiko fills a particular spot in my soul, both listening to it and trying to play it.