Events
Rebet Asker was a restaurant/music venue which saw all the great Greek musicians and from the 20th century through to today pass through it. The walls of this little place in a small side street by Piraeus harbour have witnessed the history of the Greek Rebetiko as it has evolved over the last one hundred years. Some years have passed now, since it closed, but through this series of Sunday gigs we will do our best to recreate some of the magic of these musicians and their songs as it started and developed. Now in its 10th year, this tribute to the magical music of rebetiko, is the longest running series in London dedicated to this music. Come to hear classic songs and even some lesser known gems of great rebetiko musicians such as Toundas, Papazogklou, Skarvelis, Peristeris, Hadjichristos, Vamvakaris, Papaioannou, Tsitsanis, Mitsakis, Hiotis and more!
An afternoon of Greek Rebetiko for all the family!
SUNDAY 12th OCTOBER: Greek Roots Series: Love Letters
Though Rebetiko is often bound to images of hardship, exile, prison life, and smoke-filled hashish dens, it is love that beats at its heart – love sung with raw emotion, with melancholy and truth, with the unvarnished sincerity that defines the genre.
As Elias Petropoulos wrote in Rebetika Tragoudia (1983):
“Essentially, rebetiko songs are love letters. […] They are folk chants of love, and above all, of erotic abandonment. At least half of all rebetika take love as their subject, and most of these mourn the anguish of separation – the most bitter form of orphanhood. […] Where the rural ballad exalts the lover’s bravery, the rebetiko song gives us the lover who pleads, who supplicates, who wins sympathy through pity. Rebetiko has turned all-conquering love into a litany, where embraces are spiritual and memory reigns.
[…] Eros is a bittersweet nightmare, a shroud for the living, a slayer, a soul-stealer, a funeral escort of birds, a liberator. Such loves are sung by my brothers, the last rebetes.”
We invite you to share in this spirit an evening with the songs of Tsitsanis, Papaioannou, Hiotis, Mitsakis, Zabetas, Tzouanakos, and others.
Musicians:
Dimitris Kalogiannis: Vocals, baglama
Thanos Papageorgiou: Bouzouki, vocals
Ioannis Eleftheriadis: Guitar, vocals
SUNDAY 9th NOVEMBER: Ortakides – Sounds of Crete
At this special gig we will be exploring a variety of Cretan music sounds. From seated folk songs* of the urban centers of the island, to traditional melodies and dance rhythms originated from the rural Cretan sea-side and mountain regions, we have picked some which speak to our soul.
Band / Musicians:
Christos Angelidakis: Cretan lyra, vocals
Simon Mercouris: Cretan laouto, vocals
Miltos Boumis: Cretan laouto, vocals
George Angelopoulos: Mandolin, lavta, vocals
* These songs were performed primarily in coffee houses and taverns, and to a lesser extent at feasts. They are strongly influenced by the sounds of Asia Minor music due to the established trading interaction with Cretan ports, the population migration during the 1920s, and the historical existence of the Turkish population in Crete. Some people refer to this repertoire as the rebetiko of Crete both because of similarities in the root cause of their emergence, but also due to the direct influence of the first and popular musicians in Cretan recordings by the rebetiko key representatives.
The term urban folk songs of Crete is used by the musicologist Manos Karteris in the book Music on Crete, jointly published by the Department of Musicology at the University of Vienna and Musical Editions Seistron Aerakis, Vienna 2017.
Please do bring your instruments, friends, families…especially children. There is room for everyone!
Doors open 1.30pm. Music starts 2.15pm. The venue is mixed seated and standing. Tables are limited, and available on a first come first served basis, so if you’d like a seat, we recommend arriving early!
