Rebet Asker-Greek Roots Series:
An afternoon of Greek Rebetiko for all the family!
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!
NB. Seating operates on a first come first serve basis. Please be prepared to stand (or lean against the bar!) if all seats are taken by the time you arrive.
FREE up to and including 6 years old.
FREE up to and including 6 years old.
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
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
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