Traditional music of Greece in a modern context.

17 MP3 Songs
WORLD: World Traditions



Details:
REFLECTION IN TIME

This music was developed over a long period of time. Ever sinceI was growing up in Gizi (a neighborhood in Athens),
I remember the heroic poems we were singing in school, mostly by Rigas Fereos. These poems-songs inspired me to make my own songs and sing them to my neighborhood friends.
Later on, I was fortunate enough to travel, and these journeys gave me the opportunity to create more melodies.
While in Spain, the enormous paintings of El Greco, Goya, and especially Picasso's painting of "Guernica," impressed me enough to develop music based on their work. When I was in Paris, I was inspired to create music for the neighborhood of Montmertre, a picturesque area of Paris where Renoir, Lautrec, Picasso, Matisse, and many other famous painters used to live and work during the beginning of last century, when they were still largely unkown. In
Hawaii during my first visit at the Volcano House in Kilauea I learned about the adventurous George Lycurgos
originally from Sparta, who owned that hotel, until his death in 1961 at the age of 101 years old. Everybody lovingly called him "Uncle George."
My father came to Athens from Smyrna in 1922, and he often talked about a famous man from Smyrna, who around that time had migrated to Buenos Aires, in Argentina. His name was Aristotle Onassis, and one of his first jobs in Buenos Aires, was a dishwasherin a Tango Cafe. There, Onassis had the "honor" of serving coffee to a very famous Tango singer
by the name of Carlos Gardel, Onassis was always proud of
that moment, and in order to honor my father's memory from
Smyrna, I dedicated a song to Onassis.
Other songs were created during various moments in my life,
when alone...Some where happy moments and others were sad.
I always try to follow my feelings when I express them into music.