#kostas bezos

[theelaggers]

Watch "Kostas Bezos and the White Birds - Λαίντυ Γιουκούλελε Lady Ukulele" on YouTube

[musicmakesyousmart]

[johnkatsmc5]

A. Kostis (Κώστα Μπέζοs)  "The Jail's a Fine School" 2015 Compilation Mono Greek Rembetiko

Bruk out the worry beads for this utterly spellbinding delivery from Mississippi Records and Olvido: the first ever vinyl collection of A. Kostis' haunting early 20th century rebetika. We're by no means experts in this field (far from it) but we instantly recognised Kostis' funereal ode, 'A School Was Burned' - our favourite moment from 'The Secret Museum of Mankind Vol.2' - and are very happy to report that the rest of this collection is equally unforgettable and totally worth your attention! The experts say: "Truly unique guitar duets and black-humor prose chronicling the hash dens, prison culture and pickpockets of old Athens. Virtuosic fingerpicking of Near-Eastern modes at the dawn of rebetika, when the bouzouki was yet to become supreme. Recorded under a pseudonym for export to the Greeks living in America, it stands as an enduring mystery and the high standard for a once subversive art form." ....A massive recommendation!....~ First ever vinyl collection of the legendary “Kostis,” the most enigmatic of all Greek rebetika artists. 12 tracks of truly unique guitar duets and black-humor lyrics chronicling the hash dens, prison culture and pickpockets of old Athens. Recorded under a pseudonym for export to the Greeks living in America, research has uncovered the musician, journalist and cartoonist Kostas Bezos as the figure lurking behind the Kostis name, with ties to the famous singer Tetos Demetriades. Renowned for his slide guitar playing in Hawaiian-style orchestras throughout the 1930s, the Kostis recordings reveal an entirely different underworld of the macabre and illicit. The use of guitar in these now-classic rebetika songs display a virtuosity of finger-picked Near-Eastern modes and unusual tunings at the dawn of rebetika, when the bouzouki was yet to become supreme. Presented in pristine audio quality mastered from original 78 rpm discs by Michael Graves, “The Jail’s a Fine School” stands as an important document of an enduring mystery in Greek music, and a high standard for what was once a truly subversive art form. LP version includes a 28 page booklet with extensive notes by Tony Klein (“Greek Rhapsody,” “Mortika”), full lyrics in Greek and English, and several previously unpublished photographs. Digital version includes a PDF of the full booklet. ....~ The Kostis Enigma Rebetiko, plural rebetika (Greek: ρεμπέτικο, ρεμπέτικα respectively), is a term used today to refer to originally disparate kinds of urban Greek folk music which have come to be grouped together since the so-called rebetika revival, which started in the 1960s and developed further from the early 1970s onwards. The word rebetiko is an adjectival form derived from the Greek word rebetis (Greek: ρεμπέτης), a word nowadays construed to signify a person who embodies aspects of character, dress, behaviour, morals and ethics associated with a particular Greek subculture. It is closely related, but not identical in meaning, to the words mangas (Greek: μάγκας) and mortis (Greek: μόρτης) but its etymology remains the subject of dispute and uncertainty. Rebetika, an often raw and uncompromising music, was simply not allowed into Greek recording studios in its genuine forms until about 1931. The newly-started independent label Olvido Records, brainchild of musician Gordon Ashworth, is proud to offer as its first release, in association with Mississippi Records, the LP “The Jail’s a Fine School”, presenting for the first time, in complete and pristine audio, what is perhaps one of the most enduringly interesting and certainly one of the most unique sets of Greek recordings made during this period. Recorded in 1930 and 1931 by the maverick multi-media genius Constantinos (Kostas) Bezos (1905-1943) under the pseudonyms A. Kostis and K. Kostis, these ten songs and two instrumentals magically transcend the distinction between the original tough rebetika and a kind of parody which flourished simultaneously in Athenian stage revues and recordings. The lyrics, and the singing, are in a style immediately associated with the tough millieu of Piraeus, with its hash dens, pickpockets, jailbirds and knife artists. For several decades no one had any idea who the musicians and singer, or singers, were on these records, but the songs themselves soon became part of the staple repertoire of rebetika revivalists. It was the indefatigable persistence of the Dutch discographer Hugo Strötbaum that finally gave the first clues during the 1980s. Gaining access to recording company files in America, he noted that one name tended to recur in the credits to these sessions, namely K. Bezos. Although Bezos was never actually credited as performer in his own name on the “Kostis” sides, company files unearthed during discographical research revealed that matrix number sequences for May 1931 position K. Bezos and his Hawaiian Sextet in the studios in close temporal proximity to when the six 1931 Kostis songs were recorded. The bizarre fact is that beyond the 12 Kostis sides, Bezos’ musical career was dedicated to a totally different field of Greek popular music, Havagies (Hawaiian style), which in the “normal” course of events would never intersect. From about the same time the first Kostis recordings were waxed in 1930, until what appear to be his last recordings in 1938, Bezos recorded mainly Hawaiian style versions of popular and satirical songs, both of his own composition and from various other sources—often works of highly regarded operetta composers, or Greece’s answer to Tin Pan Alley. It is now no longer a matter of doubt that the voice heard on the “Kostis” records is in fact identical to the voice heard on a number of the 40 or so recordings of Bezos’ Greek-Hawaiian ensemble Ta Aspra Poulia (The White Birds), the ensemble depicted in the accompanying photo, which shows the group to have had eight members at the time. There are a number of guitars to be seen, and, remarkably, a faux Dobro ukulele. Istanbul-born New York-based Victor A&R man Tetos Demetriades was demonstrably in the studio during the recordings, was clearly closely involved, and in fact made a handful of vocal recordings himself, employing Bezos as his steel guitarist. In hindsight, it is highly probable that Demetriades himself initiated the Kostis sessions, with the intention of releasing the records on Victor in the USA. Bezos’ guitar playing on the Kostis sides, with its singing tone, is clearly influenced by his Hawaiian tonal ideals, even though not played with slide technique, and it is unique to the hitherto recorded Greek repertoire. Bezos was only 25 years old and clearly using his acting gifts to put on variously modulated voices evoking those of tough, older men, singing of the low life, using the guitar duet as his basic accompaniment. His acting ability has in fact caused many initiated aficionados over the years to suspect that more than one singer was involved. The solo guitar parts were probably not played with a plectrum, but with a gentler technique using fingernails, which give an attack quite different from the snappy sound characteristic of bouzouki players. Two of the songs use the pointedly oriental mode known as “Sabah”. In fact one of the songs, “Isouna Xipoliti” (You Were Barefoot), uses a corrupt form of the mode, clearly generated by the use of the open G tuning of the guitar and a comfortable fingering scheme, while the other song, “Stin Ipoga” (In the Basement), follows the conventions of the mode. Seven of the 12 sides are clearly in zeibekiko metre, while the instrumentals are in quadruple metres. Of the remaining three, two are in a dotted quadruple metre. One of these, “Touto To Kalokairaki” (This Summer), feels musically like a zeibekiko bereft of its ninth beat, whereas “Kaike Ena Scholeio” (A School Burned Down) feels more like a heavy Tsifteteli, though not for dancing. “Toumbeleki toumbeleki” stands alone in its musical structure. Here we are treated to a musically fascinating pastiche of Carter Family style, albeit in a totally unique combination of 2/4 and 9/8 meters, where the solo guitar plays part of the melody on the bass strings of the guitar in classic Maybelle Carter style. During his career, Bezos toured Egypt and Turkey in 1934 with Kleon Triandafyllou, aka Attík, the famed composer of what can be called Athenian chansons. An archive recently accessed by Dimitris Kourtis, thanks to descendants of Bezos’ sister, comprising photos of Bezos and including two of his passports, is ample evidence of these visits. However, as yet, no solid evidence of a transatlantic visit has come to light, despite assertions to that effect. There are a couple of aspects of Bezos’ music making, however, that suggest that even if he never spent time in the United States, he was exposed to various kinds of American music. I am referring to two observations, the first of which is the presence of a faux Dobro ukulele in the photograph printed here. Dobro instruments were still a novelty at this time, having been first marketed in the United States in 1928, and imitations were soon being manufactured in some European countries. A second sign of Bezos’ American influences is to be found in the Kostis song “Toumbeleki toumbeleki” from the 1931 sessions, which is arguably inspired by Maybelle Carter’s way of playing bass lines. Bezos’ use of so-called “open tunings” on the guitar is to be attributed to his familiarity with Hawaiian music. For the uninitiated, this refers to tuning all the strings of a guitar to a chord, which facilitates the use of the slide technique characteristic of Hawaiian music, and, subsequently, of the various slide techniques, using bottle or bar, of many blues, bluegrass and country musicians. Recent information from Stavros Kourousis tells us that, during the 1920s and 1930s, there was a restaurant in the Zappeion area of Athens where Greek musicians who played Hawaiian guitar gathered to listen to records of, among others, the magnificent Kalama Quartet. Interestingly, the Kalama Quartet used two steel guitars, a feature not otherwise typical of Hawaiian recordings for that period, but a very usual feature of Greek-Hawaiian recordings. Bezos’ musical work thus spanned a broad range of styles and feelings. The dark rebetiko toughness of the Kostis songs and the zany originality of the two Kostis instrumentals contrast sharply with the far more numerous Hawaiian pieces which evince in their turn such contrasting characteristics as romantic melancholy, ironic pseudo- misogynist humour, amazing surrealist humour, and political satire. Constantine Bezos, a truly unique figure in the Greek culture of the interwar period, whose life was brutally cut short by tuberculosis and by the German occupation of Greece during World War II, was a man of many careers, and this is an all too brief portrait of an all too brief, yet rich existence. Not only a singer, guitarist (both “straight” and Hawaiian steel), songwriter and band-leader, he also pursued a successful career in journalism, and as a political cartoonist. In the last couple of years of his life he acted in two films; his death during the filming process led to his scenes being cut from one of them; a copy of the other film, Magia I Tsingana (Maya the Gypsy) has still to be rediscovered.......Tony Klein, Uppsala, Sweden, 30th June 2015.....Dapper Dan magazine 12, 2015.......~ Mastered from original 78 rpm discs. Includes a 28 page booklet with extensive notes by Tony Klein (“Greek Rhapsody,” “Mortika”), full lyrics in Greek and English, and several previously unpublished photographs. Record label Olvido is misspelled as "Olivdo" on the jacket back. Tracklist A1 Yannis The Hash Smoker 3:56 A2 A School Was Burned 4:10 A3 Troumba 4:01 A4 You Were Barefoot 3:55 A5 Dertlidhikos Horos 4:09 A6 In The Basement 3:59 B1 I Pass By Your Door 4:17 B2 Toumbeleki Toumbeleki 4:17 B3 Dizziness Overcomes Me 4:09 B4 This Summer 4:15 B5 I Became Thin 4:15 B6 The Jail's A Fine School 4:22 Tracklist 1 Giannis Hasiklis (Yannis The Hash Smoker) 3:56 2 Kaike Ena Scholeio (A School Was Burned) 4:10 3 Troumba 4:01 4 Isouna Xipoliti (You Were Barefoot) 3:55 5 Dertlidhikos Horos 4:09 6 Stin Ypoga (In The Basement) 3:59 7 Ap' Tin Porta Sou Perno (I Pass By Your Door) 4:17 8 Toumbeleki Toumbeleki 4:17 9 Me Pianoune Zaladhes (Dizziness Overcomes Me) 4:09 10 Touto To Kalokeraki 4:15 11 Adinatisa O Kaimenos (I Became Thin) 4:15 12 I Fylaki Einai Scholeio (The Jail's A Fine School) 4:22 

[pouetpouetcamion]

KOSTAS BEZOS AND THE WHITE BIRDS S/t LP 2017/Mississippi Records/Olvido Records/Grèce

Plutôt que de se limiter au seul Rebétiko qui faisait alors foi dans les îlots grecs des années 30, Kostas Bezos a préféré plonger dans le grand bassin musical, piochant pas mal dans la musique hawaïenne, le yodel (je vois ceux du fond de la classe avec des drôles de bretelles relever la tête), les vocalises pré-Yma Sumac, ou encore le kazoo-tango des ténèbres... Des croisements stylistiques ponctués par un sens du rebondissement presque bollywoodiens (mais je crois que ce sont les samples de chèvres qui, indirectement, me font penser à un morceau du génial Ilaiyaraaja).

La musique de Kostas Bezos, c’est un peu comme quand on essaye de faire les yeux tristes et rigoler avec la bouche en même temps, une vue du faciès très difficile à réaliser mais délirante quand on maitrise le truc. Comme cette anthologie, véritable cérumen du bonheur à s’en tartiner les esgourdes sans modération, car intemporelle et insubmersible, foisonnante et frissonnante à la fois. Grave sous le charme...