The Diaspora Sings

I am always impressed by the ability of diaspora musicians to recreate the authentic sounds of the Greek world. I use the term Greek world to denote the far flung Greek communities throughout the historically Greek occupied lands throughout the eastern Mediterranean. Greek music today is buffeted by the influence of Western music to such a degree that the Greek musical tradition is often completely cast aside in exchange for a polyglot amalgam of tunes that only faintly resemble the purity and beauty of Greek music. Luckily for us, groups like Ithikon Akmeotaton ("best feeling") still exist in places like Germany to expose not only young Greeks but also others to traditional and contemporary Greek music.

I picked out three songs which I like. The first is a Cretan song called  Astra mi me malonete (Stars, don't scold me). The second is a Pontian song called Saranta Mila Kokkina (Forty red apples). The last one is a Greek /Turkish duet with singer, Ismail Aydin called "Yedikule / Pente Hronia Dikasmenos"(Sentenced to Five Years /in Yedukile, a Turkish prison).

Consider this a belated Christmas gift for MGO friends:

Comments

[Thomas]

Just a note on the translation. Ηθικό means morale. In the army an officer might ask his troops how their moral is. They are to answer, as loudly as possible, ακμαιότατο. A literal translation would be "very high moral" then. Much catchier in Greek, of course.

[Stavros]

Thanks for the clarification.