Composer, lyricist, bouzouki master and singer; one of the most important figures of rebetiko and Greek folk music in general of the 20th century.
Vassilis Tsitsanis was born in Trikala, Thessaly, on January 18, 1915. His parents were from Epirus and apart from Vassilis, they had four other children, three boys and one girl. Later, his fellow rebetes nicknamed him "The Vlachos", because he was the only rebbet of terrestrial origin.
His father, a carpenter by trade, had a mandolin, with which he played swashbuckling songs. These were the first things little Vassilis heard, along with the Byzantine chants he heard in church. Although he was drawn to music, he first picked up an instrument in his hands after the death of his father in 1926. It was a mandolin, which a local instrument maker had turned into a bouzouki.
In his high school years he began to acquire some knowledge of music, learning the violin. With this he also participated in some local events, in order to contribute financially to his family. Although he had not yet appeared publicly with the bouzouki, as it was forbidden and without any social recognition, he wrote his first songs on it, at the age of only 15.
With Katie Gray
In the fall of 1936 he went down to Athens to study Law and in order to supplement his income he got a job at the night club "Bizelia". The following year he met the singer Dimitris Perdikopoulos, who took him to the recording company "Odeon", where he recorded his first song "S'an teke bukarane" (1937). "Archontissa", one of the greatest songs in the history of Greek music, was one of the dozens that followed. At the same time, his songs, such as "That's why I'm coming back", "Chrysostolista Palaces", "Whatever I say I won't forget you" and "That's why your black eyes", were performed by Stratos Payoumtzis, Stellakis Perpiniadis, Stelios Keromytis, but also Markos Vamvakaris.
We are in the constellation of the Metaxas dictatorship and the era imposes inroads, while banning both the pre-existing songs of the rebetiko fringe, as well as obvious oriental melodies. Tsitsanis responds by grafting the rebetiko with western melodic elements and thus reaches the wider masses. In March 1938, he did his military service in the Telegraph Battalion, in Thessaloniki. He takes time off and never turns up on time, which infuriates his superiors. He spends many days in the prison, where he writes one of his most beautiful songs, "Archontissa". In Thessaloniki he will also meet his future wife, Zoe Samara, with whom he will have two children, Victoria and Kostas.
He spent the years of the Occupation in Thessaloniki, where he opened his own restaurant, "Uzeri Tsitsani", at 22 Pavlou Mela Street. At the same time, he wrote some of his great hits ("Acharisti", "Baxe Tsifliki", "Ta perix ", "Magical Nights", "Love Beggar", "Derbenderissa", "Cloudy Sunday"), which he will record after the war, when the record factories will open again.
With Marika Ninou
In 1946 he goes down to Athens again. The civil war era is another source of inspiration for Tsitsanis. His songs, however, are censored again. Some he manages and publishes, devising various tricks, many were released several years later, while some were never published. The end of the civil war also means the full acceptance of Vassilis Tsitsanis. By the mid-1950s, he was in the music scene. Some of the songs from this period are:"Horisame în delino", "Beautiful Thessaloniki", "The mountains are echoing", "Crabs", "Dawn and dusk".
He brings to the fore new voices, who are connected with him, such as Marika Ninou, Sotiria Bellou and Prodromos Tsoussakis. Also, Stelios Kazantzidis, Grigoris Bithikotsis, Panos Gavalas, Manolis Angelopoulos, Kaiti Grey, Polly Panou, Haroula Lambraki, Stamatis Kokotas and others. perform his timeless songs:"Maybe tomorrow" (1958), "The ports" (1962), "Foreign hands" (1962), "Stay near me my love" (1966), "My girl all for you" ( 1967), "I was swept away by the stream" "Tonight on the Beaches" (1968), "Some Alani" (1968), "The Gerakin's Son" (1975), "Poison in the Vein" (1979).
According to sansimera.gr, in 1980, at the initiative of UNESCO, a double disc was recorded entitled "Harama", as the shop was called where Tsitsanis appeared during the last 14 years of his career and life. On this disc he plays a series of his classic songs, but also many improvisational pieces on the bouzouki. With its publication in France, in 1985, it received the "Charles Gros" Music Academy prize. But in the meantime, the master creator is gone forever...
Vassilis Tsitsanis breathed his last on his birthday, January 18, 1984, at Brompton Hospital in London, following complications from a lung operation. Until a few days before his death, he appeared regularly at "Harama" and was working on new songs.
Vassilis Tsitsanis put his own indelible stamp on Greek folk music. He inoculated rebetiko with western melodic elements and took it out of the fringes, which had been placed by its "anti-social" and oriental elements. He enriched the folk orchestra with new timbres, adding the piano and imposing the accordion as a company instrument. He innovated verse, moving away from the traditional forms of couplet and rhyme, and formalized and generalized the role of the chorus. With Tsitsanis, rebetiko becomes "art" and the break with tradition begins to become visible.
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