Sunday, September 17, 2006
Markos Vamvakaris - Fragkosyriani
Track List :
Markos was born to a poor working family on the island of Syros in 1905. His father played the greek bagpipes called Gaida and Markos would accompany him on the dog-skinned drum. When Markos was eight years old he left school to work with his mother in a cotton thread factory, which he promptly ditched and started picking up odd jobs like newspaper boy, butchers assistant, eventually getting mixed up with the underworld of the streets.
When he was fifteen years old he stowed away on a ship to Piraeus and got a job loading coals on the docks. This was tough, low-down work, but the nights were all about hashish and women. He was kept in fine clothes by an older whore and hung out at the tekes((place where underground people gathered to listen to rembetiko music and smoke hasish) every night. In 1925, Markos heard Old Nikos play bouzouki and was immediately hooked. Six months later he was playing at a teke when Old Nikos stopped by, he couldn't believe it was the same kid who'd never even played a few months earlier. Nikos said they'd show Markos something i the morning and he'd come back and play it better than them in the evening.
Because the bouzouki was considered a low-class instrument, it had not been recorded until 1932 when Yiannis Halikias (aka Jack Gregory), a greek-american, recorded his "Minor Tou Deke". The record was very popular, so Spyros Peristeris, who was working as a record producer, composer and instrumentalist for Odeon records in Greece, convinced Odeon to record Vamvakaris. In 1933, Peristeris supervised, and played guitar on Markos' first recording session (although he had recorded two songs in 1932 for Columbia, they were not released until later). Markos recorded one zebekiko, O Dervises, and one Hassapiko, O Harmanes. Markos hadn't considered himself a singer but ended up doing the vocals on these records. They were very successful and Markos' rough and powerful singing became fashionable.
Markos eventually teamed up with singer Stratos Pagioumitzis, baglamatzis Jiorgos Batis, and bouzouki player Anestis Delias to form his famous Piraeus Quartet. His popularity was sustained throughout the 1930's, despite growing political turmoil. Eventually the style of rebetika that Markos had pioneered became more mainstream, and by the 1940's Tsitsanis had started changing the subject matter to be about love and less about hashish, prison and other rebetika topics. Likewise, Hiotis started changing the sound of the music, adding strings to the bouzouki in 1956 and moving towards a more flashy, electric and westernized sound. Markos continued to record in his older style through this period. He passed away in 1972.
Sources:
Vamvarakis, Markos. Autobiogrphia. Ed. Ageliki-Bellou-Keil. Athens, Greece: Ekdoseis Papazisi, 1978.
Emery, Ed; Petropoulos, Elias. Songs of the Greek Underworld: The Rebetika Tradition. London: Saqi,2000.
Holst, Gail. Road to Rembetika: Music from a Greek Sub-Culture; Songs of love, sorrow and Hashish.
Athens:
Anglo-Hellenic Publishing, 1975.
Labels: innocent76, M, V Links to this post 
Saturday, September 16, 2006
Nik Turner's Fantastic Allstars - 2003 - Kubano Kickasso
Nik Turner's Fantastic AllstarsKubano Kickasso 2003
Track listing:
01 - LDZ (Guacho Guara) 4:40 - Dizzy Gillespie (arr. Rick Welsh / Nik Turner) - 2:00
02 - Dangle from the Angle 9:13 - Nick Danger / Nik Turner - 3:31
03 - So What 4:26 - Miles Davis
04 - Skatrane (Last Train to Skaville) 6:06 - Ethiopians
05 - Watermelon Man 6:00 - Mongo Santamaria / Herbie Hancock
06 - Grooveyard 4:19 - Rick Welsh
07 - Gibraltar 6:16 - Freddie Hubbard
08 - Sidewinder 7:05 - Lee Morgan
09 - Phat Man 6:06 - Rick Welsh
10 - J.B. 7:35 - Nick Danger / Nik Turner
11 - Cantaloupe Island 5:19 - Herbie Hancock
12 - Jive Samba 6:08 - Nat Adderly
Personnel:
Nik “Thunder Rider” Turner - sax, flute and vocals
Ricky “Baby Face” Welsh - trumpet, flugelhorn and vocals
Mike “Black Notes” Jones - Hammond organ, piano
Gary “Hot Shot” Smart - bass
Meurig “D.W.” Griffiths - drums
Ben “Bad Ass” Baddoo - percussion
Simon “Samba Gales"” Preston - percussion
Raul “Rico Mambo” Speek - percussion
Christopher “Pixie” May - electric guitar
Kubano Kickasso is the long awaited studio album from Nik Turner's “Fantastic Allstars” ensemble, augmented by familiar guest percussionists. This is zoot cool jazz that begs you to dance, shaken (and occasionally stirred) with latin grooves, Afro-Cuban rave, and a healthy dose of boogie. Featuring some flash original tunes as well as several of the Allstars' own particular flavour of cherished standards, its outstanding clarity delivers all the customary sensation of their club presence. A must-have soundtrack for your next party.
Nik Turner
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Nik Turner is a British musician, probably best known as a founder of space rock pioneers Hawkwind. Turner plays saxophones, flute, sings and is a composer. While with Hawkwind Turner was known for his experimental free jazz stylizations and outrageous stage presence, often donning full makeup and Ancient Egypt-inspired costumes.Days with Hawkwind and personality conflicts
Despite his seemingly Pleasant personality, Turner battled frequently with bandleader/guitarist Dave Brock, who felt that the former overplayed in a distracting fashion and used musical pretenses to disguise his poor playing. Turner's relationship with bassist Lemmy Kilmister gradually disintegrated throughout the early 1970s, spurned on by a feature in New Musical Express that seemed to portray Kilmister as the sole frontman of the group. Fundamentally, Turner's "quintessential hippie" persona clashed with Kilmister's identification with bikers and use of amphetamines.
After Kilmister was arrested for illegal posession of amphetamines during a 1975 North American tour, Turner instigated the bassist's dismissal from Hawkwind. Other band members, namely Brock, came to regret the reluctant decision, and Turner began to be perceived as something of a manipulator. After 1976's Amazing Sounds, Astounding Music, a poorly received fusion-oriented release heavily influenced by Turner, he ceased playing with the group. This too was a bone of contention: while Brock and lead singer Robert Calvert claimed they had dismissed Turner (with two other members), the saxophonist characterized it as more of a band mutiny against the twosome.
Later Years
Over the years Turner has played with many musicians and collaborations. Much of his output continued in the Hawkwind vein, but Turner has also explored other genres. Directly after leaving Hawkwind in the mid 1970's, Turner formed the band Sphinx with Steve Hillage of Gong.
In the late 1970s when Steve Took's Horns broke up he formed Inner City Unit (ICU) from the key Horns members: Judge Trev Thoms and Dino Ferari although Steve Peregrin Took (ex-T Rex) continued to work with his former band members and guested with ICU at a number of gigs.
Turner eventually resolved his differences with Brock and rejoined various reconstituted Hawkwind line-ups throughout the 1980s. He performed at the final Stonehenge Free Festival in 1984.
Turner also worked with Twink under the name PinkWind, a group named by combining the monikers of the musicians' former groups: Turner's Hawkwind, and Twink and Steve Took's Pink Fairies. Mick Farren was also a member. PinkWind released two albums. Some line-ups also featured Judge Trev Thoms.
In 2000 Turner apologized to Kilmister and organized a one-off reunion of the seminal [[Space Ritual]] line-up of Hawkwind (excluding Stacia and Calvert). Although lofty plans included further apperances and a live album extracted from the show, as of 2006 nothing has materialized due to renewed animosity between Turner and Brock.
Recently, his two main bands have been SpaceRitual and Nik Turner's Allstars with flexible and overlapping line-ups (as was the case in the early 1970s with Hawkwind and the Pink Fairies.) At some of his gigs former Hawkwind members have guested including Ron Tree and, until his death, Robert Calvert.
Turner regularly plays with new and experimental musicians and also busks with his roadie Erv near his home in Wales.
His current musical endevours include the jazz/funk quintet Galaktikos and an album & tour with American space rockers Spaceseed.
Labels: F, N, Opa-Loka, T Links to this post
