root salad f20 Maria Simoglou


The rembetika revivalist talks to Bas Springer about keeping tradition alive.


toned Símoglou sings about sailors, love and exile. Earlier this year she presented the album at the world music expo Babel Med in her hometown Marseille.


he young Greek singer / multi- instrumentalist Maria Simoglou is one the most talented exponents of the recent rebetiko revival. In cooperation with other musicians or with her own ensemble she is constantly recreat- ing the immense repertoire of this fascinat- ing Greek music, adhering as closely as pos- sible to the original versions. On her latest project, Minóre Manés, Simoglou presents melancholy songs about tearful love and exile, dating back to the 1920s when Greece was faced with a massive flight of Greeks from Asia Minor. While recording, she noticed remarkable parallels with the recent overflow of refugees in her country.


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Rebetiko (or rembetiko), originally the music of the poor and dispossessed, emerged in the early 20th Century in the hashish dens of Greek port towns Piraeus and Thessaloni- ki, which were frequented by petty crimi- nals, refugees and the poor working class. The name comes from the word ‘rebet’ of Serbian/Kosovar origin, and refers to the undocile and undisciplined person.


This former underground music tells stories about sailors, convicts, poignant love affairs, hashish dreams and exile. The melancholic repertoire, a cross between sentimental songs, social protest and East- ern poetry, was strongly influenced in the mid-1920s by oriental elements, owing to tragic events in 1923 when more than one million Orthodox Christians in Asia Minor were expelled by Turkey, to resettle in what is now modern Greece. Among them were many musicians, who introduced the ‘amanes’, lamentations in which singers and


musicians expressed feelings of sadness, bit- terness, heartbreak and collectively mourned the loss of their homelands. In those days an ensemble often consisted of a singer, a violinist and a santur (dulcimer) player who frequently used oriental scales.


Singer-musician María Símoglou, born in Thessaloniki in northern Greece, grew up with the traditional music of Macedonia, ancient Thracia and Asia Minor. “I do not come from a musical background but I heard rebetiko at my grandparents’ and parents’ house. I started singing from a very early age.” She studied at the music high school and various conservatories in her hometown, where she learned to play oboe, percussion and qanun. After completing her studies in oboe at the State Conservatory in Thessaloniki she went to Berlin to study classical singing and music theatre.


“I then embarked on various collabora- tions in traditional, classical and contempo- rary music performances, participating in concerts, festivals and seminars in Greece and abroad. I worked closely with such famous artists as Ross Daly, master of the Cretan lyra, and Cretan multi-instrumentalist Ste- lios Patrakis. In 2007 I moved to Marseille, together with my husband Bejan Chemirani, son of the famous Iranian musician Djamzid Chemirani, master of the Persian zarb drum. In Marseille we formed the group Oneira.”


In 2015, after two albums with Oneira, Maria Simoglou released Minóre Manés which contains thirteen old rebetiko songs from Smyrna (nowadays Izmir). You heard Feretzé Foró on the fRoots 56 compilation. Backed by her own ensemble, the dulcet-


“All the songs are written by composers from Smyrna and date back to the period from 1925 to 1938. The inhabitants of Smyr- na came from Turkey, the Balkans, Greece, Armenia and the Arabic world. I did exhaus- tive research on the huge repertoire from Smyrna. I tried to stick as closely as possible to the original songs. I hardly dared to change the instrumentation of this beauti- ful music. If you change this music too much it doesn’t work any more. Or you have to make completely new arrangements with electronic sounds. We changed some instru- ments like the ney (Turkish flute), which doesn’t exist on the original recordings. We also added modern percussion instruments. In the old days musicians only used spoons and glass percussion. The other instruments in my ensemble are saz, qanun and lyra (three-stringed knee violin). I asked the musicians to be free and add their own touch. Of course we respect the tradition but we are reproducing this music today.”


“While listening to old recordings I tried to imagine how I could sing these com- positions. The most important thing was to understand the melodies and lyrics.”


“M


y father’s parents came from a Turkish village close to Thracia. After the expulsion of the Greeks


they settled in Thracia. My family was not directly involved in the catastrophe in Smyrna but I have heard many stories about refugees, which remind me of what is happening these days with refugees from Syria. People were in the exact situation as the refugees today. Those refugees from the past and recent times were on my mind when I chose songs for the album.”


Asked about the popularity of rebetiko in Greece she replies that “There is a big revival of rebetiko in Greece. People are searching for purity and love. In rebetiko you can feel the spirit of freedom. Rebetiko appeals very much to people’s hearts. I hope more Greek music can be heard outside of Greece. Now I’m living in Marseille I try to promote rebetiko to other countries.”


“I don’t have a direct solution for the refugee crisis but I hope politicians will open their hearts. It sounds like a cliché but we need more love and freedom. We must listen to other people, even if we don’t agree with them.”


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