The Famous SOAS Rebetiko Band [High Res]

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The band plays the "Orient Express" festival at the Arcola Theatre, Stoke Newington, London.

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rebetiko [@] soas.ac.uk

The Famous SOAS Rebetiko Band
ISTANBUL--ATHENS--HYDRA TOUR -- OCTOBER 2008
"Rebetiko: Music without Frontiers"

Outline document:

The Famous SOAS Rebetiko Band is based at London's School of Oriental and African Studies. It developed out of four years of music seminars held at SOAS by the Band's organiser, Ed Emery. In 2007 we toured to Italy (Rovigo Festival). This year a more ambitious tour will take us to Istanbul (10-14 October), Athens (15-16) and the Greek island of Hydra (Hydra Rebetiko Conference, 17-19).

We play the Rebetiko music of Greece, a broad genre of urban songs and instrumental music which developed in and around the major port areas of the Eastern Mediterranean -- Smyrna/Izmir, Istanbul, Syros, Piraeus and Thessaloniki. Rebetiko is hard to define as a genre, not least because it incorporates elements from all the musical cultures of that area.

Music has been a matter of censorship in both Greece and Turkey, with rebetiko in particular being banned in both countries in the 1930s, and it is still a battlefield for contending nationalisms. Our band is a mixed ensemble of Greeks, Turks, Cypriots, British and other nationalities and hyphenated identities in-between. For us, music is promiscuous, prolific and flows where it will. Music is a matter of the heart. Music has no frontiers. And that is our chosen title for this tour.

The composition of the band reflects the roots of Rebetiko in the common culture of the Aegean and Anatolia and Greece. Rebetiko was born at the beginning of the twentieth century out of the emigration and population exchanges of the 1920s and 1930s. It sings of hardship, prison, poverty, war and love. It is unsentimental and unromantic but at the same time moving and human. As well as melody and lyric, dance is a vital element of Rebetiko, in particular the Hasapiko of old Constantinople and the Zeibekiko of Anatolia. Our performances invariably end in spontaneous dancing by the audience.

During this tour we shall perform Greek, Turkish and Anatolian music with Greek and Turkish musicians in both countries. Five concerts are planned. In addition we are organising Musical Seminars in Istanbul, Athens and Hydra in which researchers will explore the shared cultural roots of the music in our repertoire. Our repertoire includes music from the Greek, Turkish, Arabic and Jewish musical traditions, and we sing many songs in both Greek and Turkish versions.

The band has an active membership of 45 people, of whom about 15 will be on this tour. The instruments include bouzouki, baglama, tzoura, violin, guitar, santouri, clarinet and percussion. We have a vigorous musical life in London, including monthly Rebetiko Jam Sessions in a Clerkenwell pub and gigs at various venues.

The tour will will culminate in a major concert in London in late November 2008.

If you would like further details about the tour, or would like to join us, contact

Ed Emery at
ed.emery [@] thefreeuniversity.net

John Mole at
07796 173 343 [from outside UK 0044 7796 173 343]

Fax: 0870 133 0145

Website: http://www.cdcarts.org/adhocrebetikoband/


13 July 2008.

"Uskudar" and "Apo Xeno Topo"

Category:

Music

Tags:

• SOAS
• Rebetiko
• Uskudar
• Apo
• Xeno
• Topo

[hrtrost]

opa! can anyone tell me the greek lyrics in latin alphabet please?

[rebetomaniac1915]

excellent song excellent interpretation

[kotsos32]

Μπραβο,πολυ ωραιο!!!!!

[thomasmifune]

geia sou bre Manoli! na ta pai3oume sta rempetika bradia sto Amsterdam!