Art Base

From Rebetiko to Laiko, Greece 1945-1960

with

Sofia Papazoglou- voice,
Manolis Pappos- bouzouki, voice,
Dimos Vougioukas- accordeon,
Stergios Papadopoulos- guitar.

Sofia Papazoglou was born in Brussels, but moved with her family to Thessaloniki at the age of six. She started singing Greek traditional and contemporary folk music in the clubs of Thessaloniki during her student years. She later studied voice at the Contemporary Conservatory of Athens with Medea Iasonidou.
Sofia Papazoglou made numerous solo appearances in clubs and theaters and collaborated with foremost Greek artists including Eleftheria Arvanitaki, George Dalaras, Glykeria, Alkinoos Ioannidis, Giannis Markopoulos, Dionisis Savvopoulos and others. Next to being a founding member of the Smyrna Trio, Sofia also collaborated with Camerata String Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, Estudiantina, the "Mikis Theodorakis Orchestra"En Chordais ensemble, etc.
Sofia has recorded six personal albums with some of the most important Greek composers and lyricists, while her album "Thursday afternoon"(original music by Panagiotis Kalantzopoulos,2005) has reached the top 10 of European world music charts between March and June of 2005. Sofia is considered one of the best pop folk singers in Greece.

Manolis Pappos is one of the most important Greek composers and bouzouki players of the last 50 years, with more than 800 compositions to date. He is the perfect example of the Greek virtuosi player: he experiments with a great number of string instruments such as bouzouki, outi, mandolino, tzouras, baglamas and many others from the Mediterranean, Africa and Asia.
His improvisations are astonishing.

Dimos Vougioukas is one of the young accordion soloists of Greek and Balkan traditional music. He cooperated with well known soloists in the Balkans, such as Ionica Minune and Petar Ralchev. Moreover, he played with performers of Greek music as Nena Venetsanou, George Dalaras, Glykeria, Nana Mouskouri etc.

Stergios Papadopoulos is a professional guitar player with years of experience on many music scenes in Greece. In rebetika music the guitar is essential because it provides the harmony and the rhythm to every composition and, more importantly, to every improvisation. The bouzouki players and the singers take a lot of freedom, which they can only afford themselves thanks to the stability of the guitarist’s rhythmic and harmony. Stergios Papadopoulos knows as no other how to provide a strong and playful basis.

http:/www.sofiapapazoglou.gr/

www.dimosvougioukas.com

Samples and videos