Into the sky: three-chord bouzouki and Smyrna-style singing with Sevdas, Takis 'Lazare' Mendis and Stergios Papadopoulos.
Takis 'Lazare' Mendis, just healed from a serious illness, and Stergios Papadopoulos will offer us a journey to the authentic three-chord bouzouki and Asia Minor style singing. Their great freedom in melody and improvisation lifts the public's ears high in the sky. Virtuose instrumentalist Takis Mendis will show the mysterious and surprising meanders of the taxim, the improvisation on oriental makams, that have always been omnipresent in Greek and eastern Mediterranean music. He is equally a superb singer and will present a programme from 1920 onwards, taking us back to the times of the Cafe Aman in Smyrna and Constantinople, and culminating in the impressive compositions by Tsitsanis, Chiotis and more contemporary composers. 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.
