Women in popular and rembetiko songs
FOUGARO ARTCENTER welcomes on Saturday 17 August 2024 at 9 pm to a free-admission concert by Kostas Doumouliakas and another five musicians. The concert is dedicated to women as they are portrayed as a subject in popular and rembetiko songs.
In these days when that status of women is still under threat and the instances of abuse are all-too-frequent, it is worth going back to the rich history of popular and rembetiko music with songs in which women are the dominant subject and are suitably exalted.
The selected songs are performed by the special, expressive voice of Kostas Doumouliakas as well as those of Katerina Tziviloglou and Christos Manifavas, supported by a set of five instruments.
featuring:
Kostas Doumouliakas | vocals, bouzouki
Katerina Tziviloglou | vocals
Christos Manifavas | vocals, guitar
Noe Zafiridis | vocals, bouzouki
Yorgos Ventouris | acoustic bass
Vassilis Ziakas | accordion
Kostas Doumouliakas
Born in Athens in 1962, Kostas Doumouliakas is a great singer, perhaps the greatest among the second generation of ‘revivers’ of the old popular and rembetiko songs, as well as a sensitive bouzouki player. His voice carries the ‘scent’ of mangiko singing and the nostalgic yearning for the likes of Tzouanakos, Tatassopoulos, Sporos but also of Evgenikos and Lafkas. He interprets like no other the ‘dark’ songs of the ’50s, as well as writing and recording his own creations.
His LP Sokratous & Satovriandou comprises popular songs that formed the core of the programme of night clubs in Athens and beyond for many decades, especially in the small hours when the veneer of ‘quality’ and quaintness recedes to reveal the raw truth and the tension that characterizes our popular songs.
In his career he has performed and recorded with many artists from various genres, including Takis Binis, Rena Stamou, Anna Chryssafi, Babis Goles, Yorgos Tzortzis but also Georges Pilali and Dimitris Poulikakos from the Greek rock scene, with the blues outfits Louisiana Red and Big Time Sara, the ethnic musician Bob Brozman and the Indian performers Debashish & Subhashish Bhatacharya, the jazz musician Takis Barberis, and others.
