Greek music has a long and glorious history. In one of my other posts, I will go into the origins and evolution of Greek music. But this post is about a different topic…The Greek Bouzouki!
The musical instrument that, in my mind, expresses the essence of the Greek spirit! Contrary to popular belief, the Greek bouzouki does not have its roots in the old Turkish lutes. There exist depictions on ancient Greek murals that display a bowl-backed, lute like instrument referred to as the “pandourida” or “panduris”.
The modern four and three-stringed bouzoukia are descendants of this ancient Greek lute. In actuality, the “panduris” most likely was derived/influenced by other similarly shaped stringed instruments from neighboring regions. But I’m digressing…
What I really want to talk about is… one of the “best” Greek bouzouki player of all time. Manolis Xiotis! Xiotis or Hiotis was not only a magnificent guitar and bouzouki player; he was also a superb composer, lyricist, singer, luthier and all around entertainer. The following video is a small sample of his work. In this video, Hiotis is playing a 4-stringed bouzouki.
If any of you are interested in learning to play this magnificent instrument, I have put together an instructional DVD set here that might be of interest: BouzoukiDVD.com
Some other noteworthy players to check out include: George Zambetas, Bebis, Palaiologou, Manolis Karantinis, Panagiwths Stergiou, Manolis Pappos, Vangelis Triggas, Kostas Papadopoulos, etc.
Xiotis is amazing! Thank you so much for posting some other noteworthy players, I definitely plan to look them up. I am a huge fan of the bouzouki and would like to purchase one, but it seems they are pretty scarce where I live (stores only seem to carry the Irish bouzouki, and I want a Greek one!). Also, thank you so much for the Greek word of the day. I have been studying Greek for almost a year now and the word of the day is definitely helping me build my vocab. Cheers to you and your family!
Glad you like the video and posting Amber. Xiotis is definitely my favorite bouzouki player. He was the first to pioneer a lot of the ideas that are in common use today.
Harry.