A guitar duet, will present the music of the legendary “Kostis”, the most enigmatic of all greek rebetika artists. 12+1 songs of truly unique guitar duets and black-humor lyrics chronicling the hash dens, prison culture and pickpockets of old Athens. Recorded in 1930-31 on 78 rpm records, under a pseudonym for export to the greeks living in America, research has uncovered the musician, journalist and cartoonist Kostas Bezos as the figure lurking behind the Kostis name, with ties to the famous singer and producer Tetos Demetriades. Renowned for his slide guitar playing in Hawaiian-style orchestras throughout the 1930s, the Kostis recordings reveal an entirely different underworld of the macabre and illicit. The use of guitar in these now-classic rebetika songs display a virtuosity of Near-Eastern modes and unusual tunings at the dawn of rebetika, when the bouzouki was yet to become supreme.

AstaroTheatro
Saturday 10 September, 20:30
Sint Jansstraat 37 Amsterdam 
Entrance by Donation