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About Rembetika 3: 1936-1940
Our third collection of Greek music covers the pre-war output of Vassilis Tsitsanis. He was born at Trikala in January 1915, surrounded by music. His father played mandola and his mother sang. His brother Christos became a renowned bouzouki player. His home was near the barracks of the notorious 5th Regiment made up largely of ex-convicts, dope heads and gangsters, there to be knocked into shape. They gathered in the evenings to sing, play and dance, watched in awe by the brothers. Vassilis' musical talent was recognised by his father, who scrimped to buy him a violin and send him to music school. Eventually he became leader of the school orchestra. But Vassilis' interest in Classical music waned and he dropped the violin for the bouzouki, spending hours honing his skills and composing. His classical training helped make his work closer to Western music than hard-core Rembetica. There was pressure on Vassilis to help the family (his father had died) by getting a bank job or studying law. For the latter he left for Athens around 1935. In the city he was diverted, as word of his musical skill spread. After cutting his first sides in early 1936, he recorded sporadically over the next months until, in 1937, he cut Xelogiastra which was covered by Stellakis. Both versions sold well and his career took off. Tsitsanis was drafted in March 1938 and spent two years in Thessaloniki. He composed feverishly, travelling to Athens on his leaves for recording sessions. This phase ended in October 1940 when Greece entered WW2. Tsitsanis was again drafted and sent to the Albanian front where he spent some months. In early April 1941, when he was on leave, the front collapsed. He went to Thessaloniki where he spent the grim years of the Axis occupation and the early months of the Greek Civil War which followed. Despite the difficulties of the period, he created some great work and in 1946 he travelled to Athens to take part in Greece's first Postwar recording sessions.
