Tolis Esdras, Albertos Nar

[Eva Broman]

Hi everyone,   It's been a while since I checked in, and I haven't been able to read all the posts from the summer yet. I would just like to share a few pieces of info that I found while in Greece. In the Greek music magazine "Metronomos" there was an interesting interview with Tolis Esdras (that's the way the name is spelled in Greek), one of the major accordion players in Greek rebetika and laika music. According to this article, Esdras was actually the first to play modern-style accordion in Greek music (there was a similar instrument in the earlier Smyrna music), and he performed with all the well-known composers and singer of the day, composers/bandleaders such as Mitsakis and singers like Stella Haskil and Stelios Kazantzidis. Esdras, who is a Sephardic Jew from the town of Trikala, doesn't dwell much on his background, except to give a few dates, and although he was born in 1930 there is no information on how he survived the Holocaust. On the other hand, there is lots of information about his musical career and about the popular music scene in the fifties and sixties. As the interviewer Elias Voliotis-Kapetanakis points out, Esdras is one of the "forgotten heroes" in Greek popular music, despite the fact that the accordion is a very important component in the typical 'laika' sound that developed in the late forties and fifties.   Esdras is also mentioned in an essay by Albertos Nar, with his Hebrew name Mordochai (Tolis is actually a pet-name for Apostolos). The essay deals with "Jews and rebetiko". The article explores the relationship between the songs of the Jewish community of Salonica and the popular rebetika songs of the day, with many musical examples and rare photos of Jewish performers. I don't know if Nar has published anything similar in English. However, if there is anyone on the list who would like to know more about this particular essay (which unfortunately is in Greek!), please let me know off-list and I could give more info for those interested.   All the best, Eva