2. Reaching the limits...

I will never forget a scene from an indifferent Greek movie where one could see a typical bouzouki orchestra, after rebetiko´s "death". On the back stage one could see two old musicians playing, Stratos Payioumitzis and Markos Vamvakaris. Stratos seemed to be glad, perhaps because he was invited, though Markos looks bitter and wondering. He looks around himself with a suspicious glance in his eyes and he does not seem to understand where he is (why would he do it?). The atmosphere is foolish, artificial and superficial...

As I said, I´ve loved Markos but as the years went by I felt that I reached my limits. I felt that the devotedness to him and the fascinating "Piraeus school" isolated me to a quite narrow point of view. I felt the need to "investigate", more seriously than before, the musical tradition which influenced (directly or indirectly) Markos. By saying that I mean, especially, the refugee music tradition . I do not regret it. I got deeper to a multifarious music with continuous searching for new experiments in playing the instruments and orchestration, something missing i "Piraeus school´s" simplicity. Markos music and the Piraeotic mangia was, generally speaking, a fascinating but conservative manoeuvre to put things in their "right" place, after the "confusion" caused by the invasion of Mikrasiates, both musically and "morally".
Some craracteristcs of the "change" were: (1) women´s role was eliminated, (2) joy, which characterised the biggest part of Mikrasiatika, turned into grumbling and murmur (we are talking about songs composed before 1938), (3 the joyful greetings among musicians and towards the singers, during the songs, almost dissapeared, (4) the erotic flirt and sensualism in the simple verses of Mikrasiatika was also eliminated and (5) the verses became more male orientated...