Stelios Kazantzidis life Part III

After his conflict with his discographic company, Stelios Kazantzidis cooperated, in 1961, with the worldwide acknowledged, Greek composers Manos Hatzidakis and Mikis Theodorakis. It is well known that Xatzidakis won the Oscar award in 1961, for the soundtrack of the movie “Never on Sunday” (Pote tin Kiriaki), which was directed by Zil Dassen. The famous Greek actress Melina Merkouri starred in that movie.

The years between 1961 and 1965 were the most productive for Kazantzidis. Rich discography, participation in theatrical plays, appearances in the best nightclubs and the most famous Greek music halls, tours all over the world, characterize this period.

In 1965 Stelios Kazantzidis took an “insane” decision. He would never sing in public again, neither in nightclubs nor in concerts. He was sick of the night life in Greece, with the mafia and all the businessmen who threatened him. Due to his publicity, most of the nightclubs in Athens faced economical problems.

He stuck at his decision until his death in 2001. He denied huge amounts of money and tempting proposals. Apart from his opposition to the nightlife system, he did not consider himself to be a “sightseeing” for which people have to pay. As a result, he continued only recording albums. He felt obligated to do so, because poor people were the majority of his audience and he believed that they could afford that expense to listen his voice.

He once declared: “I sing for the poor, the immigrants and the suffering people… generally for the lower social classes. They can’t go to the expensive night clubs. They buy my discs and they regard them as their Gospels.”

Kazantzidis in Greek province

Stelios Kazantzidis loved to live in province. He used to believe that poor people there, were more honest than people in cities. He was of the opinion that these pure people, wasn’t obligated to make some compromises to live. After an argument with his discographic company, in 1975, Stelios Kazantzidis left his career for 12 years. We are going to explain the reasons why he left discography, in a future post about Kazantzidis life. As you remember, we stopped the narration of Kazantzidis life, around at 1962.

We give you today, a video, in 1970s, where Stelios Kazantzidis, famous Greek lyrist Pythagoras and also a cattleman, are drinking and chatting, in a farm near Thessaloniki (Thessaloniki is today the biggest city of North Greece). That farm is in a small village called Chalastra. Thanks to the National Greek TV (ERT) we have this document.

source: National Greek TV (ERT)

Stelios Kazantzidis life - Part II

After his military service, Stelios started to work in famous music halls with the also successful songstress, Kaity Grey. They were couple in life, too. They recorded together a lot of very popular songs that Greeks still sing in revelries. After his separation with the beautiful Grey, he meets a young songstress named Marinella. Her real name was Kyriaki Papadopoulou. She came from Thessaloniki, which is the biggest city of North Greece. Stelios Kazantzidis and Marinella became the greatest duet of all time, in Greece. They were in great demand of the nightclubs and Greek composers. Their tours all over the world were very successful. In USA, Australia but also in Germany and Turkey they became very popular to the Greek immigrants.

“Manduballa” was the name of a bollywood actress. Stelios Kazantzidis compose the homonymous song in 1959 and he also sang it. That “album” recorded an unprecedented success. 100.000 disks sold in that year. Imagine that the Greek population was about 9 millions. Also realise that Greece was a poor country after the Second World War and the 4 years civil war. Although his discographic company earned about 10 millions drachmas, Stelios Kazantzidis received less than 1000 drachmas!!! The Greek courts worked on that case. Finally, Kazantzidis achieved his goal. He achieved to receive money analogically to the sales of his disks. That was a gain for all Greek singers who were exploited until 1960. From now on, Stelios Kazantzidis was the “revolutionist”, whom the companies had to ruin. Stelios Kazantzidis has declared: “Only if I knew that companies’ income was disposed for the progress of music or for the betterment of my co-workers’ life, I would tolerate that utilization”. Thanks to Kazantzidis battle against the rulers of Greek discography, the majority of moderns Greek singers can survive or gain some money from their “albums”.

( Stelios Kazantzidis and Marinella)

Stelios Kazantzidis life - Part I

Stelios Kazantzidis articulated the pain of Greeks after the Second World War. After the Nazi occupation of Greece, he created a new kind of music based on the characteristics of old traditional Greek music. He was born in 29th August 1931. His parents, Haralambos and Gesthimani, were poor refugees in Athens. His father, who was a builder, was murdered in 1946, on the Greek civil war for his communistic ideas. As a result, Stelios was now obligated to feed his mother and his little brother, Stathis. He worked as a builder, a water seller, a willower, a laborer although he was only 15 years old. The first man, who found out Kazantzidis talent, was his boss at “Lanatex” factory. After having listened him singing several times during his work, he called Stelios in his office and offered him a guitar.

A few years later, a semi professional musician, who was thrilled with young Stelios voice, invited him to join his music group. That was the start of Kazantzidis career. From the beginning, his mother was opposite to this prospect, as she was of the opinion that people in that job were immoral and corrupted. Despite his mother’s argument, he continued singing in taverns and festivals all over Athens. The first song that he recorded as a professional singer was “Gia banio pao” (I am going swimming), 1952, a song written by Apostolos Kaldaras, a famous Greek composer. However his fist hit was his second record with the title “Valitses” (The suitcases). The successful composer Ioannis Papaioannou gave Kazantzidis the chance to prove his talent.
During his military service, he had a serious accident. After that he was unable to have children for the rest of his life. A disagreement with his commander and his father’s communistic ideas was the reasons why he was forced to watch over the mules in the camp. One rogue mule hit him on the genitals but his bossy commander forbided him to visit the doctor.

To be continued…