Savina Yannatou

Songs of Thessaloniki (ECM 2398)

Songs of Thessaloniki View larger

Songs of Thessaloniki

Savina Yannatou

ECM

602547091512

ECM 145047

ECM 2398

JAZZ

1

Songs of Thessaloniki

More details

CD 16,98 €

PERSONNEL:

SAVINA YANNATOU, vocals
KOSTAS VOMVOLOS, accordion
YANNIS ALEXANDRIS, guitar
KYRIAKOS GOUVENTAS, violin
HARRIS LAMBRAKIS, nay
MICHALIS SIGANIDIS, bass
KOSTAS THEODOROU, percussion

Recorded February 19-21 at Sierra Studios, Athens

TRACKS:

01. Apolitikion Agiou Dimitriou
02. A la scola del Allianza
03. Tin Patrida Mou Ehasa
04. Dimo is Solun hodeshe
05. La cantiga del fuego
06. Una muchacha en Selanica
07. Iptidadan yol sorarsan
08. Qele-qele
09. Calin Davullari
10. To yelekaki
11. Salonika
12. Inchu Bingyole mdar?
13. Jelena Solun Devojko
14. Yedi-koule
15. Poulakin eiha se klouvi
16. Pismo dojde od Soluna grada
17. Apolitikion Agiou Dimitriou

Savina Yannatou’s fourth ECM album is a dazzling evocation of her band’s hometown, plunging deep into its rich and complex history. Once known colloquially as the Jerusalem of the Balkans, Thessaloniki has been home to a host of cultures, religions and ethnic communities. Greeks, Jews, Turks, Bulgarians, Serbs, Armenians, Slav-Macedonians and Pontiac Greeks have shared the city’s diverse life. Yannatou gives all of them a voice, even casting an Irish song about Salonika into this multi-lingual programme, in which she shines as a unique interpreter and spokeswoman for the city’s ghosts. As ever, Primavera en Salonico are a delight, one of the most resourceful bands of any idiom, as they negotiate the inspired – and very varied - arrangements of Kostas Vomvolos.