By George: January 3rd, 2012
Ouzo Power with George Sapounidis performing the Greek blues song Viva Rembetes on Dec 3, 2011 at Toronto’s Hugh’s Room as part of the Canadian Folk Music Awards Nominee Showcase Concert.
By George: January 3rd, 2012
Chairman George does a walkabout after his band’s Ouzo Power gig with self-introduction speaking in 4 languages during the Ottawa Community Cup at Brewer Park June 2011.
A big thanks to my videographer Aldo Visaggio for his help with this video.
Ouzo Power is a rousing, one-of-a-kind, bouzouki-dominated rock band that reinvents and invigorates traditional Greek blues, blazing a trail through heavy metal and reggae to love songs and reinterpreted Bob Dylan.
The Greek blues, unlike the American rural based blues, were an urban music with roots reaching back to Ottoman cafe music, a synthesis of European music, Orthodox ecclesiastical chant and traditional Anatolian dance rhythms.
Rebetika is the Greek form of the blues. The blues, in any language, is a bitter sweet musical genre, born of pain and sorrow and of strong emotion. It’s cathartic and visceral. And it’s powerful.
The American blues are rooted in African vocal spirituals and chants, merging with the field hollers of poor black labourers toiling in the southern plantations at about the time slavery was abolished. These early blues were not a much respected art form then, but are now loved the world over.
