At the beginning of the 20th century, Europe is living in peace and prosperity. The “Belle Époque” is an outgrowth of previous important historical events and developments. The networks that are created and which evolve funnel both people and their products, tangible and intangible. It is within this multi-layered world that sound recording and sound reproduction is invented. Early record labels send mobile crews literally all over the world to record local musicians. The range of the repertoire is endless. Cosmopolitanism in large urban centers favors polystylisms and polymorphisms. Colonialism, revolutions, conflicts, refugee flows; the theater, cinema, radio, photography, orchestras’ tours, but also circulations in all kinds of commercial channels in a world that evolves dynamically and anisotropically, form a complex network of “centers” and “peripheries” in alternating roles setting musical idioms in motion, both literally and figuratively. The networks in which the Greek-speaking musics participate, constantly conversing with their co-tenants, are magnificent. Discography has already provided important tools in understanding the relationships that developed between “national” repertoires. The result of this ongoing research is “Cosmopolitanism in Greek Historical Discography”.

Naturally, in the large urban centers of the Ottoman Empire around the Mediterranean Sea, the “conversations” of the Greek-speakers with their Turkish-speaking Muslim “co-tenants”, the Catholic Greek-speakers, the Armenians, the Sepharadi and Ashkenazi Jews, the Levantine Protestants, and the Europeans and the Americans, were more than intense. Very often, the scope of this network extends to the Balkans, to Eastern and even to a part of Central Europe. Especially regarding relations between Orthodox and Muslims, the relevant evidence demonstrates the musical exchanges between them and elucidate an ecumene where everyone contributed to the great musical “melting-pot”, and where everyone may draw from it, as well as redeposit it, in a new form, with a reformulated text and its meaning, with sometimes clear and sometimes blurred references to its pre-text, until someone else pulls it out again, through the “melting-pot”, so that it becomes clear that there is no end in this recreational and dynamic process where fluidity prevails. A case that comes from such repertoires is this recording.

As Nikos Dionysopoulos mentions (2009: 139-140): "This is one of the first bouzouki recordings, in the form we know it today. [...] The presence of the bouzouki in Samos – in various forms and names before the ones that have prevailed – is testified since the end of the 19th century, both in written sources and in photographs of the time. The rhythmic structure and the mode of the bouzouki in the present recording highlight the urban-popular social context in which it emerged – as, for example, was Vathy and Karlovasi in the early 20th century – without ruling out the possibility that this shaping was completed in the context of Greek immigrants to America. We should note, however, the use of eight-syllable iambic rhyming couplets (even in pairs), which is, on the one hand, indicative of oldness, and, on the other hand, a sign of the fact that this early urban-popular musical expression is based on older musical/poetic structures."

In Greek historical discography the tune can also be found under the following titles:

– “Zeimpekiko - Aivaliotiko”, Giorgos Makrigiannis or Nisyrios (violin), V. Katsetos (lute), G. Klosteridis (santour), New York, January 9, 1918 (Victor Β 21349-2  – V-72702-B)
– “Zeimpekiko Aivaliotikos”, I. Ntallas (violin), Th. Kappas (lute), ca August 1919 (Panhellenion 4421 – 7030 & 4009)
– “Zeimpekiko Aivali”, Kostas Papagkikas (santur), Athanasios Makedonas (violin), Markos Sifnios (cello), New York, July 1920 (Columbia 85333-1 – E-4526 and reissue Columbia UK 85333 – 7735)
– “Zempekiko Aivaliotiko”, Kyriakatis Duo [Giannis Kyriakatis (clarinet), unknown (santur)], New York, August 7, 1923 (Victor C-28349 – 68637-B)
– “Choros zeimpekikos”, violin, santur, lute, Athens, 1925 (Odeon Go 82 – GA-1048/A 154080)
– “Zeimpekiko”, Dimitris Semsis or Salonikios (violin), Dimitris Arapakis (santur), Kyriakidis (oud), Athens, 1927 (Columbia UK W 20026 – 8002)
– “Aivali”, Kostas Gkantinis orchestra, New York, October 22, 1940 (Columbia CO 28951 – 7209-F), this recording
– “Aivaliotiko”, Giorgos Mitsakis, Athens, April 25, 1961, (Columbia 7XCG 1072 – SCDG 2964)

Moreover, one could argue that this tune is in touch with the song "Isouna xypoliti", recorded by A. Kostis, aka Kostas Bezos, in Athens, which in turn is in touch with the one recorded on the other side of the same record, entitled "Stin ypoga".

The tune, however, can also be found in the Turkish repertoire. Specifically, in the 1930s, Merhum Ramazan recorded in Istanbul the instrumental song “İzmir Zeybeği” (Sahibinin Sesi 1174). During the same decade, around 1936, Columbia saz heyeti under the direction of Necati Tokyay recorded in Istanbul the instrumental song "Yeni zeybek havasi" (Columbia CTZ 5441 - RT 17301). Also, it seems that the tune is also found under the title “Ayvalık Zeybeği”.

America, where this recording took place, was a microcosm of the globe: a "successful Babel". Naturally, a unique syncretism also dominated in the field of music. The birth, on the other hand, of discography, built a condition that favored debates and osmosis between the innumerable ethno-cultural groups that made up the population. These processes led to the re-imagining, the update and the renewal of old musical trends arriving in the United States and, at the same time, to their re-exportation to the "old worlds", thus setting up a uniquely multi-layered network. "National" repertoires live a new, parallel life, largely molded by discography, which attended to and "tuned" the overlapping relationships that had already developed in the "Old World". Repertoires communicated with each other once again; a familiar and already dynamic condition in Europe. The circulation of music was already a reality before the 20th century with theatrical and musical performances tours, but also with the networks of music publishing houses. Discography is not only embedded in this context, but also plays a key role in its transformation.

Research and text: Leonardos Kounadis and Nikos Ordoulidis