The Greek singer, Yiannis Parios, compiled the love songs of the legendary Mikis Theodorakis and the two sang together on a starry night at Lykavitos.
This was a soundtrack to my childhood. My Dad singing in the car, or in the basement with the men's barbershop choir he pulled together. Dancing with my friends and our parents late into the night at church community dances. Summer beach parties with my cousins in Greece.
I'm reading more and more about Theodorakis, and listening to his music again, following his death at 96 on September 2. He was THE Greek composer of the past century. I'm old enough to know his music and to remember - to be stirred by the first note or two of a song and know in my heart the words and notes that follow - but young enough that I did not really know of his significant political impact during Greece's dark days of dictatorship. Imprisonment. Torture. Exile. I'm learning that he also collaborated with Pablo Neruda, whose life experience as a Chilean poet and political protagonist mirrored his own.
You've all heard his music, whether you are Greek or not. Think of Zorba's dance - those first 2 notes that summon you to dance, to put your arms on the shoulders of strangers next to you and to move to an ever faster rhythm until you collapse, breathless and laughing - and you'll go "Ohhhh, right. I do know that one."
If you have Greek blood running through your veins, then you know that his music is more than entertainment. It is the soundtrack of almost a century marked by conflict, occupation, poverty, political and economic extremes, perseverance. And one that is also based on the deepest passion and love - eros - for country and fellow travellers on this earth.
Now, I get it. May he rest in harmony, his memory eternal.
