ROZA ESKENAZI - REMBÉTISSA LP

FANTÔME PHONOGRAPHIQUE OME1026 

Roza Eskenazi was a giant of rembetika, the urban Greek music of Ottoman origin
associated with the poor underclass. Eskenazi’s life was extraordinary: born Sarah Spinazi to
a poor Sephardic Jewish family in Constantinople, probably in the mid-1890s, after an
itinerant childhood, she began dancing at the Grand Hotel Theatre in Thessaloniki. She
eloped with the wealthy Yiannis Zardinidis around 1913, with whom she bore a son, but after
his untimely death in 1917, she placed the son in the care of an orphanage and moved to
Athens, where she danced with Armenian cabaret artists. Eventually, the composer
Panagiotis Toundas discovered her singing and arranged her first recordings for Columbia
Records in 1929, which catapulted her to fame. Cutting over 500 songs in the 1930s, she
became the leading exponent of the Smyrna school of rembetika. Running a nightclub in
Athens during the German occupation of World War II, she hid resistance fighters and British
spies and helped many Jewish families flee the country. She finally toured the USA in the
1950s, and though her career subsequently waned, a 1970s revival led to further work. The
longevity of her output is such that her song Misirlu was included on the soundtrack of Pulp
Fiction; the 21 gems collected here were recorded between 1931 and 1947.

1 Rast Gazél
2 Ousak Maré
3 Mes' Tou Zambíkou Ton Teké
4 Férte Bírres
5 Araví Ousák Manés "Dérti Ke Póno Apóktisa"
6 Yiatí Foumáro Kokaíni
7 Stamboul Ousak Manéten-By – P. Toúnda*
8 Harikláki
9 Yínome Andhras
10 Konialís
11 Dhódheka Chronón Korítsi
12 Barberáki
13 Yiannoúla
14 Me Zournádhes Ke Daoúlia
15 Yiannoúsena
16 "Ouzo, Hasís"