VA - Dimotiki Paradosi ~ Pontos [Regal, 1981]

01. Kotsarin ekhorevyes ~ You were dancing kotsarin - Chrysanthos
02. Seiranitsa - C. Kuyumtzidis
03. I trigona m’ so rassin ~ My partridge on the mountain - Chrysanthos
04. Do na inume ~ What will become of me - Chrysanthos
05. Kotsarin ~ Kotsarin - K. Mantarlis and Il. Ntolaplis
06. Khoros Serra ~ Serra dance - D. Ioanidis
07. Vai naili emen ~ Alas, poor me - - Chrysanthos
08. T’ astra ki o fegon egrapsan ~ The stars and the moon wrote - Chrysanthos
09. Eki so peran ta rassia ~ There, beyond the mountains - D. Ioanidis
10. Vai ~ Alas - Chrysanthos
11. Anathema sas erima ~ Oh, you unhappy ones - Chrysanthos
12. Anastoro ta palea ~ I remember the past - Chrysanthos

Singers: Chrysanthos and D. Ioanidis

Lyra: C. Kuyumtzidis, Georgulis & D. Ioanidis
Zourna: K. Mantarlis and Dauli: Il. Ntolaplis



Pontus or Pontos is a historical Greek designation for a region on the southern coast of the Black Sea, located in modern-day northeastern Turkey. Pontian musique retains elements of both traditional Greek & Celtic melodies. The songs & dances of Turks from the Black Sea region are very similar to Greek Pontic, because turks adopted many elements of pontic and other Black Sea nations cultures long before the Young Turk movement of ethnic cleansing in the early 20th century which displaced & massacred millions of native Pontic peoples, in addition to many other cultures, namely Armenians.

This musique is often fast in tempo and can sometimes be high-pitched. It is played primarily to be danced to, with dance steps substantially different from that of Greek and Turkish dancing. The prime instruments in Pontian musique are the kemenche or lyra which bears resemblance to a fiddle & its Cretan, Cypriot and Thracian counterparts. Also there is the davul, a type of drum & the zurna, a reed instrument.

Chrysanthos Theodoridis [1934 - 2005], frequently only referred to by first name, was born in 1934 in Inoi, Kozani from Pontian parents that were descended from the village Perizkiatzit, in Kars of the Caucasus region. He first began singing as a student in high school in 1951. He sang at the radio stations of Athens with the ensembles of Nikos Papavramidis and Nikos Spanidis from 1951 through 1958. He has collaborated with nearly all the Pontian societies of Athens in all sorts of cultural events. In 1959 he moves to Thessaloniki where he remains until 1975. There he performs together with the veteran and unrepeatable lyra player Gogos Petridis [Chrisanthos had given him the name “the ‘Patriarch’ of the Pontian lyra”]. Chrisanthos together with Gogos, for the first time ever, performed Pontian music in night clubs in Greece, with premiers in Kalamaria and Polihni. He becomes a member of major Pontian societies such as Efxinos Leshi and Faros Pontion, performing at radio programs in Thessaloniki. He collaborated for 13 years with the folklorist Stathis Efstathiadis in radio programming and in Pontian theatrical presentations all over northern Greece.

the cat who sings most of the ditties on this interesting compilation of Pontos tunes is named Crysanthos & he is in fact a man :) the trance inducing fiddle is called a kemenche or lyra. χάρη στην zwan και janas. further