Greek influences on Israeli Mediterranean music

[Eva Broman <eva.bromanassouchidis...>]

Hi everyone,

I've been reading the digests for a while, and now I thought I'd jump into the 
discussions with a few questions! 

I am Swedish, but I lived for five years in Greece in my youth, and I now teach 
Greek and do research at the university of Stockholm. Greek music has been a 
great love of mine for some 20 years now, and I'm especially attached to 
Eastern flavoured "laika" tunes, although I like the "entechno" ("serious") 
laiko style as well (as represented by composers such as Theodorakis, 
Hatzidakis and others). The first time I heard Israeli Oriental/Mediterranean 
music was when I spent a few months in Israel in the early 80's, and I remember 
that much of it sounded so distinctly "Greek" to my ears, both the singing and 
the instrumentation (especially the bouzouki)!  From a few articles I found on 
the Net, I have understood that it wasn't just my impression-it seems as though 
many Mizrakhi (sp?) tunes are actually covers of popular Greek songs. I also 
learned that there were/are quite a few artists in Israel who actually sing 
Greek songs in Greek (Aris San, Shlomo Sarangi), something which I find utterly 
fascinating! And apparently it's not only Israeli Jews of Greek origin who 
listen to this music, but people from many different ethnic origins. 

I have also understood that Greek music served as a kind of compromise for the 
Jewish immigrants from Arab countries who couldn't listen to and enjoy the 
music that they were accumstomed to in their new home country...Greek music was 
sufficiently "Oriental" in its style, but didn't carry the negative 
connotations of the Iraqi or Moroccan musical styles. Which leads to the 
interesting question-maybe the Mizrakhi singers/musicians were really 
"importing" Oriental (Turkish, Arabic) music by way of Greece, rather than 
being specifically influenced by "Greek" music? 

The reason I'm asking is that lately I've been downloading Mizrakhi tunes and 
it struck me that the Israeli "appropriation" of Eastern musical styles in many 
ways resembles the Greek one-because however odd it may seem (in view of the 
common assumption that Greece belongs to the West), so much of both older and 
contemporary popular Greek music is very heavily influenced by Turkish, Arabic 
and Indian music-much Greek music is really a hybrid of various Western and 
Eastern styles, with a sometimes heavy Eastern dominance (Oriental scales, 
singing with a lot of melisma). One explanation for this might be that a large 
part of the Greek population, just like the Israeli one, have their roots in 
Moslem, Estern countries-in 1922, Greece received approx. 2 million Christian 
orthodox Greeks from Turkey who brought with them Eastern music and customs, 
and this influence is still very present in modern day society. And then there 
is of course hundreds of years of Ottoman rule... 

One difference between the Israeli oriental style and mainstream Greek laika, 
is that laika, however eastern-flavoured, is a style that nowadays has few 
negative or lowbrow associations in Greece. In fact, most Greeks would regard 
this music as a part of their common national/cultural heritage, and artists 
like Kazantzidis are considered national icons. Of course, in Israel there is a 
whole ethnic and socio-economic dynamic that, from what I have understood, 
influences musical tastes as well, which is really not the case in Greece any 
longer. However, up until the fifties, when highly regarded serious composers 
like Theodorakis started incorporating popular elements and using popular 
instruments like the bouzouki, most of the rembetika and laika music was 
considered decidedly lower class and lacking in real quality (by the 
middle-class cultural elite)-a stance that resembles the (early?) Israeli 
attitudes towards the Mediterranean style.

Since there seems to be many very well-informed members in this group, I would 
very much appreciate your opinions on this matter, and also end with a few 
questions: 

Why did Greek music (as opposed to, let's say, Turkish music) become so popular 
in the 60's and 70's? Which Greek artists were/are the most popular (I know 
Glykeria is very popular)? Has there been any research done on the extent of 
the adaptions of Greek music-like catalogues of Israeli "covers" of Greek 
songs?  I'm thinking of something similar to a recent Greek book which lists 
all the Greek adaptations/covers of Indian film tunes from the 50's and 
onwards. Finally, could you recommend any particular albums/artists in the 
Mediterranean/Oriental genre?

All the best, and thanks in advance,  Eva Broman