In this section, we will discover what happens to Rebetiko when 10 Helsinki based musicians from 6 different countries around the world meet, more than 100 years after the birth of Rebetiko and more than 2000km away from its birthplace. What happens to Rebetiko when it interacts with 6 other musical traditions and is created and performed in a way that embraces the musical backgrounds of a group of musicians from 6 different countries?

This project is my attempt at answering these questions through creating a 45 minute performance inspired by traditional Rebetiko and urban folk tunes from Greece played by musicians from Greece, Kosovo, Finland, Spain, Aruba and Portugal. In this context, musicians from diverse backgrounds negotiate odd meters and new musical elements, coming together to find a find a common breath and new forms of expression.

In order to achieve these goals, I tried out a method that was completely new to me.

In the beginning of 2019, I started by creating a core group of three musicians with the ability to cover the spectrum of sound needed. The original core was Mr. Christopher Rodulfo (Aruba) – Drums, percussion, Mr. Joâo Luis (Portugal) – Vibraphone, Percussion and me, Vasilis Katopodis (Greece) - Electric Bass, singing.

We started working on traditional tunes from Greece as well as some Urban folk and Rebetiko. I soon had the idea of the direction I wanted to take, focussing mainly on Rebetiko from 1920 onwards. By narrowing the range of musical tradition, I could be more focused and achieve a deeper understanding and homogeneity of repertoire. Following on from this phase, we started listening as a group to what the music was asking for, which led to adding the rest of the wonderful musicians of the group little by little.

Mr. Ilias Papailias (Greece) on Bouzouki was added to the group in order to strengthen the melodic lines and the sound of the traditional material. For the same reason, Ms. Chrysa Panagiotopoulou (Greece) was added to the group as a singer. Finally, the rest of the musicians joined the project; Ms. Merve Abdurrahmani (Kosovo/Finland) on Piano, Ms. Viivi Maria Saarenkylä (Finland) on Accordion, Mr. Beltran Cubel Gajas (Spain) on Viola and percussion, Mr. Tero -Bombero- Rantanen (Finland) on percussion and last but not least Mr. Joni Vierre (Finland) on electric guitar. This combination of musicians allowed me to cover the sonic frequencies needed for the music as well as the diversity of cultures and musical backgrounds, with each musician bringing their own unique skills and character to the music

The process was interesting and enjoyable, but not without challenges.
Many issues came up during this process, which can be divided into two types:

Type 1 – Practical Organizational

It turns out that it is quite difficult to manage a big group of musicians. Some musicians want to read music, others prefer not to, some can make it to the steady rehearsals, others not. Some musicians like to have more playing time and others are happy with less if the material is clear. For these reasons, I decided to communicate with each of the musicians individually in order to be aware of their personal needs. At the same time, I hoped to create a positive attitude towards playing the music and working together, ultimately cultivating a community feeling and a group identity.

Type 2 – Aesthetical Result

From the beginning of the project, I have been extremely careful in order to balance two important aspects:

1. To give to each musician space in order to bring their own elements to the music

2. To develop any new elements with respect to Rebetiko with the aim of still maintaining its unique character as much as possible.

In order to do this, I needed to be very clear to the musicians about the direction I wanted to take, whilst still remaining open to their suggestions.

Even though I started with the above separation in my head, it very soon became evident that I had to abandon any kind separation. This was due to the fact that all of the musicians had such rich and diverse musical and cultural backgrounds and had a lot to offer to the music. In a way, it became clear that we should  always respect the strong elements of the original versions of the songs, but at the same time, we should be very open and aware of what each of the players was bringing to the music, as a way to ultimately create a dialogue between traditions. As in many cases, the dialogue was not always fluent from the beginning. At first, we simply brought the traditions together. Secondly, we began to explore, creating more and more interaction that finally led us to the point of creating moments of completely new music, based on the interaction of musical traditions, which was a great joy.

I observed a few reasons that made this possible:

1. As a group, we had the fortuitous possibility of being able to work on the music on neutral and equal ground.

(i) By neutral ground, I am referring to the fact that, even though we are working with specific musical traditions like Greek urban folk, Aruban Tumba and Brazilian Samba, we are doing this in Finland where, geographically and culturally, none of these traditions originate from. This creates a situation where, although all of the traditions are approached with great respect, there are not pre-conceived ideas or expectations about their connection to the environment we live in or the context or ways in which they should be played. This creates space for greater experimentation. In this context, we have to either learn about the traditions from each other’s knowledge, like the case of Zeibekikos and Tumba, where both the traditions were presented from the musicians who were raised with them, or collectively learn about them, as in the case of Samba and Maracatu where most of the group has been learning for Brazilian music in through common workshops and lessons.

(ii) By equal ground I am referring to the conscious choice of giving equal voice to all the musicians and consulting everyone in the final decisions. As a matter of fact, there were numerus cases that the decisions were taken by the music itself. All we needed to do as a group was to pay attention to its details and what this musical interaction was asking from us.

2. Subconsciously, I followed a path that gradually led us to the result. Once the recipe gave results, we worked on it to optimise the results. I will outline the path and working process here:

(i) The first step came in place naturally as through common studies in Sibelius Academy, musicians from diverse backgrounds co-existed in the same place at the same time even though there was no plan yet for the cooperation in this project. This situation could be defined as being intercultural.
Huib Schippers defines this situation as multicultural, where Different peoples and musics lead largely separate lives. Ethnic groups learn and do their own music” irrespective of the rapidly changing and blending cultural reality of musical tastes in our societies´´.  (Schippers, 2010, p.31) 

(ii) The second step was to bring these musicians together with the wish to observe how the cultures might interact through the players interaction.
Prior to this interaction, the pieces of the puzzle were in place, but the picture was not complete. The process involved different forms of experimentation. For example,

we would try different rhythms on top of archive recordings of Greek folk tunes:

·         In the case of the Greek Hasapikos Samba mou ksigiesai interacting with Samba rhythm from Brazil, the time signature was similar (2/4 and 4/4). Playing the rhythm behind the song was the first approach here. 

·         In the case of Zeimpekikos Prousa interacting with Tumba Rhythm from Aruba, the time signatures were different (9/8, 6/8) and thus they needed more modification in order to work.

The process of combining the two rhythms and working out the math behind the time signatures created something new, which was intercultural by nature. This achievement brought enthusiasm and motivation and I soon began wondering if the interaction could become deeper.

continue allowing the traditions interact, taking into account the suggestions of the musicians and their personal backgrounds and aesthetics. As we played more and more, the music started to flow naturally and any previous small clashes between the traditions were overcome more easily, allowing us to create solid structures for the pieces. We were finally reaching the stage of creating music with characteristics of the background of each player, moving more and more towards intercultural collaboration.  

Huib Schippers definition of intercultural,” Loose contacts and exchange between cultures and includes simple forms of fusion. Can be steered largely by feelings of political correctness but also by profound musical interest and awareness.” (Schippers. 2010. p.32), best describes the stage that the group was at.

The more the music felt natural and part of them, the more excited and motivated the group would become. I proceeded by bringing more material to the group, followed by further experimentation. We also started catching a common breath, in other words knowing how each other reacts to the music, gaining deeper understanding and trust in each other and the music itself. There was only one way left to go.

(iii) The third step was to continue with the experimentation and see what would come out, this time focussing on the interaction between the musicians rather than the traditions themselves. As we continued building on the process in both smaller groups and all together, little diamonds started popping up. I refer here to moments when the music felt like it simultaneously represented both the traditions and the unique individual characteristics that had been created throughout the collaboration. These characteristics were organic and natural to the group. The term transcultural is relevant here as stated by Huib Schippers: Transcultural ´´Refers to in-depth exchange of approaches and ideas.” (Schippers. 2010. p.32) For example in the field of music education it suggests” programs in which many different musics and musical approaches are featured on an equal footing” (Schippers. 2010. p.32). This description best articulates the final step of our project. We were achieving moments of transcultural results in the music.

It goes beyond saying that to achieve a pure transcultural result in the music, further research, cooperation, interaction and time would be needed. However, these few moments of magic felt like we were on the right track, and made us all want to continue down this road. Time will tell if this is a way to pure transcultural interaction in music, but my belief is that when the musicians achieve the right level of interaction while being open, there is no reason why not to get the desired results.  Breaking the music in Harmony, melody and rhythm and working separately with each element could appears like the central method in terms of pragmatic music-making. There needs to be further work to that direction, and this is one of the further steps to be done but at this stage of the process there were certain limitations of time and space that postponed going further to this direction. It is a hope and a wish to continue working on this project, discovering all kinds of new sides and levels.

It was during this process, one night while talking with my dear companion, that it dawned on me. I was not only seeking for interaction of musical traditions. I was seeking for a way to break the lines on the map. To break borders.  

This process has been an eye-opening experience for me in terms of musicality and in terms of where something can go when it gets the love, respect and time it deserves. Starting from baby steps to large jumps of progress in this project, I continue to explore the most efficient approaches for fruitful collaboration with such a multinational and multicultural group, under the umbrella of Musical Traditions of the world.

In conclusion, we cannot forget that Breaking the music in Harmony, melody and rhythm and working separately with each element worked like our central method in terms of pragmatic music-making. There needs to be further work in that direction, but at this stage of the process there were certain limitations of time and space that postponed this process. It is a hope and a wish to continue working on this project, discovering all kinds of new sides and levels.

Let us now define the final stage of this project, titled Rebetiko 2.1.

Rebetiko 2.1 creates, re-interprets and re-invents contemporary urban Greek folk and Rebetiko music blended and merged with other diverse musical traditions. 

Rebetiko 2.1

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