Outlaw Blues from the Aegean: Greek movie and music night at Encounter Studio

Film screening: "Rembetiko"

Followed by live music with the Smyrna Time Machine

Friday, October 20 at 7pm
Suggested donation $5-$10
BYOB and food encouraged
Encounter Studio is located at 18th and De Haro Streets in San Francisco
Message me for directions if needed.


Rebetika, sometimes called the Greek blues, originated in the early 1900s in the cities near the Aegean sea--cities such as Athens, Istanbul, and Smyrna (modern day Izmir). Originating in the large Greek communities spread around Asia Minor, the music spread as a result of the 1922 exchange of population between Greece and Turkey, at the end of the Greek-Turkish war. This exchange led to a diaspora of over a million "Greek" people (for the most part quite used to Turkish language, Turkish culture, and Turkish way of life) to Greek towns, in particular Athens and Piraeus. A great part of the refugees went to swell the underworld in cities. Among them were many musicians, bringing with them the musical style of Smyrna and Constantinople. This "outlaw" music was played in prisons, bordellos, and hash-dens called "tekkes" - a word also used to describe a type of Sufi lodge. The stylistic elements of Turkish, Gypsy, and Greek music are fused together create a unique sound for the urban underworld in a bygone era.

The movie at 7pm, "Rembetiko", tells the story of a great popular singer of rebetika from her birth in Smyrna in 1919 to her death in Athens in 1956. Her travels, loves, musical successes, and personal disasters take place against the backdrop of Greek history, accompanied with music by Stavros Xarhakos, with lyrics by the poet Nikos Gatsos. This award-winning film invokes the lost ethos of the old-time singers in an epic masterpiece that retains its relevance for today's counterculture.

At 9:30pm, the Smyrna Time Machine will take the stage. This local band faithfully captures the spirit as well as the haunting melodies of rebetika on the traditional acoustic instruments: violin, bouzouki, kanun, lauto, baglamas, and vocals. If you've never heard this music played live, come and experience it, or visit their site at www.rebetes.com.

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Encounter Studio is a comfortable artist live/work space in Potrero Hill, San Francisco. Its 50-seat performance space is perfectly suited for intimate presentations of film, music, art, dance, and theater. The resident artists are actively engaged in the integration of art and technology, including music production, audio installations, and 3D computer graphics. In addition, Encounter Studio is available for classes, seminars, and social events.