Μιχάλης Γενίτσαρης
Μιχάλης Γενίτσαρης
Person from Greece
Genres: rembetiko, greek traditional
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Στράτος Παγιουμτζής
About Μιχάλης Γενίτσαρης
Μιχάλης Γενίτσαρης {Michalis Genitsaris} (15 June 1917 – 11 May 2005) was a Greek singer and composer of the rebetiko genre. He was known as the last pre-war rebetiko singer. He was born in Piraeus, Greece. He first heard the sound of the bouzouki when he was 10, in the taverna owned by Γιώργος Μπάτης that was near his house. He was curious about it and when he discovered his father's old baglama in an old box he began playing. He was completely self taught and when he was 17 (while working as a ship repairer for a living) he wrote his first song, "Εγώ μάγκας φαινόμουνα" which was put on record three years later for Columbia records. The song was a sucess and Γενίτσαρης found himself working in "Δάσος" along with rembetes like Μάρκος Βαμβακάρης, Βασίλης Τσιτσάνης, Στράτος Παγιουμτζής, Στέλιος Κερομύτης and Ανέστος Δελιάς. As the bouzouki was considered a musical instrument played by criminals and people of the street, a policeman once broke Γενίτσαρης's bouzouki after arresting him. Γενίτσαρης attacked the policeman and beat him in return. This caused him to be in prison for 6 months. The first of many times that he would end up there for similar reasons. After the second World War (in which he fought) he continued his musical career and wrote more than 700 songs, of which very few were ever put on record. His songs were sung by some of the biggest singers of those times including Στέλιος Καζαντζίδης, Γρηγόρης Μπιθικώτσης, Καίτη Γκρέυ, Στράτος Διονυσίου and years later by people like Γιώργος Νταλάρας, Γλυκερία, Χάρις Αλεξίου, Μανώλης Μητσιάς and others. Between 1951 and 1972 was lost from the public eye. He spent some time in prison, then opened up a bouzouktsidiko (a place with live bouzouki music) in Egina, Greece. His attempt failed and he was forced to close it down. He then began working in the Lahanagora in Athens. In 1972 Ηλίας Πετρόπουλος organised a number of rembetiko nights by rebetiko veterans in Κύτταρο which were quite a success and lead to new time of appreciaton by the next generation of greek listeners. A lot of his songs were re-released and re-recorded at the time and singers like Γιώργος Νταλάρας used some of his songs in their records. In 1996 he decided to retire and a concert took place in Lycabettus theatre in his honor. He made a few, rare appearances in the coming years until he retired for good. He died in 2005.
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