Dafné Kritharas sings ‘jewels of the Aegean’
Our guest in this week’s edition of World Music Matters is young Franco-Greek singer Dafné Kritharas. Definitely one to watch, she talks to RFI about her new album Djoyas de Mar, a captivating reinterpretation of Greek rebetiko and Jewish-Spanish songs written in the 1920s and 30s. Songs of love … and exile.
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Djoyas de Mar means jewels of the sea and these particular gems are Greek and Jewish-Spanish songs of the Aegean.
It was here, in the 1920s and 30s, that a form of Greek blues known as rebetiko emerged.
But the Aegean region was also home to a large Ladino community: descendents of Spanish speaking Jews who’d been driven out of Spain in 1492.
Kritharas was born to a Greek father and while she had no “direct connection” to Ladino found meaningful links between the two cultures.
“I discovered that many of those [Ladino] songs were written at the same period as rebetiko: in the 1920s and 30s in Salonica and also in Smyrna [now Izmir]. So it has a quite deep connection with Greek rebetiko," she says. “And also Sadik y Gazoz [Sadik Gershon and Moshe Cazes], two composers and writers of Jewish-Spanish, took some rebetiko songs and re-wrote the lyrics in Ladino.”
One such is Mi chika flor (my little flower) which Kritharas sings in both Greek and Ladino. In the rebetiko version, flor (flower) becomes kouklaki (doll).
“When Ladino people were speaking they’d use the word kouklaki, they were using the same words,” Kritharas explains.
Songs of yearning and displacement
At just 26, Kritharas is not afraid to take on Ladino classic La Roza Enflorece and do it justice, but most of the Ladino songs she reinterprets are more recent.
The song Sien Drahmas, one hundred drahmas, is a love song written in the 1930s in Salonica (Thessaloniki as it is known today), home to the world’s largest Ladino-speaking Sephardi Jewish community at the time.
“It was a period in Salonica when there was many massacres of Jewish people," Kritharas says, “so it’s a song about wanting to leave, to find a place where they could be welcomed. The idea is like ‘we are in misery but there we will [earn] money, we will have a better life. I will be able to offer you a bed’ the man says.”
On the rebetiko side, the song Kaneloriza shows how this musical form also reflects a painful period in history. Like many rebetiko songs, it came from the coastal town of Smyrna, modern-day Izmir.
“Before 1922, Smyrna was a multi-cultural city where Greek people, Armenian, Ladino people were living and in 1922 it was burned by the Turks and Greek people had to back to Greece,” Kritharas explains. “So people brought this music from Smyrna, all this oriental tones and met the people of Athens who were poor people and they built rebetiko.”
The song is also a fine example of Kritharas and Berreyre’s startling talent for two-part harmonies.
Dafné Kritharas with French guitarist and composer Paul Barreyre © Chloe Kritharas
A no-borders band
Kritharas has no formal vocal training, can’t read music, but has sung for as long as she can remember. She developed a taste for rebetiko during long annual holidays in Greece thanks to her French mother’s desire to keep the Greek connection going.
But she’s also had the good sense to surround herself by a talented band of musicians: Camille El Bacha (piano), Paul Barreyre (vocals, guitar) and Naghib Shanbehzadeh (percussion).
“I’m half Greek singing Ladino songs, there’s an Iranian percussionist and Camille is half Lebanese. It’s a multi-cultural album,” she says, “we don’t want to put up any frontiers.”
Rebetiko revival
Kritharas returns to Greece every year and will perform at the Icaras festival on the island of Ikaria this summer.
“For sure I feel more moved when I sing to Greek people because it’s my direct roots,” she says “but French people are starting to be really enthusiastic about rebetiko too.”
Kritharas believes it’s linked to the Greek crisis.
“Rebetiko is today still very played in Greece and new songs have started to emerge from rebetiko because the meaning today is kind of strong in the context of the Greek crisis. People have to know Greece today is totally different [from Ancient Greece] and out of the chaos some art was born.”
In concert 19 June 2018 Café de la Danse, 75011 Paris.
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Rapsòdia en blau
El blau és el color gairebé obligat d’un festival que sempre ha mirat a la Mediterrània i que fins i tot té el mar com a teló de fons d’alguns dels seus concerts. Però aquest any, el Portalblau de l’Escala aposta per “tots els colors del blau”, una diversitat cromàtica que també es trasllada a l’eclecticisme creixent de la seva programació, presentada ahir al Museu d’Arqueologia de Catalunya-Empúries, coorganitzador del festival amb l’Ajuntament de l’Escala i Tem Productions. Són 18 activitats entre el 17 de juliol i el 15 d’agost, en què destaca l’obertura imparable a altres arts, a part de la música, com ara la dansa i la poesia, i la col·laboració amb festivals que tenen més experiència en aquests àmbits, com el Sismògraf d’Olot i el festival literari Mot de Girona i Olot. A més, el Portalblau 2021 incorporarà nous espais tan singulars com el cementiri mariner i el jardí Clos del Pastor.
La catorzena edició s’obrirà el 17 de juliol a l’Alfolí de la Sal amb un homenatge a Joan Margarit, en què intervindran el poeta Carles Duarte i l’arquitecta Maria Rubert de Ventós. Al mateix espai, el 25 de juliol tindrà lloc una conversa entre l’artista i escriptor marroquí Mahi Binebine i el poeta i hebraista Manuel Forcano. Al Clos del Pastor el dia 24 s’ha programat el recital Varosha, amb la poeta Mireia Calafell i la violoncel·lista Björt Rùnars.
La dansa estarà representada per l’estrena de Caterina Albert i Paradís, d’El Paller, al cementiri mariner, el 23 de juliol, i l’espectacle Cossoc, de Magí Serra i Anamaria Klajnšcek, el 12 d’agost a la muralla grega del MAC.
A l’escenari de la Mar d’en Manassa, on hi haurà actuacions cada nit del 29 de juliol al 3 d’agost, als ja anunciats Suu –amb un concert recital poètic especial–, Manu Guix i Judit Neddermann, s’hi han afegit la trobada poètica i musical Faula d’Orfeu i els concerts d’Alba Carmona i la francogrega Dafné Kritharas , que debutarà a l’Estat espanyol.
Al Fòrum Romà d’Empúries, hi haurà concerts del 6 al 15 d’agost. A més dels ja anunciats Manel, Oques Grasses i El Pot Petit, s’hi han sumat Maria Arnal i Marcel Bagés, Andrea Motis i Randy Greer, i Miki Núñez, que tancarà el festival i ahir en va fer un tast a la presentació. Un altre nou espai per a Portalblau serà el claustre del MAC-Empúries, on el 5 d’agost Cor de Teatre oferirà l’espectacle a cappella Ombres i llum.
Altres novetats del Portalblau 2021, dirigit per la sempre inquieta Cristina Torres, seran el market que tindrà lloc els dies 16 i 17 de juliol a la plaça Univers, de Riells, i el restaurant que hi haurà al Fòrum Romà d’Empúries, on es podrà sopar les nits dels concerts, amb cita prèvia i aforament limitat.
Session live Dafné Krithiras à RFI + Session live en chambre avec Geoffroy au FIJM 2018
De Mozart à Césaria Evora… C’est le RDV des 1001 musiques de RFI présenté par Laurence Aloir, avec des portraits, des entretiens, des sessions live au grand studio de RFI à Issy les Moulineaux et la tournée des festivals en son et en images qui bougent.
Chants judéo-espagnols et grecs de la mer Égée
Née en 1992 à Paris d’un père grec et d’une mère française, Dafné Kritharas puise son inspiration au carrefour de l’Orient et de l’Occident. Elle a été bercée dès son enfance par les chants judéo-espagnols qu’interprétait sa cousine, la violoncelliste Bahia El Bacha. Elle chante en grec et judéo-espagnol, mais aussi en serbe, croate, espagnol ou turc, au fil de ses découvertes et de ses voyages avec son compagnon le guitariste, auteur-compositeur Paul Barreyre. L’album Djoyas de Mar comprend douze titres dont cinq en judéo-espagnol et sept en grec. Ces chants de la mer Égée, très métissés, sont liés à l’exil et au déracinement. Les arrangements sont pour la plupart signés par le pianiste et compositeur Camille El Bacha. Naghib Shanbehzadeh, jeune prodige des percussions orientales y a ajouté sa touche personnelle.
Biographie de Dafné Kritharas → ici
Vidéo de Dafné Kritharas au Café de la Danse, Paris 2018 : → ici
Titres interprétés
Live1 Dafné Kritharas Mi Chika Flor
Live2 Dafné Kritharas Thalassaki Mou
Musiciens
Dafné Kritharas, chant
Camille El Bacha, piano
Paul Barreyre, guitare
Naghib Shanbehzadeh, percussions
© RFI/Laurence Aloir
Geoffroy, enregistré à Montréal en juillet 2018 dans une chambre d’hôtel, pendant le Festival international de jazz de Montréal FIJM, Cd Coastline
L’auteur-compositeur et multi-instrumentiste montréalais, Geoffroy, a gagné en popularité depuis la sortie de son premier EP, Soaked in Gold, en 2015. Sur son plus récent album, Coastline, sa signature familière folk laisse place à un son plus électronique, aux saveurs trip-hop et downtempo.
© RFI/Laurence Aloir
Titres interprétés en guitare voix (son Marc Fichet)
Live1 Geoffroy, Sweet Pie
Extrait Cd Coastline, Raised by wolves
Live2 Geoffroy, Fall at one
Vidéo de Geoffroy, Raised By Wolves : → ici