Yovanikas, regarded as the father of rebetiko, dies

Yovanikas, or Giannis/Yiagos Alexiou, died in Mytilene in 1925. Born in Galatsi, Romania in 1850, a legend of folk violin, he tied traditional Hungarian and Romanian gypsy music with that of the Asia Minor composers and the cosmopolitan ports they came from. He mixed a variety of musical styles and set the roots of the Smyrna Minore. The Smyrna Minore, or Manes Minore, or Minore of Dawn, used folk verses from all over Greece and Crete. More than 50 recordings of Yovanikas' Smyrna Minore exist. For the first time, it was recorded in Smyrna, performed by Tsanakas, and accompanied by Smyrnaiki Estudiantina. Yovanikas himself played the violin.