Rita Abatzi | 1930-1948

Another find from this weekend's visit to GMV, the Greek music superstore near my apartment in Astoria where I also found this fabulous CD by 60s rock band Olympians. Judging by the sound of this one, I'm guessing the whole CD was ripped from 78s. Lots of surface noise. Here is what Wikipedia has to say about her:

Rita Abatzi (Greek: Ρίτα Αμπατζή) (1914 – 17 June 1969) was a Greek rebetiko musician who began her career in the first part of the 1930s.

She was born in Smyrna, Asia Minor, now İzmir, Turkey. A versatile singer of rebetiko, Smyrneika and other music, she was a popular performer on gramophone records in the 1930s. During that decade, the only female singer of rebetiko who rivalled her in popularity, and in the number of her recordings, was Roza Eskenazi.

Abatzi performed with many of the most famous musicians including Panayiotis Toundas, Vangelis Papazoglou, Kostas Skarvelis, Iakovos Montanaris, Spyros Peristeris, Dimitrios Semsis, I. Ogdontaki up to Markos Vamvakaris and Vassilis Tsitsanis. Her career ended after World War II. She did not publish any discography. She died in Egaleo (Athens), Greece.

Her sister, Sofia Karivali, was also a notable singer of rebetiko.

Listen to the second track on this CD

Get it all here.