Michalis Genitsaris
Michalis Jenitsaris (Greek Μιχάλης Γενίτσαρης - Michalis Genítsaris; born June 17, 1917 in Aghia Sofia, Piraeus, Greece, † 11 May 2005 ) was a Greek singer, composer and bouzouki player.
Biography
Jenitsaris was considered one of the most important representatives of rebetiko and was in his last decades as one of the last old master of this type of music. Characteristic of his work was the time of the German occupation during the Second World War. His song Saltadoros on a truck thief who steals the occupiers fuel and spare parts and sold them on the black market, is now regarded as the anthem of the Greek resistance. This song was banned in the fifties by the military dictatorship and until 1974, admitted after the fall of the junta.
Jenitsaris who sat himself several times in prison or deported as a prisoner on the Cycladic island of Ios, disappeared in 1953 from the public stage and operating more than 20 years with his brother, a booth at the Athens vegetable market.
The mid-1970s he was Ilias Petropoulos persuaded again to start the music. In Germany toured Michalis Jenitsaris from April 22 to May 20, 1990 accompanied by the Frankfurt Prosechos band and the singer Maria Nalbandi. Concert recordings from the factory in Hamburg and the show castle in Bremen have been released on CD.
On 11 May 2005 Jenitsaris died of lung disease at the age of 88 years.
Discography
- Saltadoros - Michalis Jenitsaris with Maria Nalbandi and the group Prosechos - live rebetika, 1 LP or CD, Third World - Our Voice U.S. 0168-09, Munich 1991