Roza Eskenazi
Encyclopedia
Roza Eskenazi was a famous Jewish-Greek singer of rebetiko
and Greek folk music
born in Constantinople
(today Istanbul
), whose recording and stage career extended from the late 1920s into the 1970s.
. Throughout her career she hid her real date of birth, and claimed to have been born in 1910. In fact, she was at least a decade older, and was likely born sometime between 1895 and 1897. Her father, Avram Skinazi, was a rag dealer. In addition to Roza, he and his wife Flora had two sons, Nisim, the eldest, and Sami.
Shortly after the turn of the century, Skinazi family relocated to Thessaloniki
, then still under Ottoman rule. The city was undergoing rapid economic expansion at the time, with its population growing by 70 percent between 1870 and 1917. Avram Skinazi found work in a cotton processing mill and took various odd jobs to improve his family’s financial standing. At the time, he entrusted young Sarah to a neighboring girl, who tutored several local children in basic reading and writing. These sessions were the extent of her formal education.
For some time, Sarah, her brother, and her mother lived in nearby Komotini
, a city that at that time, still had a sizable Turkish-speaking population. Roza's mother found employment there as the live-in maid for a wealthy family, and Roza assisted her with the housework. One day, Sarah was overheard singing by the Turkish owners of a local tavern. They were enthralled by her voice, and immediately came to the door to express their wish to hire the girl to perform in their club. Sarah's mother was incensed at the suggestion that her daughter—or any other member of her family—would become an artiste. Years later, in an interview, Roza admitted that her time in Komotini was a turning point in her life. It was there, she said, that she decided to become a singer and dancer.
While still a teenager, Sarah Skinazi fell in love with Yiannis Zardinidis, a wealthy man from one of Cappadocia
's most prominent families. Zardinidis' family disapproved of the match, considering her to be of loose moral character. Nevertheless, the two of them eloped around 1913, and Sarah changed her name to Roza, the name by which she was known throughout her career.
Zardinidis died, due to unknown circumstances, around the year 1917, leaving Roza with a little child- Paraschos. Realizing that she could not maintain her career as a performer while raising an infant, she brought him to the St. Taksiarchis nursery in the city of Xanthi
. His father's family agreed to support him there, and Paraschos Zardinidis eventually grew up to be a high ranking officer in the Greek Air Force. It was only years later that he finally reunited with his mother, after finding her in Athens
in 1935.
.
Roza's first two recordings for Columbia, Mandili Kalamatiano and Koftin Eleni Tin Elia (c. 1928) marked the beginning of a recording career that would continue almost without interruption well into the 1960s. By the mid-1930s, she had recorded over 300 songs for Columbia, and had become one of their most popular stars. Some of the music was folk songs, especially from Greece
and Smyrna
(İzmir) in Turkey
. Her most important contribution to the local music scene, however, was her recordings of Rebetiko
and especially the Smyrna school of Rebetiko. She was, almost single-handedly, responsible for the breakthrough of this style into popular culture, and even today her unique sound is still identified with the genre.
Soon after she began recording, Roza began performing nightly at the Taygetos nightclub in Athens as well. Appearing with her on stage were Toundas, the violinist Dimitris Semsis (Salonikios), and oud player Agapios Tomboulis. Eskenazi, however was the star of the show, earning an unprecedented 200 drachmas per night. She later confided to her biographer Kostas. Hatzidoulis that she should have been much wealthier, just on the income from the show, but that she had a weakness for expensive jewelry and spent too much of her income on it.
As her career blossomed, Eskenazi signed an exclusive contract with Columbia Records, sometime in 1931 or 1932. According to the terms of her contract, she would record at least 40 songs per year and receive 5 percent of the cost of every one of her records that was sold. At the time, she was the only female Greek artist to have a royalty agreement with a record company.
. Together with Tomboulis, she traveled to Egypt
, Albania
, and Serbia
, receiving a warm reception not only from the local Greek communities, but from the Turkish communities as well. Her music had a certain edginess to it, and one of her songs, Πρέζα όταν Πιείς ("When You Take Heroin"), was even censored by Greek dictator Ioannis Metaxas
. As a result of his decisions, many other traditional Rebetiko artists were marginalized, though a new trend in the genre, led by Vassilis Tsitsanis
, was gaining ground.
invaded, and in 1941 the German army occupied the country. Despite the repressive regime, Roza continued performing, and in 1942, she even opened up her own nightclub, Krystal, together with her son Paraschos, with whom she had since been reunited. Although she was a Jew, she had managed to obtain a fake baptismal certificate, though her safety was also ensured by an affair she had with a German officer.
But Roza Eskenazi was hardly a traitor or even a collaborator. She used her privileged position to support the local resistance, and hid resistance fighters and even English agents in her home. She was also able to rescue Jews in both Athens and Thessaloniki. Among those she saved from deportation to Auschwitz was her own family. By 1943, her cover finally crumbled, and Eskenazi was arrested. She spent three months in jail before a concerted effort by her German lover and her son succeeded in getting her released. She spent the rest of the war in hiding, fearful that she might be arrested again.
and Stella Haskil. She introduced them to the Allilovoithia musicians union, and within a short time, they were recording with Vassilis Tsitsanis.
After the war, in 1949, Roza returned to Patras
to obtain a new ID card. She gave a few concerts as well, but the real turning point in her life came when she met Christos Philipakopoulos, a young police officer almost thirty years her junior. Despite the age gap, the two of them fell in love. It was a relationship that would last, in some form or other, for the rest of Roza’s life.
Although Roza had toured extensively throughout the Balkans, it was only in 1952 that she made her first tour of the United States
to perform for the Greek and Turkish Diasporas there. The trip was sponsored by the Parthenon Restaurant and Bar in New York City
and lasted several months.
This was just the first of several musical tours overseas. In 1955, Albanian impresario Ayden Leskoviku of the Balkan Record Company invited her to perform and record in Istanbul, the city where she was born. She eventually recorded about forty songs for Leskoviku, and received about $5,000 for them. Although this was a relatively paltry sum, she later claimed that her performance fees and tips were ten times that amount.
Soon after Istanbul she embarked on two more tours of the United States
, and performed in New York, Detroit and Chicago
. On 5 July 1958, during her second trip to the U.S., she married Frank Alexander. The wedding seemed to have been in name only. This was necessary for her to get a work permit in the U.S. Nevertheless, Eskenazi loved America and would have emigrated there were it not for her other love, Christos Philipokopoulos. She returned to Athens in 1959 so that she could be with him. She bought the two of them a large house in Kipoupoli with the money that earned in the States, as well as two trucks and some horses. She and Philipakopoulos would live in that home for the rest of her life.
It was only in the late 1960s that there was some renewed interest in her earlier work. RCA
recorded two 45s containing four of her songs (including Sabah Amanes) with violinist Dimitris Manisalis, but the release was limited. All this changed, however, in the final days of the military dictatorship in the early 1970. Suddenly, the youth of the country developed a renewed interest in the urban songs of the past, and several important compilations were released. One of the best known was Rebetiki Istoria, a six-record collection of Rebetiko music, which sold hundreds of thousands of copies. After over a decade away from the limelight, Roza Eskenazi, now in her seventies, was a star again.
What set this decade apart from her earlier career was the widespread appearance of television. Roza quickly adapted to the new medium and appeared on a number of shows. In 1973, she was documented in the short film To Bouzouki (directed by Vassilis Maros) and in 1976 she did a TV special with Haris Alexiou
, which included interviews and songs, as well as a couple more appearances. Throughout that time, however, Roza never abandoned her roots in the country's nightclubs, and she did a weekly live show in Themelio, a nightclub in Plaka.
As one of the few surviving Rebetiko singers who remained active at the time, artists and musicologists began studying her style, which was deemed "authentic". This had a lasting impact on a new generation of performers including Haris Alexiou
(whom she appeared with on television) and Glykeria
. The tragedy was that while musicians and academics were intrigued by her abilities, as well as by her insights into a lost musical world, the general public was less enthusiastic, and considered her more of a curiosity. Nevertheless, she continued to perform, giving her last show in September, 1977, in the city of Patras. Fans of all ages came to see her sing and dance and get a taste of the music of the past.
, and would occasionally get lost as she made her way home. In the summer of 1980, she slipped at home and broke her hip. This led to three months in the hospital, with Christos constantly by her side, tending to her every need. She returned home briefly, but was soon back in a private clinic due to an infection. She died there on December 2, 1980.
Roza Eskenazi was buried in an unmarked grave in the village of Stomyo in Korynthia. In 2008, the village's cultural committee raised enough money to erect a simple tombstone, with the inscription, "Roza Eskenazi, Artist".
In 2008, filmmaker Roy Sher of Sher Productions began work on a musical documentary named My Sweet Canary, based on the life and career of Roza Eskenazi. The film, an international coproduction, follows three young musicians from Greece, Turkey, and Israel
, who embark on a journey in search of Greece's best-known and best-loved Rebetiko artist. The film is scheduled to be released in spring 2011.
discography. CDs of her own which may be available in English language countries include:
Rebetiko
Rebetiko, plural rebetika, , occasionally transliterated as Rembetiko, is a term used today to designate originally disparate kinds of urban Greek folk music which have come to be grouped together since the so-called rebetika revival, which started in the 1960s and developed further from the early...
and Greek folk music
Greek folk music
Greek folk music includes a variety of Greek styles played by ethnic Greeks in Greece, Cyprus, Australia, the United States and elsewhere. Apart from the common music found all-around Greece, there are distinct types of folk music, sometimes related to the history or simply the taste of the...
born in Constantinople
Constantinople
Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...
(today Istanbul
Istanbul
Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...
), whose recording and stage career extended from the late 1920s into the 1970s.
Childhood
Eskenazi was born Sarah Skinazi to an impoverished Sephardic Jewish family in IstanbulIstanbul
Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...
. Throughout her career she hid her real date of birth, and claimed to have been born in 1910. In fact, she was at least a decade older, and was likely born sometime between 1895 and 1897. Her father, Avram Skinazi, was a rag dealer. In addition to Roza, he and his wife Flora had two sons, Nisim, the eldest, and Sami.
Shortly after the turn of the century, Skinazi family relocated to Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki , historically also known as Thessalonica, Salonika or Salonica, is the second-largest city in Greece and the capital of the region of Central Macedonia as well as the capital of the Decentralized Administration of Macedonia and Thrace...
, then still under Ottoman rule. The city was undergoing rapid economic expansion at the time, with its population growing by 70 percent between 1870 and 1917. Avram Skinazi found work in a cotton processing mill and took various odd jobs to improve his family’s financial standing. At the time, he entrusted young Sarah to a neighboring girl, who tutored several local children in basic reading and writing. These sessions were the extent of her formal education.
For some time, Sarah, her brother, and her mother lived in nearby Komotini
Komotini
Komotini is a city in Thrace, northeastern Greece. It is the capital of the region of East Macedonia and Thrace and of the Rhodope regional unit. It is also the administrative center of the Rhodope-Evros super-prefecture. The city is home to the Democritus University of Thrace, founded in 1973...
, a city that at that time, still had a sizable Turkish-speaking population. Roza's mother found employment there as the live-in maid for a wealthy family, and Roza assisted her with the housework. One day, Sarah was overheard singing by the Turkish owners of a local tavern. They were enthralled by her voice, and immediately came to the door to express their wish to hire the girl to perform in their club. Sarah's mother was incensed at the suggestion that her daughter—or any other member of her family—would become an artiste. Years later, in an interview, Roza admitted that her time in Komotini was a turning point in her life. It was there, she said, that she decided to become a singer and dancer.
Early career
Sarah was not to realize this dream until her return to Thessaloniki. At the time, the family was renting an apartment near the city's Grand Hotel Theater, and several of the neighbors performed there. Every day, Sarah would help two of the dancers carry their costumes to the theater, hoping that she would one day appear on the stage alongside them. It was there that she finally began her career as a dancer.While still a teenager, Sarah Skinazi fell in love with Yiannis Zardinidis, a wealthy man from one of Cappadocia
Cappadocia
Cappadocia is a historical region in Central Anatolia, largely in Nevşehir Province.In the time of Herodotus, the Cappadocians were reported as occupying the whole region from Mount Taurus to the vicinity of the Euxine...
's most prominent families. Zardinidis' family disapproved of the match, considering her to be of loose moral character. Nevertheless, the two of them eloped around 1913, and Sarah changed her name to Roza, the name by which she was known throughout her career.
Zardinidis died, due to unknown circumstances, around the year 1917, leaving Roza with a little child- Paraschos. Realizing that she could not maintain her career as a performer while raising an infant, she brought him to the St. Taksiarchis nursery in the city of Xanthi
Xanthi
Xanthi ; is a city in Thrace, northeastern Greece. It is the capital of the Xanthi peripheral unit of the periphery of East Macedonia and Thrace.-History:...
. His father's family agreed to support him there, and Paraschos Zardinidis eventually grew up to be a high ranking officer in the Greek Air Force. It was only years later that he finally reunited with his mother, after finding her in Athens
Athens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...
in 1935.
Athens
Roza had moved to Athens shortly after Zardinidis' death to pursue her musical career. She quickly teamed up with two Armenian cabaret artists, Seramous and Zabel, who reportedly liked her because she could speak Turkish, and because she showed talent as a singer. Though she continued to perform as a dancer, Roza also began to sing for patrons of the club in Greek, Turkish, and Armenian. It was there that she was first "discovered" by well-known composer and impresario Panagiotis Toundas in the late 1920s. Toundas immediately recognized her talent and introduced her to Vassilis Toumbakaris of Columbia RecordsColumbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
.
Roza's first two recordings for Columbia, Mandili Kalamatiano and Koftin Eleni Tin Elia (c. 1928) marked the beginning of a recording career that would continue almost without interruption well into the 1960s. By the mid-1930s, she had recorded over 300 songs for Columbia, and had become one of their most popular stars. Some of the music was folk songs, especially from Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
and Smyrna
Smyrna
Smyrna was an ancient city located at a central and strategic point on the Aegean coast of Anatolia. Thanks to its advantageous port conditions, its ease of defence and its good inland connections, Smyrna rose to prominence. The ancient city is located at two sites within modern İzmir, Turkey...
(İzmir) in Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
. Her most important contribution to the local music scene, however, was her recordings of Rebetiko
Rebetiko
Rebetiko, plural rebetika, , occasionally transliterated as Rembetiko, is a term used today to designate originally disparate kinds of urban Greek folk music which have come to be grouped together since the so-called rebetika revival, which started in the 1960s and developed further from the early...
and especially the Smyrna school of Rebetiko. She was, almost single-handedly, responsible for the breakthrough of this style into popular culture, and even today her unique sound is still identified with the genre.
Soon after she began recording, Roza began performing nightly at the Taygetos nightclub in Athens as well. Appearing with her on stage were Toundas, the violinist Dimitris Semsis (Salonikios), and oud player Agapios Tomboulis. Eskenazi, however was the star of the show, earning an unprecedented 200 drachmas per night. She later confided to her biographer Kostas. Hatzidoulis that she should have been much wealthier, just on the income from the show, but that she had a weakness for expensive jewelry and spent too much of her income on it.
As her career blossomed, Eskenazi signed an exclusive contract with Columbia Records, sometime in 1931 or 1932. According to the terms of her contract, she would record at least 40 songs per year and receive 5 percent of the cost of every one of her records that was sold. At the time, she was the only female Greek artist to have a royalty agreement with a record company.
International career
Before long, her career extended beyond the political boundaries of Greece to the Greek DiasporaGreek diaspora
The Greek diaspora, also known as Hellenic Diaspora or Diaspora of Hellenism, is a term used to refer to the communities of Greek people living outside the traditional Greek homelands, but more commonly in southeast Europe and Asia Minor...
. Together with Tomboulis, she traveled to Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
, Albania
Albania
Albania , officially known as the Republic of Albania , is a country in Southeastern Europe, in the Balkans region. It is bordered by Montenegro to the northwest, Kosovo to the northeast, the Republic of Macedonia to the east and Greece to the south and southeast. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea...
, and Serbia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
, receiving a warm reception not only from the local Greek communities, but from the Turkish communities as well. Her music had a certain edginess to it, and one of her songs, Πρέζα όταν Πιείς ("When You Take Heroin"), was even censored by Greek dictator Ioannis Metaxas
Ioannis Metaxas
Ioannis Metaxas was a Greek general, politician, and dictator, serving as Prime Minister of Greece from 1936 until his death in 1941...
. As a result of his decisions, many other traditional Rebetiko artists were marginalized, though a new trend in the genre, led by Vassilis Tsitsanis
Vassilis Tsitsanis
Vassilis Tsitsanis was a Greek songwriter and bouzouki player. He became one of the leading Greek composers of his time and is widely regarded as one of the founders of modern Rebetika. Tsitsanis wrote more than 500 songs and is still remembered as an extraordinary bouzouki...
, was gaining ground.
World War II
Within a short time, however, Greece's own independence would be challenged. By 1940, ItalyItaly
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
invaded, and in 1941 the German army occupied the country. Despite the repressive regime, Roza continued performing, and in 1942, she even opened up her own nightclub, Krystal, together with her son Paraschos, with whom she had since been reunited. Although she was a Jew, she had managed to obtain a fake baptismal certificate, though her safety was also ensured by an affair she had with a German officer.
But Roza Eskenazi was hardly a traitor or even a collaborator. She used her privileged position to support the local resistance, and hid resistance fighters and even English agents in her home. She was also able to rescue Jews in both Athens and Thessaloniki. Among those she saved from deportation to Auschwitz was her own family. By 1943, her cover finally crumbled, and Eskenazi was arrested. She spent three months in jail before a concerted effort by her German lover and her son succeeded in getting her released. She spent the rest of the war in hiding, fearful that she might be arrested again.
The post-war years
Over the course of her long career, Roza developed good relations not only with Columbia Records Vassilis Toumbakaris, but also with Minos Matsas, who had recently founded Odeon/Parlophone. This enabled her to promote the careers of many other well-known artists, including Marika NinouMarika Ninou
Marika Ninou , was an Armenian-Greek rebetiko singer, born Evangelia Atamian .-Biography:...
and Stella Haskil. She introduced them to the Allilovoithia musicians union, and within a short time, they were recording with Vassilis Tsitsanis.
After the war, in 1949, Roza returned to Patras
Patras
Patras , ) is Greece's third largest urban area and the regional capital of West Greece, located in northern Peloponnese, 215 kilometers west of Athens...
to obtain a new ID card. She gave a few concerts as well, but the real turning point in her life came when she met Christos Philipakopoulos, a young police officer almost thirty years her junior. Despite the age gap, the two of them fell in love. It was a relationship that would last, in some form or other, for the rest of Roza’s life.
Although Roza had toured extensively throughout the Balkans, it was only in 1952 that she made her first tour of the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
to perform for the Greek and Turkish Diasporas there. The trip was sponsored by the Parthenon Restaurant and Bar in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
and lasted several months.
This was just the first of several musical tours overseas. In 1955, Albanian impresario Ayden Leskoviku of the Balkan Record Company invited her to perform and record in Istanbul, the city where she was born. She eventually recorded about forty songs for Leskoviku, and received about $5,000 for them. Although this was a relatively paltry sum, she later claimed that her performance fees and tips were ten times that amount.
Soon after Istanbul she embarked on two more tours of the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, and performed in New York, Detroit and Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
. On 5 July 1958, during her second trip to the U.S., she married Frank Alexander. The wedding seemed to have been in name only. This was necessary for her to get a work permit in the U.S. Nevertheless, Eskenazi loved America and would have emigrated there were it not for her other love, Christos Philipokopoulos. She returned to Athens in 1959 so that she could be with him. She bought the two of them a large house in Kipoupoli with the money that earned in the States, as well as two trucks and some horses. She and Philipakopoulos would live in that home for the rest of her life.
Decline and rediscovery
Eskenazi was now in her sixties, and the music scene in Greece had changed considerably since she launched her career over four decades earlier. Smyrneiko (the music of İzmir) and Rebetiko had declined in popularity, and she, as well as other masters of the genre, were relegated to occasional appearances at village festivals and other small events. Though she did record a few songs over the coming years, these were mainly covers of her older, well-known hits, made for minor recording companies in Athens.It was only in the late 1960s that there was some renewed interest in her earlier work. RCA
RCA
RCA Corporation, founded as the Radio Corporation of America, was an American electronics company in existence from 1919 to 1986. The RCA trademark is currently owned by the French conglomerate Technicolor SA through RCA Trademark Management S.A., a company owned by Technicolor...
recorded two 45s containing four of her songs (including Sabah Amanes) with violinist Dimitris Manisalis, but the release was limited. All this changed, however, in the final days of the military dictatorship in the early 1970. Suddenly, the youth of the country developed a renewed interest in the urban songs of the past, and several important compilations were released. One of the best known was Rebetiki Istoria, a six-record collection of Rebetiko music, which sold hundreds of thousands of copies. After over a decade away from the limelight, Roza Eskenazi, now in her seventies, was a star again.
What set this decade apart from her earlier career was the widespread appearance of television. Roza quickly adapted to the new medium and appeared on a number of shows. In 1973, she was documented in the short film To Bouzouki (directed by Vassilis Maros) and in 1976 she did a TV special with Haris Alexiou
Haris Alexiou
Haris Alexiou is a Greek singer. She is considered one of the most popular singers in Greece and has been commercially successful since the 1970s. She has worked with important Greek songwriters and composers, has performed at top musical theatres all over the world and has received several awards...
, which included interviews and songs, as well as a couple more appearances. Throughout that time, however, Roza never abandoned her roots in the country's nightclubs, and she did a weekly live show in Themelio, a nightclub in Plaka.
As one of the few surviving Rebetiko singers who remained active at the time, artists and musicologists began studying her style, which was deemed "authentic". This had a lasting impact on a new generation of performers including Haris Alexiou
Haris Alexiou
Haris Alexiou is a Greek singer. She is considered one of the most popular singers in Greece and has been commercially successful since the 1970s. She has worked with important Greek songwriters and composers, has performed at top musical theatres all over the world and has received several awards...
(whom she appeared with on television) and Glykeria
Glykeria
Glykeria is a Greek singer active in Greece and Cyprus, while also gaining fame in Israel, France, Turkey and England. Her career has spanned over 30 years and is marked by several multi-platinum releases...
. The tragedy was that while musicians and academics were intrigued by her abilities, as well as by her insights into a lost musical world, the general public was less enthusiastic, and considered her more of a curiosity. Nevertheless, she continued to perform, giving her last show in September, 1977, in the city of Patras. Fans of all ages came to see her sing and dance and get a taste of the music of the past.
Last days
Eskenazi spent her twilight years in quiet, at her home in Kipoupoli, together with Christos Philipakopoulos. Although she was a Jew from birth, she converted to the Greek Orthodox faith in 1976, and was renamed Rozalia Eskenazi. Within two years, she began to show symptoms of Alzheimer's diseaseAlzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease also known in medical literature as Alzheimer disease is the most common form of dementia. There is no cure for the disease, which worsens as it progresses, and eventually leads to death...
, and would occasionally get lost as she made her way home. In the summer of 1980, she slipped at home and broke her hip. This led to three months in the hospital, with Christos constantly by her side, tending to her every need. She returned home briefly, but was soon back in a private clinic due to an infection. She died there on December 2, 1980.
Roza Eskenazi was buried in an unmarked grave in the village of Stomyo in Korynthia. In 2008, the village's cultural committee raised enough money to erect a simple tombstone, with the inscription, "Roza Eskenazi, Artist".
Biographies
In 1982, two years after her death, Kostas Hatzidoulis published a brief memoir entitled Αυτά που Θυμάμαι ("The Things I Remember"), based on interviews Eskenazi gave later in life. Included in the book was a vast collection of photographs, especially of Roza early in her career.In 2008, filmmaker Roy Sher of Sher Productions began work on a musical documentary named My Sweet Canary, based on the life and career of Roza Eskenazi. The film, an international coproduction, follows three young musicians from Greece, Turkey, and Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
, who embark on a journey in search of Greece's best-known and best-loved Rebetiko artist. The film is scheduled to be released in spring 2011.
Links
- My Sweet Canary, The official web site of the musical documentary film My Sweet Canary: A journey through the life and music of Roza Eskenazi.
- My Sweet canary au Festival international de Salonique on Anne Brunswic's personal website (in french).
Discography
Eskenazi may be heard on many of the anthology CDs listed in the rebetikoRebetiko
Rebetiko, plural rebetika, , occasionally transliterated as Rembetiko, is a term used today to designate originally disparate kinds of urban Greek folk music which have come to be grouped together since the so-called rebetika revival, which started in the 1960s and developed further from the early...
discography. CDs of her own which may be available in English language countries include:
- Rosa Eskenazi Rembetissa 1933-1936 Rounder Select, 1996.