The Famous Quartet of Piraeus

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The Famous Quartet of Piraeus was formed in 1934 as a café band. It was the first group featuring the bouzouki and the baglama, and consisted of frontman Markos Vamvakaris, Giorgos Batis, Anestos Delias, and Stratos Pagioumtzis. Markos’ fiery love for Zingoala, his first wife, is the main and painful source of inspiration for the founder of rebetiko music. Starting as a skinner at a slaughterhouse, Markos becomes a pioneer who paves new paths for traditional Greek music and entertainment, running constantly afoul of the musical mores of the era—as well as the police, his wife, and the dictatorship of Metaxas. And all the while, war is approaching in the background like an inevitable chorus…