Marika Papagika - SMYRNEIKO MINORE (1919)

Marika Papagika, voice
Kostas Papagika, cymbolom
Markos Sifnios, cello
I don't know who the violinists are but her husband always recorded with her and Markos Sifnios is the cellist on her recordings that had a cello.


Manaki Mou (1925)

I had never heard of Marika Papagika before hearing her on Carol Coronis's Aegean Connection show yesterday.  Papagika was a Greek singer who emigrated to the United States in 1915 and became one of the first, if not the first Greek musician to record in the United States.  She and her husband Kostas had a greek cafe (and speak easy) in New York until it closed in 1930 during the crash.  Her recording career (about 225 sides) ended about the same time.

As you can hear, while others might have been called "red hot mamas" she was one hot singer. Lots of the others were like luke warm buttermilk.  

You can hear more on the podcasts of yesterday's Aegean Connection along with lots of other music. I listen to her for the same reason I listen to the program before hers, Polka Party, because I hear things I've never heard and probably would never hear.  That's what I like to do while some people like to listen to the same old, old, old, old, old, old [hits turn table] things.