You probably don't know him but one of the most important Greek musicians died yesterday after a fight with cancer. I was lucky enough to watch his final performance this summer. His performance was attended by his doctor and he was very kind and thanked him for everything he did for him. It was pretty emotional but at the time I didn't know he was that bad, since the performance was overall amazing and you couldn't really tell he was in a bad state. It was really sad to hear about him dying, he was an incredible artist and a great personality too, very kind, humble and respectful of art. No, he's got nothing to do with Marvel Thanos.
Anyways, here's some of his amazing performances. He was primarily a composer (and wrote some of the most classic and important modern Greek songs) and not a performer, but his concerts were still very emotional and beautiful. Enjoy!
This is "7 Dwarves on SS Cyrenia", his adaptation of the poem of the same name by Nikos Kavadias, a poet who wrote primarily about the lives of sailors. Mikroutsikos adapted his entire book into an album called "O Stavros tou Notou" (The Southern Cross), all of which is amazing.
This is the same song in the aforementioned final performance (audio quality is garbage but his performance was definitely the most emotional I have heard):
From the same album, this is "Ena Mahairi" (A Knife). I like how he interrupts the song to explain what the instrument being played is and why the person playing it is one of its best performers:
The lyrics by Kavadias are pretty amazing too:
I always keep tight on my belt
A small African dagger
Like the ones negros use to play
That I bought from a merchant in Algiers
I remember as if it were yesterday the elderly antique dealer
Who looked like an oil painting by Goya
Standing next to long swords and torn up uniforms
Saying in a coarse voice the following words:
(...)
This knife that you want to buy
Is wrapped in bizarre tales and legends
And everyone knows that those who used to have it
All of them killed someone close to them
Don Bazilio killed with this Donna Julia
His beautiful wife because she cheated on him
Conte Antonio killed one night his unfortunate brother
With this knife here he murdered him in secret
A negro killed his young mistress out of jealousy
And an Italian sailorman killed a Greek boatswain
It went hand to hand and it ended up in mine
My eyes have seen lots of things but this one gives me fear
Take a look at it, it's got an anchor and a coat of arms on it
Hold it, it's very light, not even a quarter
But I would advise you to buy something else
"How much is it?" "Only seven francs, if you want it you can have it."
I have a small dagger wrapped in my belt
Which I made mine on a whim
And since there is no one in the world I hate to death
I fear that one day I may turn it against myself
This one (also from the same album) is called Armida but usually known as "Captain Jimmy's Pirate Ship", most people in Greece know it because it was a common song we sung in elementary school music classes, although with the lyrics slightly modified since it mentions hashish. The video for some reason credits it to Vassilis Papakonstantinou, which I guess is because he sung in most of the songs in that version of the album, but he doesn't in this one. Kinda weird I guess but here it is:
His most famous song is probably Roza, sung by the late Dimitris Mitropanos, probably the greatest Greek folk singer (the weird moves he does are a legit dance btw, this is a dance song in a way, weird as it may seem):
From the same performance, "Panta Gelastoi" (Αlways Laughing):
This one is "Kakoithes Melanoma" (Malignant Melanoma), dedicated to the great marxist sociologist/political scientist Nikos Poulantzas who had committed suicide shortly before the writing of this song. I wanted to post a live version with an actual video but the sound quality of the ones I found on youtube aren't very good). It's actually an extended version of the actual song, which is only about 5 minutes and starts at about 11:50, but the jazzy/spacey improv at the start is amazing.
Here's a last one, again from Stavros tou Notou, "Kuro Siwo":