For many connoisseurs of Rebetika music, Vassilis Tsitsanis is the best Rebetika composer and performer there has ever been. Born in the northern Greek town of Trikala in 1915, he first started out to study law, but soon gave up college life to roam the streets and cafes and to play Rebetika music. His star rose during and right after the Second World War and some experts have said that he couldn't have known the "real Rebeti" anymore by that time. Hash dens and small illegal cafes had been closed and torn down and if Tsitsanis sings about them, he only sings of a memory, something belonging to the sub culture of the Rebeti before the war. Still and all, his songs are not copied and they sound quite vivid from both a Greek and an overall bluesy point of view. Many of Tsitsanis' songs are cheerful, but his fame comes from the sad songs, which make Rebetika a Greek kind of Blues.

Here are a few good web sites on Vassilis Tsitsanis, one of the Kings of Rebetika:

The Official Vassilis Tsitsanis Site.

Vassilis Tsitsanis 1915-1984.

Music of Vassilis Tsitsanis on Yiorgos' Greek MIDI site.

A very young Vassilis Tsitsanis