About this episode

The episode features an interview with Mary Zournazi about her documentary on Rembetika music and its historical context.

The origins of popular American and English music forms like blues, jazz, rock and folk are well documented in the English-speaking world (and possibly the non-English speaking world). So, when a film comes along that looks at something outside of that realm, I find my interest piqued. Welcome to episode 135 of See Hear Podcast. Greek-Australian film maker and academic Mary Zournazi decided she wanted to make a personal documentary about the history of Rembetika music, and its origins. I say “personal” because the story she presents is through the lens of her family history. This is no ordinary documentary about “this thing happening leading to that thing happening”. She goes back to the story of her grandmother being a refugee during the Greco-Turkish war of the early 1920s, and how that war led to the environment of Greek diaspora refugees resettling in Piraeus and Thessaloniki. Many of these people brought their musical expertise and started playing in hash dens, singing songs of hard times – hence, why Rembetika is often called the blues of Greece. Mary’s 2021 documentary My Rembetika Blues does what all good music documentaries should do – it tells us as much about social…

People in this episode

Hosts: Kerry Fristoe, Tim Merrill, Maurice Bursztynski

Guest: Mary Zournazi

Topics covered

• Rembetika music
• documentary filmmaking
• Greek diaspora
• family history
• music and social circumstances

Keywords

• Rembetika
• documentary
• Mary Zournazi
• Greek music
• family history
• music history
• Greco-Turkish war

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: My Rembetika Blues

Places: Greece, Piraeus, Thessaloniki

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• See Hear Podcast Episode 136 - The Music Never Stopped · July 21, 2026 · 60 min

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