One For The Weekend: Yiannis Tatassopoulos

Here's bouzouki boss Yiannis Tatassopoulos with Fred Elias tearing through "Bouzoukee Cha Cha"

Radio Martiko recirculates rare Roger King Mozian near eastern swingers

Roger King Mozian's fabulous "Oriental Cha-Cha" and "Sirocco" were recently reissued by Radio Martiko. Check 'em out below. 

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Roger 'King' Mozian

Latin orchestra meets Greek bouzouki!!! A true hybrid musical dream, emerging and blending the sound from the migrant communities of 60’s New York. Under the direction of NYC bandleader Roger ‘King’ Mozian, the electrifying runs of Greek bouzouki wizard Yannis Tatassopoulos are set to a hard swinging latin beat for some unconventional yet ultra refined crossover madness from the golden era of space-age pop.  Roger ‘King’ Mozian was an American trumpeter, percussionist and band leader, born in New York as the son of Turkish immigrants with Armenian roots. He started his musical career playing in Jazz and Latin bands during the 40’s and at a very young age he composed several American standards, many of which bear the unmistakable sound of the Middle East, songs like “Asia Minor” and “Desert Dance” in particular. His talent and sparkling compositions connected with great jazz men and latin music icons like Machito, Tito Puente and Tito Rodriguez. In the early 50s, Mozian was tapped by Norman Granz for a couple of Clef 78s and EPs before launching an intriguing series of superbly recorded space-age pop albums for MGM aimed at the home Hi-Fi enthusiast market.  His Spectacular Brass and Spectacular Percussion albums released in 1960 were followed by Spectacular Brass Goes Cha-Cha in 1961.    Despite his relatively short life – Mozian died of complications due to pulmonary tuberculosis in 1963 at the age of 35 – he left some impressive musical artifacts. Mozian loved blending modern popular dances like twist, rhumba, mambo and cha cha with Greek, Turkish and Middle Eastern music. Some of the highlights of these ventures were incorporated on the posthumously released compilation Lp “A Musical Odyssey” released by the Greek-American Nina label in 1966.  After leaving MGM, Mozian encountered the talented Greek bouzouki player Yannis Tatassopoulos (aka Ιωάννης Τατασόπουλος) at one of the many "Bouzouki Bistros" dotting Manhattan’s night club scene and invited him to the studio to play Greek traditional dance numbers like “Tsamiko” and “Tsifteteli” over latin rhythms with a fabulous session band (unfortunately uncredited). The result of the blending musical traditions is astonishing as you can hear in the songs "Oriental Cha-Cha" and "Sirocco" re-issued by Radio Martiko as a seven-inch single on the Mambo Gitano imprint. Listen below.