THE WORLD AND MANOS HADJIDAKIS
ATHENS, "Melina Mercouri" Theatre, 23-24/6/2004
Musicians from countries like Senegal, South Africa, Portugal, Australia, Algeria, Spain, Argentina, Lapland, Belgium, India and China, together with the OLLA VOGALA ensemble, "illuminate" the vocal music of Manos Hadjidakis through their own special and significant interpretations.

this is a recent project which is now being played in Greece... I'm pretty excited to hear the cd once it comes out as I really like Olla Vogala, it's a Belgian band who mix all sorts of world/folk styles... European, Maroccan, surfrock (they did a cover of "Miserlou")...
and they are accompanied by Belgian singer Eva De Roovere (Kadril) and the Portuguese Teresa Salgueiro (Madredeus) who both have a brilliant voice...
The first night must have been really great... except for one really awful thing: the accordeonist Philippe Thuriot fell suddenly from his chair... he had a brain haemorrhage... but luckily he's recovering...
The Greek composer Hadjikakis seems to have an enormously big status Greece, but I've never heard about him...

This is the full line-up:

List of participants
OLLA VOGALA, Belgium:
Wouter Vandenabeele, Luc De Gezelle, Stefaan Smagge, Bert Van Laethem, Isabelle Vandendriessche, violins; Lode Vercampt, cello; Kristof Rosseuw, double bass; Hendrik Braeckman, guitar; Philippe Thuriot, accordeon; Bert Bernaerts, trumpet; Marc De Maeseneer, baritonsax; Frederik Heirman, trombone; Osama Abdurasol, kanun; Luc Vandenbosch, drums

GUEST MUSICIANS:
Guinea: N'Faly Kouyate, kora
China: Guo Yue, bambu flute
Japan: Joji Hirota, percussion, sakuhachi
China: Dong Jinming, erhu
Australia: Matthew Doyle, didjeridoo

VOCALS:
Hungary: Beata Palya
France/Belgium: Catherine Delasalle
Belgium: Eva De Roovere
South-Africa: Faith Kekana
Norway: Kari Bremnes
South-Africa: Khululiwe Sithole
Italy: Lucilla Galeazzi
South-Africa: Stella Khumalo
Portugal: Teresa Salgueiro