New York Rock & Roll Ensemble – Reflections – Manos Hadjidakis – Kemal

After I have listened to Giocondas Smile by Manos Hadjidakis I want to present another famous work by this composer.

In the late 1960s Hadjidakis lived in New York and made a recording of some of his compositions with a group named the New York Rock & Roll Ensemble. This LP was titled Reflections and was released in 1970.

All the songs from this album are available as youtube videos now. I have listened to this album now several times, and I like it very much. Especially one song sticks to my mind, the song Kemal:

New York Rock & Roll Ensemble (Manos Hadjidakis) – Kemal

KEMAL – This is the story of foolish Prince Bass Fiddle and wise Jerry Kemal.
As you remember, last time, the Prince was found without a dime on the Ponce Valdez while Jerry
watched from a tree… (complete text can be found with the video)

More than 20 years after the release of this album Nikos Gatsos has translated the songs to the Greek language, and Aliki Kayaloglou has made a greek version of this Album.

I have selected a live recording of Kemal – but you can find some videos with the recorde version too:

Kemal – Hadjidakis/Reflections – Aliki Kayaloglou Live at Herodes Atticus Theater

Aliki Kagialoglou sings Kemal from her album with Manos Hadjidakis Reflections 1993, words by Nikos Gatsos. Live from her concert on October the 3rd 2008 at Herodion Athens.
Piano: Frixos Mortzos

The Greek indy group Raining Pleasure has recorded another version of this music in 2005. And again this is a very interesting recording. I have again selected a version of Kemal, a nice video with the english text of the story. You can very good hear the mandolin that was used in this song by Rainig Pleasure.