So Dear, you say you want to be an "I Derbederissa"

F at Jimmy's is not a Blues Bar located on Chicago's infamous south side. It's actually the moniker of an infamous Rebetiko club in Athens, that just happened to be the place where some of the greatest Rebetis did there thing for a live audience. This is a recording featuring one of the greatest second generation Rebetissis, Marika Ninou. However to even use the term "recording" for this document, may well be considered something of a stretch. Where does one even begin with this CD? Oh what the Hell, let's just tell it like it is and what it is, is one of the worst sounding "Bootlegged" type recordings you are ever going to hear at any time and in any place, either in this life or the next! If ever there were a Rebetic document that just screams out for a State of the Art Digital Retrieval & Restoration treatment (i.e. the CEDAR system), Fat Jimmy's earns my vote hands down, for the Rebetiko disk that could most likely benefit from this technology. There is absolutly nothing redeemable about this CD in the way of dynamic range, the recording levels are all over the spectral map and the vocalist and instruments almost always sound either off-key or distorted, due to the home-made vintage 1950's technology, that was used to capture this performance. It's a recording that is scarcely listenable and probably one of the most frustrating disks anyone will ever have to try and "listen thru". But thank God,  someone had the prophetic foresight and just plain old-fashion unabashed temerity, to record this one very special and most magical night at "Fat Jimmy's" and then decide to share it with the rest of us. Why? For two reasons. This document featuring the late Marika Ninou is considered by many Hardcore Rebetiko aficionados, to be one of the finest performances of a consummate second generation Rebetissis ever captured live on tape, as well as one of the few Rebetiko recordings, that also accurately and realistically captures the full blown ambiance of an authentic 1950's style Bouzouxidiko .

There is an old audiophile adage that states "The better the performance the worse the recording".  I'm now convinced, that whoever originated this recording industry "Pearl of Wisdom", surely must have been familiar with this record. Yet despite all of the irritating and distracting electrical & mechanical distortions, wildly fluctuating recording levels and near infinite sonic anomalies that usually seem to accompany any live recording effort (especially when made with vintage amateur equipment), this single extraordinary performance by Ninou & Company was not to be denied. To be fair about it, I believe this tape was probably never really meant to see the light of day as a commercial offering. While I've yet to discover the history of the session (liner notes are totally absent) it may have been meant to only reside in the private collections of a few very fortunate individuals. It was obviously a "seat of the pants" affair and had to have been undertaken without any knowledge or consideration given to the infinite technical details  involved in the recording of a live session. There were some outstanding recordings made during this period (1950's) and a few of them could actually rival more then a few of the digital recordings produced today. However I also got the impression, that although this is unquestionably what we would now categorize as a "bootlegged" product , "Live at Fat Jimmy's" was probably not recorded in any secretive or surreptitious manner. In most "bootlegged" recordings you can usually tell if someone was concealing a Microphone by listening for that characteristic muffled reproduced sound they often ended up with. That is not necessarily the problem here. The main problem (one of them anyway) is that Ninou's voice is most often a bit too strong and much too upfront. In fact her voice continually seems to fluctuate between moderately brazen to (at times) inexcusably harsh and distorted. That is usually a symptom of the classic overload syndrome and it's indicative of the Microphones having been either to close in proximity to the vocalist, or a failure of someone to properly and consistently monitor the dynamics of the ever-changing recording levels, assuming that capability was even possible with this vintage equipment. Therefore it is very likely, that these recording anomalies, might have originated with one of the musicians in the band, who might have been assigned the thankless and impossible task of doing double duty as the "recording engineer", as opposed to a club patron who might have surreptitiously "Bootlegged" this very Live session at Fat J's. 

Yet for some mystical reason, this thoroughly abysmal recording effort, still cannot obscure the realization, that this performance by Marika Ninou was nothing less then First Rate. One that many fans of Rebetiko have now come to recognize as "Definitive"! This is not a term we take lightly and more often then not is one we usually try to discourage because of it's obvious presumptuous implication. But in this case, it is very difficult to characterize Marika Ninou's command of the Classic Rebetissis Persona in any other fashion. Ninou gives us some of the most gut-wrenching live Rebetic interpretations you are ever going to hear or to be more specific, try to hear. Her interpretations are dramatic and heart-felt with a marked absence of any type of contrived "over the top" sentimentality and that very professional presentation clearly comes through to us the terrible recording not withstanding.

W hile Marika Ninou was always considered to be one of the finest Rebetic vocalists from the second period, there are some fans who have always been somewhat reluctant to place her in the same class as a Sotiria Bellou or an Ioanna Yeorgakapoulou. This performance should serve to vanquish any remaining reticence in that department. Ninou's approach to Rebetika was always very much her own and particularly on this CD, she very much (as we used to say in Chicago) "Takes it to the Bridge" and then some ! That Ninou was so convincingly able to generate this type of unbridled spirit as well as effectively demonstrate her considerably gifted interpretive skills in spite of the exceedingly restrictive technical context, testifies to the strength and validity of her conception of the music as well as her ability to realize and project that conception to a live audience.  Despite the sad and sorry state of the technology, this "State of the Art" performance by the late Marika Ninou, is an exemplary contribution, that will eternally serve to validate, substantiate, and perpetuate that mysterious and now legendary Persona for those few women who possessed the extraordinary talent and requisite courage, to practice the fine Art of "IDerbederissa" .