Yiorgos Batis

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Yiorgos Batis (Greek: Γιώργος Μπάτης, also Giorgos Batis) (1885 - March 10, 1967) was one of the first rebetes influential to rebetiko music. His real name was Yiorgos Tsoros although he was known as Yiorgos Ampatis. He had a great love for music and music instruments (bouzouki, baglamas, etc.)

[edit] Biography

He was born in Methana on 1885 and moved to Piraeus when he was very young.

In the mid-1920s, he opened a music school called "Carmen". He opened a café named "Georges Baté" in 1931 and formed one of the most important scenes of rebetiko music. He continued to work as a quack-salesman, improvising drugs for painful teeth and other minor ailments. In 1933, Yiorgos Batis did his first sound-recording with bouzouki in Greece. In the 1930s, he dedicated himself solely to music and collaborated closely with, among others, Markos Vamvakaris in the rebetiko band ("kompania") called I Tetras i Xakousti tou Peiraios (Η τετράς η ξακουστή του Πειραιώς) --the Famous Quartet of Pireos. However, it did not light up the charts. He died on March 10, 1967.