Ntino Trig • Ρεμπέτης • Μικρό Δάσος • Κιλκίς • Ποντιακά

Recorded during a Macedonian village wedding in 1961, in the village of Migron Dhasos, in Greece. The Buzuki is played by a professional gypsy musician named Ntino (Dino) Trig who was hired for entertaining during a Greek Macedonian wedding in Migron Dhasos, a village near Salonica. From the disc '' Songs and Dances from Macedonia" by Deben Bhattacharya.

It is rather unusual to hear a tsamikos played on a bouzouki -- in fact one of the virtues of this LP is that it offers one of the only two recorded examples of "country" bouzouki players.

Of the other recorded "country" bouzouki player, Dino Trig, there have been seven pieces available on disc, on three issues of Bhattacharya's recordings: the Musidisc LP Musique Folklorique du Monde -- Grèce ( 30 CV 1106), Songs and Dances from Macedonia (ARGO ZFB-56), and the first track of the CD Zingari -- Route of the Gypsies, NE 9702-2.

Dino Trig lived in the village of Mikro Dasos ("Little Wood") in Macedonia, Greece. According to Bhattacharya, who recorded him there in October 1961, he was a Rom. The population of Mikro Dasos in fact consisted almost entirely of refugees who were forcibly transferred after 1922 from the Black Sea area of present-day Turkey, known to Greeks as Pontus. Some of the tunes Trig played are typical Pontic tunes which have no musical connection with any other kind of Greek music.

Whether Trig was his true surname is a moot point. I have a Greek friend in Uppsala who was born in a neighbouring village. Last year he went to Mikro Dasos on my behalf to ask about Dino Trig the bouzouki player. Nobody had the slightest remembrance of such a person. It is known that Rom people may guard certain words very secretly, not revealing them to anyone outside their own tribe. The name Trig is not to be found anywhere in Greece -- but could conceivably be either a joke (trick!) or from the Greek song Τριγκ-τριγκ τα ποτηράκια (Trig Trig Ta Potirakia) which refers to the sound of clinking glasses. These are my own ruminations; Dino Trig was the first bouzouki player to capture my imagination 40 years ago.

James McNeish (ethnomusicologist)

Music Tracks

01 Ipirotigo
Bouzouki, Vocals -- Ntino Trig

02. Laigo
Bouzouki, Vocals -- Ntino Trig

03. Gotsari
Bouzouki, Vocals -- Ntino Trig

04. Mparfalidigo
Kemenche [Lira] -- Villager From Migron Dhasos

05. Table Songs
Kemenche [Lira], Vocals -- Villagers From Migron Dhasos

06. Wedding Dances (Excerpt)
Kemenche [Lira], Vocals -- Villagers From Migron Dhasos

[tambouras]

The above text, from paragraph 2 onwards, was not written by James McMeish but by myself, Tony Klein. It was published on a wordpress blog by folkcatalogue. You have confused matters. James McNeish made recordings of Ioannis Thassarigikis of Arachova, in 1961 (issued on Argo LP Greece in Music and Song ZFB-70), the subject of the blog post carrying this text. McNeish wrote nothing on Trig. Please acknowledge your source.