Στράτος Διονυσίου | id

Στράτος Παγιουμτζής {Stratos Payoumtzis} (1904-1971) was a Greek singer, songwriter, and bouzouki virtuoso in the rembetika tradition; as a composer his full name was used, but as a performer he was billed as "Στράτος". Born in Ayvali, Asia Minor, in 1904, he moved to Greece in about 1918. Nicknamed "ο τεμπέλης" ("the lazy one"), Stratos was a close friend of Μάρκος Βαμβακάρης (Markos Vamvakaris) and also a member of the famed Τετράς (Tetras), which many afficionados recognise as the prototype rembetiko super group that founded the Piraeus School of rembetiko. Stratos travelled to New York in 1971, singing at "Spilia"...

Dionysiou was born in Nigrita, Serres prefecture, to Asia Minor refugees Angelos and Stasa Dionysiou. At age 13, he lost his father. These early childhood experiences would have a deep impact on the style od Stratos’ music, and were a great influence to him.At the age of 20 moved to Thessaloniki where he started his career.Later he moved to capital Athens and recorded his first song. At this point he appeared with well establised Kaity Grey.Until the late 60s he had allready sang songs from great greek song writers(Babis Bakalis, Kostas Virvos) and re-recorded songs of older artists(Vassilis Tsitsanis,Yiannis Papaioannou,...