Stan Merzanis

I love the oud, but I also love the bouzouki. Each instrument has its own "hari" (charm). I love the bouzouki because it has that twangy, lowdown sound. The oud is much more interesting. It has so much movement of tones. You're developing different sounds and different moods with the oud. It vibrates differently through your head. And your musical soul" (Stan Merzanis).

Stan Merzanis is a talented oud and bouzouki player who was raised in the rich traditions of the immigrant Greek communities of New York City and now resides in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Stan was born in 1929 on the Greek island of Kastellorizo, a Dodecanese island located one mile from the Aegean Coast of Turkey. When Stan was only two years old and at the height of the depression, his parents immigrated to the United States, moving to New York City into a predominately Greek community which was centered around the Greek Orthodox Church. Such was the closeness of the group that there were Greeks not only from Kastellorizo, but from his family's neighborhood on the island.

Musical Upbringing
In his early years in New York City, Stan heard the many Smyrneic and Dodecanese Island songs that were popular among his parents and their fellow Greek immigrants. At panegyria (feast day celebrations of the Saints), Greek weddings, and church dances, Stan was exposed to a variety of Greek American music. He was especially drawn to the "down and dirty" sounds of Smyrneic music.

Stan's major influence was his father, who loved to sing the old Smyrneic songs he remembered from his youth in Greece, as well as rebetika songs from the 1920's to 1940's. His father encouraged him to pursue his interest in Greek music, and bought Stan a mandolin when he was only ten years old. On mandolin Stan learned to play demotika, mainland Greek folk music. Stan's uncle, who frequently stayed with the family, played Greek records, introducing Stan to more of a variety of rebetiko music.

As a young adult, Stan heard Jack Gregory Halkias playing bouzouki on a New York Greek ethnic radio station and was struck by his musicianship. Up until this time, Stan had been playing mandolin and a variety of other stringed instruments, attempting to make them sound like bouzouki. He knew of no-one in his immediate community who could teach him, although downtown on the docks, Greek sailors played bouzouki in bars and cafes. At the time, however, it wasn't considered acceptable or safe to frequent these areas of town.

While stationed in Germany in 1955, Stan took a trip to Greece, determined to get a bouzouki. He finally bought one in Athens and was shown how to string and tune it. Upon his return to the United States, Stan began teaching himself to play. Soon after, he moved with his family to Harrisburg where he found a small but vibrant Greek American community. After a long search, he found another bouzouki player, Dr. Loucas Tzanis. Stan had gone to his house for his name day party, and noticed that he had a bouzouki. The two began playing together informally.

Making Music Together
Through the Orthodox community, Stan then met Sam McLoota, of ethnic Lebanese heritage, who plays the dumbeg - an hour-glass shaped drum. Sam provided the strong percussive nucleus that was needed for the formation of a group, and was the major catalyst for Stan's transition from playing at home to performing in public. Together with Sam, Dr. Tzanis, and Stan's daughters on guitar and bass, Stan formed the "Greek Band of Harrisburg" which performed well-known Greek songs and modern Greek rebetika music at local Greek Orthodox church festivals and other events. Sam's dumbeg playing with its Middle Eastern sound allowed for the later formation of the "Anatolian Small Band" which played Smyrneic and older rebetika style music.

Stan got his first oud from a close family friend, Andoni Pappas, "almost by chance." Stan explains that many years earlier, his father (who had left Greece in the early 1900's and was succeeding financially in America) traveled back to Greece to get married. Before he left, his friend Andoni (also from the island of Kastellorizo), asked Stan's father to bring him back an oud. His father did and Adoni eventually learned to play it. (Stan's father told him that an Armenian, Houdi Hrant, had actually selected the oud. Houdi Hrant was later to become known as the most revered oudist in Turkey). Many years later, at Andoni's name day celebration in New York, Stan saw him playing oud with other musicians on mandolins and violins. This was the first time Stan had ever heard the music live, and he immediately fell in love with its sound. But it wasn't until years later, when Stan was still learning to play the bouzouki and living in Harrisburg, that he again fell into contact with Andoni. Andoni had gotten a second oud, a little longer than his first one, and couldn't adjust to it. Stan had another bouzouki someone had brought him from Greece. The two decided to swap instruments. And Stan began his intimate relationship playing the oud.

Passing it On
Having worked professionally as a contractor in industrial painting and sandblasting, Stan considers himself to be an amateur musician. Until the early 1980's, he has pursued his interest in the oud and bouzouki in relative solitude, playing only for family members. In 1983, on the first occasion that he was performing in public at his church, folklorist Shalom Staub saw Stan performing. Recognizing his unique talent, Staub encouraged him to apply for folk arts grants and begin booking him at folk arts festivals in Pennsylvania. It was at this time that Stan feels he became serious as a musician. Through grants from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, Stan has been fortunate to study with John Berberian, an oudist who was living in the New York City area and who is one of the top performers of Armenian and Middle Eastern music today.

With help from a grant from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, Stan is now able to pass on his unique knowledge of the Smyrneic musical genre to someone who shares his intense interest in oud and bouzouki music. Mavrothi "Theo" Kontanis is a young man that Stan has taken under his wing. Already an accomplished musician on the bouzouki, Theo began playing with Stan at age sixteen. Now nineteen, Theo is a student at Pittsburgh University. He joins the group on this recording playing bouzouki and baglama and is the featured singer. To Stan, his musical journey has come full circle.