The guitars that aren't guitars

Balalaika Favorites; Osipov State Russian Folk Orchestra

The Golden, Crown, Royal and Star Odysseys employed Greek crews. Indeed, all of the waiters, stewards, chefs, engineers and officers came from Greece. The high point for the crew during each cruise came on Greek Night. Every cruise, whether eighteen days long or three days long, had a Greek Night. Members of the crew, after a hard day’s work, would don a fustanella to wear during the Kalimationos, unpack their bouzouki to play during the Sirtaki or grab a microphone to join in on “Ta Paidia Tou Peiraia”, “The Children of Piraeus”, known to us Americans as “Never On Sunday.” The band complained about playing the show because we, as Americans, have grown accustomed to the professional nature of entertainment, and this definitely was not that. These guys, rather, wanted to give their guests a taste of their own culture. Not a measured step-by-step extravaganza that comes from weeks and weeks of rehearsal, but a living, breathing expression of the here and now. This kind of performing art cannot bear the rigidity of a professional music chart.

The professional entertainers performed in all manner of idioms. Comedians, singers, dancers, instrumentalists, jugglers, magicians, hypnotists, ventriloquists, marionette artists, even mimes graced the stages of the various Odyssey show lounges. A woman named Mafalda played a Liberace type show. A man named Blackie Shackner played virtuoso harmonica. Peter Mezoian played outstanding banjo. One of the entertainers, I wish I could remember his name, played the balalaika.

A balalaika looks like a guitar but the body is triangular and it comes from Russia. A bouzouki looks like a guitar but the body is pear-shaped and it comes from Greece. A banjo looks like a guitar but the body is round and has its roots in Africa. Now that last statement may seem silly to include here. But when we here in the US look at a banjo, we identify it for what it is. It’s not a guitar, or even a type of guitar. It’s a banjo. So, we shouldn’t look at a balalaika or a bouzouki and distinguish it as a type of guitar; they are a balalaika and a bouzouki.

Our balalaika entertainer on the ship asked the bouzouki players if he could play with them during the Greek Show and they warmly welcomed him. He came, as you can imagine, from the USSR, but spoke Greek and thoroughly enjoyed himself playing the show with his new friends.

Some years later, when I was visiting my friend D., he played for me his recording of the Osipov State Russian Folk Orchestra. I loved the cover of the CD that had a picture of contrabass balalaikas. They’re huge! I thoroughly enjoyed listening to the album. They recorded it in the early 60’s using the finest equipment of the time. And, still, the quality snaps, crackles and pops.

On our famous Sunday afternoon Borders CD shopping spree, D. and I actually found this recording and I very gladly picked it up.

In the fifth season of “The West Wing” on episode seventeen called “The Supremes”, the President chooses his nominee for a seat on the Supreme Court. During a particularly loud pronouncement of misgivings by the President from his Oval Office, his secretary, Deborah Fiderer, played by Lily Tomlin, turns up the music on her stereo and the music that she’s listening to comes from this CD.

Credits: To the people of the former Soviet Union, who suffered indignities by the thousand to quell the suspicions of a paranoid government. But you have come through to the other side and re-emerged having brought with you, through the darkness, the various idioms of artistic expression, even the ones that scared your government. Good for you! Congratulations! And thank you.