Grammeno, Epirus: The Last Gig with Amanda, Andrea and Marta; Mariola, Miroloi

Sad to say goodbye today to the wonderful team from the New York Times: Amanda Petrusich, Marta Ferranti and Andrea Frazzetta. We went to meet Napoleon and Michaelis Zoumbas at Grammeno, for Amanda to interview them about the significance of panigyria in Epirus, past and present, and how they've changed in the course of their lifetimes (Napoleon is 84, Michaelis 81).

Marta Ferranti and Andrea Frazzetta,

outstanding photographers from Milan (Marta is originally from Rome)

 Napoleon and Michaelis Zoumbas, Epirot musicians, retired,
beside the statue of Zosimas (one of the Ζωσιμάδες brothers),
a great benefactor who came from Grammeno.

Chris King with the Zoumbas Brothers. My car in the background,
 at the end of a stressful morning in Ioannina, after it had broken down
 and been carried away on the back of a truck for repairs.
It had been over some very rough and challenging roads and stony tracks in search of Epirot musicians and remote mountain village panigyria.

 Amanda and Aphrodite at an earlier interview in Vitsa,
with the great Grigoris Kapsalis.

To get an idea of the kind of interviews we were trying to get, watch this YouTube video, "Mariola".
It's a tragic miroloi we discussed with Napoleon Zoumbas, and which Grigoris Kapsalis played most movingly in Vitsa.

Here's another traditional panigyri version.

Thomas Haligiannis version