5/8/98: Bought a bouzouki. Then we headed up to Mary’s (George and Gerry’s youngest daughter) high school for an open house. Great fun! An international school, with great people involved. Grocery shopping before heading back to the V’s home.
5/8/23: A bouzouki is a long-necked Greek mandolin. They are beautiful, hand-made instruments with copious amounts of pearl inlay. The bowl-shaped body is achieved by steaming hundreds of very narrow strips of wood until they are quite flexible, and then painstakingly gluing them together with purfling around a mold and letting it harden during the drying process. I once used this bouzouki that I purchased in Athens to play the melody lines in Christmas carols in a worship service. But I’m no expert of the instrument. Below is a link to a video performance of a bouzouki master named Andreas Karantinis. That sound and that rhythm! It just makes you want to celebrate and dance with all your friends. Opaa!
Pearl inlay details on the bouzouki I bouth in Athens in 1998.
Detail photos of the bowl-shaped body on the bouzouki I bouth in Athens in 1998.
