MORIO

Jim Potts in his excellent Corfu Blues interviews Yiannis Chaldoupis,

"an outstanding Gypsy (Rom) klarino player, whom I’d met at a festival, when he was playing with his group Moukliomos, ‘Freedom’ in Romani.

"Yiannis plays with “morio”, a term which implies deep feeling, soul, knowledge of the “roads”, modes, modulations and “maqam”, as well as special intonation and embouchure.

His music is inspired by nature; the music comes in waves, he says, or like the contours of the mountains around him. Atmosphere is all-important: he prefers playing slow music, in the dark, with his own people. If the atmosphere’s good and people are on his wavelength, the music’s great. If not, “he loses it”.<p>“You need to be a psychologist to play in Epirus; only in Epirus is it like this, traditions are so strong here”.

To earn money (hard to come by in these days of economic crisis), not only do you need to know all the regional dance rhythms, you have to know which notes move different audiences."

Here is Mr Chadoupis with Fantasia