I was born in Chios and still love the klarino more than any other instrument. The hairs stand on the back of my head when I hear the clarinet player tuning up before every wedding and the first dance usually has me up on the dance floor immediately—and staying there—as long as the klarino is playing. And when a virtuoso of both the old and new like Lefteris Bournias begins to play a tsifteli in the old style then I feel no pain and life has become just one sweet glendi that I wish would never end. Lefteris is also a musical explorer and pioneer, fearless in dipping into all sorts of styles and working with masters in all backgrounds, and also recreating the legends of his own tradition, as one example, his participation a few years ago in resurrecting the songs of the old Café Aman composers of the New World. I treasure that CD, and both treasure Lefteri’s playing at any occasion and any new experiments he makes in varied musical genres.

I grew up, of course, as all of us, with the music of Mimis Plessas. The endless early magnitofona I listened to when I was growing up had the music of Mimis Plessas. The films I saw in the ‘60s in Astoria and Eighth Avenue in Manhattan and in the ‘70s in Chicago at old movie theaters outfitted for Greek films for the weekend all resonated with Mimis Plessas tunes. My favorite Greek movie stars all sang Mimis Plessas standards. The rides we took to the beach in my uncle’s old Chevy station wagon (powdered with flour from his donut business) were all sing-alongs to Mimi Plessas tunes. I think he was a part of every Greek expatriates musical connection to home and part of the soundtrack of our lives.

Demetri Martin, our cover story, has nothing to do with music himself (except his new movie is about Woodstock), but there is a certain music to the loopy logic of his comedy. He said his entire family thought he was insane to give up law school with only one year left and to venture into comedy. He recounts the universal disappointment of his clan, but he struck out, anyway, on the treacherous waters of a comedy career and he’s become a comedy original and one of its most creative and innovative stars. His new movie career was a complete surprise to him, but he seems perfectly cast in the part of the bookish young man who makes possible a social revolution—and a musical one, at that.

Dimitri C. Michalakis