Zorba The Greek - Mikis Theodorakis

Firstly, a brief word on film: Michael Cacoyannis's exuberant adaptation of Nikos Kazantzakis's magnificently life-affirming novel Zorba The Greek is one of the great unheralded film classics of the 1960's. Anthony Quinn (an underrated star of the silver screen if there ever was one) is marvelous in his Oscar-nominated performance as the titular protagonist, and Walter Lassally's spacious cinematography is beautiful to behold. At the front and center of this movie, however, is one of its most important aspects: Mikis Theodorakis's bold and brassy score; hundreds of years of Greek folklore condensed into a bare twenty-seven minutes of music. Awash in joyous strings - guitars, zithers, and bouzoukis all vie for supremacy - Zorba The Greek is the sound of a supremely talented modernist composer indulging his love of both folk and pop music forms. Consistent with Theodorakis's illustrious record as a freedom fighter, rebetiko, the "Greek blues" of the 1930's, is well-represented here, providing the perfect accompaniment to Zorba's lustrous adventures. However, this isn't pure Greek folk music; aspects of Hollywood-esque film score production are apparent, particularly in melodramatic tracks like "The Fire Inside" and "Clever People & Grocers", and even vaguely exotica-esque pop textures pop up, as on "Theme From Zorba The Greek", which Herb Alpert would later cover for a huge instrumental hit, effectively proving that in 1965 American audiences had not yet tired of ethnic-ish instrumental pop music. Yet Theodorakis's remains the superior version, a definite highlight in this brief but beautifully effusive soundtrack album.

"Me, I got up and I danced. They said, 'Zorba is mad!'"