Karavitis Alekos

Five are Crete’s finest men
Psillos, Lagos and Rodinos, Baxes and Karavitis”.
Alekos Karavitis was born in the picturesque and mountainous village of Actounta Agiou Vasileiou at Rethimnon in 1904. He was the third of eight children and he too followed the footsteps of his family’s musical tradition. He got his own lyre at the age of 15.
Karavitis went to Athens for the first time in 1921, where he served as a volunteer to the Gendarmerie until the year 1925. The following year, he settled in Athens and tried to make his own way into the world of music having as his ‘allies’ his lyre and his reputation that was already exceeding the limits of Crete.
His debut in discography came in 1928, when he recorded the songs “Agiovassiliotikos Syrtos” and “Rethemniotiki Sousta” that both turned out to be great success.
Until the end of the 1940s, Alekos Karavitis had recorded several albums inspired by a wide range of Cretan music resources as well as folk songs from other Greek islands.