The 1960's was the decade of the Trio Bel
Canto's rise to fame in the United States. (In fact, they established permanent
residency in the U.S. in 1966.) After their final performance at the Palia
Athena club on January 1, 1961, the group toured Tel Aviv, Haifa and Jerusalem,
and played at the Hawaii Club in Thessaloniki as part of the Thessaloniki
Exhibition of that year. After a trip to Beirut in January of 1962 and a brief
stint at the club Kastro in Athens, the Trio Bel Canto received a letter from
the immortal Niko Gounaris, personally inviting them to come to the United
States to entertain with him at the Monte Carlo Hotel and Nite Club in the
Catskills of upstate New York. The well-known Monte Carlo in Monroe, New York
was famous for hosting evenings of Greek music and dance. It was in the hotel's
"Blue Room" that the Trio, along with the "troubador of Athens", Niko Gounaris,
began performing sold out shows every night of the week to scores of anxious
fans. After Gounaris's death in May of 1965, the Trio played at the Monte Carlo
that summer for the last time. Playing and singing primarily in prominent night
clubs (Athens Club, Chicago; Carson's Supper Club, Detroit; Salomé Night
Club, Astoria, to name a few), theatres (Philarmonic Hall, Lincoln Center), and
yes, even on American television on Johnny Carson's "Tonight Show" in May of
1963, Evangelos, John and Michael were rising stars in their own rite. Their
melifluous voices and their unique interpretations of popular Greek songs were
showcased at the mecca of the entertainment world, Carnegie Hall in New York
City, in a concert on September 18, 1965. Appearing with such singers as Jim
Apostolou and Eva Styl, and with the popular Greek orchestras of Gus Vali and
George Stratis (with whom they ultimately collaborated on their LP recordings),
the Trio made history by being the first Greek musical group to grace that
stage and perform to the delight of the Greek-American audience. They made a
second appearance at Carnegie during this decade, in December of 1967, in an
evening of Greek music with the famous bouzouki player Harry Lemonopoulos.
Because of the very limited availability of Greek music here in the States
during that time, the Trio would receive reel-to-reel recordings and lyrics of
popular songs from Evangelos Metaxas's brother, who lived in Greece, and the
group would then learn the songs, set the music and appropriate harmonies, and
then record them. This is why the Trio Bel Canto was so popular: they brought
to the Greeks in America the music of their homeland, and they performed it
with such style and precision that the Greek public was always thrilled to hear
them sing. They continued to play throughout the decade in virtually every
major night club in the country, as well as local dinner-dance events for the
Greek churches and organizations. During the '60s, they recorded most of their
albums which are still treasured to this day.(Click on
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