Cretan Music

For 3 months I've been packing my tiny ukulele around, keeping my fingers a bit in shape and hoping to stumble on a jam situation. There were a few interactions in Africa, but nothing of the north-meets-south variety I was fantasizing.
However, last night in a little taverna on Crete, we had a bit of magic that made the lugging worthwhile. Manilos, son of the family running the hotel in the next cove, invited us to play and sing with him, us being Jenny and me and some British rogues we ran into. A few Germans rounded out the UN, and we played into the wee hours, fuelled by good vibes and Raki.
Manilos played fabulous traditional Greek music on his laouto, a large lute with odd tuning, and we provided inappropriate background chords and riffs. He also picked up my uke and soon made it sound like something from the mountains of Crete - he was great! A guitar was passed around, and we sang folk tunes, reggae and rock'n'roll favourites. Steve and Mark, pictured below, were particularly excellent to play with on harp and guitar. Jenny's voice and spoons were highly appreciated, as were Ian Tyson and Bruce Cockburn songs. A beautiful meeting of world music lovers under a warm night sky, and we agreed to repeat the whole thing yearly...

Also pictured is Jannis, another local son who's very talented on the Cretan Lyra, a 3 string fiddle. I sat with his mother Natasia on her porch, listening to him improvise for half an hour - wow! I have a recording if anyone wants to hear it.