Stratos Payoumtzis was born in Asia Minor in 1902 and left for Greece around 1918. Payoumtzis possessed one of the great voices of rebetiko. He made hundreds of recordings beginning in 1933, many with Tsitsanis. His later years were hard, and he died on stage during a working visit to the USA in 1971. A collection was made to ship his body home. Stratos Payoumtzis is considered to be the one greatest Greek singers of all time. He was born in Asia Minor (Aivali), and came to Greece, a few years before the catastrophe of 1922. He was the closest friend of the great Markos Vamvakaris and was a member of the “Legendary Tetras of Piraeus”. The greatest composers trusted his talent and his unique voice and gave him their best songs, some of them were Giorgos Batis, Anestis Delias, Markos Vamvakaris , Tsitsanis, Papaioannou, Keromitis, Bagianteras, Tountas, and Papazoglou.