Udi Neset Bey & Company: To Scratch Your Heart

Fri, 28 May 2010 08:00:00 GMT

Honest Jon’s HJRCD48 (Download)
Superior hard cover packaging w/ booklet, drawn from recordings made in Istanbul during the first three decades of the 20th century
The music here is so transfixing, intensely devotional and sublimely beautiful, that some contemporary listeners thought they were levitating.
Drawn from recordings made in Istanbul by the Gramophone Company and HMV, during the first three decades of the twentieth century, amidst the ruins of the Ottoman Empire, it crosses and mixes the folk and classical heritage of Turks, Greeks, Armenians and Gypsies, Muslims, Christians and Jews, urbanites and country-people, and the demands of tradition and modernity, musical improvisation, composition and system.
Brilliantly restored at Abbey Road, fully annotated with rare photographs, and luxuriously presented in both formats.

Most of the singers here are 'hafiz', versed in a musical reading of the Koran, and renowned for mastery of the exalted, improvisatory form of the 'gazel': there are several magnificent examples here, by legendary artists. Three gazelhans beautifully interpret folk songs, and another contributor, the folklorist Agyazar Efendi, sings a long Armenian air with utter authenticity, but in the style of a gazel. Exemplifying the new political freedoms of the Republic, there are two heart-melting female vocal performances of a kind of art-song called 'sarki'. Also featured is the 'taksim', a kind of improvisation in which one-off musical fireworks, designed to ravish the listener's soul, illuminate deep fluency in the 'makam': a who's who of the pre-eminent instrumentalists of this first half-century of Turkish recording, in performances which are simply stunning — breath-taking, exquisite and other-worldly.

Tracklisting:

1. Udi Neset Bey: Setaraban Taksim

2. Selanikli Apti Efendi: Sende Acep

3. Agyazar Efendi: Murat Kenarinda

4. Eyyubi Mustafa Sunar Bey: Evc Ara Taksim

5. Hafiz Cemal Bey: Feryat

6. Fikriye Hanim: Ateslik Eder

7. Hafiz Asir Efendi: Kesik Kerem

8. Udi Nevres Bey: Aksam Oldu

9. Eyyubi Mustafa Sunar Bey: Huzzam Taksim

10. Aleko Bacanos Efendi: Segah Taksim

11. Muserref Hanim: Kim Derdi Ki

12. Kamil Efendi: Hicaz Taksim 1

13. Hafiz Sami: Derdime Vakif Degilim

14. Nubar Bey and Ibrahim Bey: Hicazkar Pesrev

15. Hafiz Mahmut Bey: Bulbulun Ezeli

16. Emin Taninmis Efendi: Rast Taksim

17. Neyzen Tevfik Efendi: Huseyni Taksim

18. Udi Neset Bey: Nihavent Taksim

19. Balikesirli Tanburi Fuat Bey and Nezihe Hanim: Ninni

20. Nafi Bey: Derdime Vakif Degilim

21. Kanuni Artaki Efendi: Sehnaz Taksim

22. Munir Nurettin Bey: Madem Ki Vardi Hicran

23. Yozgatli Hafiz Suleyman Bey: Ben Nasil Ah Etmeyeyim

24. Tanburi Ibrahim Bey: Huzzam Taksim

25. Hafiz Cemal Bey: Yare Varsin

26. Anastas Efendi: Nihavent Taksim

27. Udi Marko Colakoglu Efendi: Hacer-Ul Esved Imis

28. Yorgo Bacanos Efendi: Huseyni Taksim

29. Belkis Hanim: Eyvah O Benim Talihime

30. Refik Fersan Bey: Milli Yegah Taksim

31. Sevket Bey: Huseyni Kuzu

32. Eyyubi Mustafa Sunar Bey: Hicaz Taksim