Udi Neset Bey & Company: To Scratch Your Heart

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:

Udi Neset Bey: Setaraban Taksim

Selanikli Apti Efendi: Sende Acep

Agyazar Efendi: Murat Kenarinda

Eyyubi Mustafa Sunar Bey: Evc Ara Taksim

Hafiz Cemal Bey: Feryat

Fikriye Hanim: Ateslik Eder

Hafiz Asir Efendi: Kesik Kerem

Udi Nevres Bey: Aksam Oldu

Eyyubi Mustafa Sunar Bey: Huzzam Taksim

Aleko Bacanos Efendi: Segah Taksim

Muserref Hanim: Kim Derdi Ki

Kamil Efendi: Hicaz Taksim 1

Hafiz Sami: Derdime Vakif Degilim

Nubar Bey and Ibrahim Bey: Hicazkar Pesrev

Hafiz Mahmut Bey: Bulbulun Ezeli

Emin Taninmis Efendi: Rast Taksim

Neyzen Tevfik Efendi: Huseyni Taksim

Udi Neset Bey: Nihavent Taksim

Balikesirli Tanburi Fuat Bey and Nezihe Hanim: Ninni

Nafi Bey: Derdime Vakif Degilim

Kanuni Artaki Efendi: Sehnaz Taksim

Munir Nurettin Bey: Madem Ki Vardi Hicran

Yozgatli Hafiz Suleyman Bey: Ben Nasil Ah Etmeyeyim

Tanburi Ibrahim Bey: Huzzam Taksim

Hafiz Cemal Bey: Yare Varsin

Anastas Efendi: Nihavent Taksim

Udi Marko Colakoglu Efendi: Hacer-Ul Esved Imis

Yorgo Bacanos Efendi: Huseyni Taksim

Belkis Hanim: Eyvah O Benim Talihime

Refik Fersan Bey: Milli Yegah Taksim

Sevket Bey: Huseyni Kuzu

Eyyubi Mustafa Sunar Bey: Hicaz Taksim