Istanbul's pedestrian pulse
Tom and Ron (pictured)
bought 40+ cd's
(see Ron's testimonial)
Below: Sandra
Sumru and Dore below
Site of Rumi's Tomb
copyright: Tangents 2010
in Mevlana Museum
October 11:
Airport
and train arrival day. We had ten in our group including eight living
in the Bay Area, Bryan from London and Chris living in Vienna.
October 12:
We started with a four hour guided tour of
The first
concert featured drummer Engin Gürkey's Balkan jazz group in a tiny
jazz club. We had reserved seats next to the stage. The place was
packed and brimming with excitement. Violinist Turay Dinleyen performed
practically next to us and stole the show. Engin has a music school and
to our delight after Engin's group finished, we were treated to several
outstanding student acts and professional friends who also joined on
stage.
Bryan commented as we exitedthe club: "Dore - how are
you going to top this?"
October 13:
We hooked up with famed percussionist/drummer/instrument inventor Okay Temiz for an informal percussion
workshop/presentation. This was loads of fun as Okay is one of the most
charismatic folks imaginable - he's like a musical elf, not to mention
Turkey's most famous jazz musician. He is a cross-pollinating jazz
pioneer having worked with other giants such as Don Cherry and South
Africa's Abdullah Ibrahim.
October 14:
We spent the morning in a special guided Genovese (Galata) tour led by one of Istanbul's most prominent architects who has lived in this historic neighborhood for 7 decades.
After lunch at a splendid
Georgian restaurant housed in the former British jail, we stopped at
the magnificent yet overlooked Rustem Pasa mosque. It's unusually small
and an inviting place to pray or meditate. Topkapi's harem and Rustem
Pasa have the most remarkable tiles and the dome ceilings are
exquisite.
Our final daytime activity was spent visiting Turkey's finest builder of traditional stringed
instruments.
His home is like a musem. We also visited his workshop where he makes
magic in cramped quarters. Reminds me of a sign my mom once gave me: "A
messy desk is the sign of a genius."
The
evening featured a private concert with extraordinarily versatile
vocalist Sumru Ağıryürüyen accompanied by Turkey's rising star jazz
guitarist Cenk Erdogan. Two hours before the concert both Sumru and
Cenk joined the Tangents group for dinner. This set the tone for the
evening as the concert was as intimate as it gets - we were in at the living
room sized Gitar Cafe club and sat a couple of feet from the stage.
Originally
Sumru and I had planned for one of her ensembles to perform during the
Tangents tour but no date could work for all. I suggested she do
a duo concert with a stringed accompanist and Cenk was chosen. They had
never performed together until that night.
There
chemistry was remarkable as each had intuitive powers to anticipate
each others moves. The concert was so good that Sumru and Cenk are
working on a new album together as a result of this experience!
For a video shot by tour member Don, check this link and then scroll down.
Sumru even sent me a few 'rehearsal' songs that I have been playing on Tangents.
October 15:
Bosphorus Cruise to
the entrance of the Black Sea and back. At the final stop we climbed a
hill and explored a medieval castle with spectacular views of the Black
Sea. Lunch
was perched overlooking the magnificent water below. We ordered a
variety of fish (calamari, sea bream and sea bass) which were among the
tastiest on the trip.
We traveled to a club in the heart of Istanbul to catch Turkey's top Roma/Gypsy clarinetist and star of Crossing the Bridge: Sounds of Istanbul, Selim Sesler. We
sat a few feet from Selim's band sipping drinks and soaking up the
music and atmosphere. They played until the early morning hours and
several stalwart Tangential group members stayed the duration and
danced their hearts out.
October 16:
We flew to
The group was treated to a carpet presentation by
our friend Semsi and then a home cooked meal of traditional guvec (beef
and vegetable stew slowly cooked in a clay pot) prepared by Semsi (man
of many skills) and his helpers.
October 17:
After breakfast the group reassembled and we took a road trip to Kaymakli Underground City. For
the 5th consecutive year Mustafa was our guide for all activities in
Cappadocia including this remarkable example of human creativity aand
determination. It's a
October 19:
Depart for
We visited the
Overnight was in Afyon,
home to a dramatically perched citadel. One of Afyon's claims to fame
is it produces more than 1/3 of the world's legally grown opium and huge cauliflower. (see photo)
We
arrived in the late afternoon and walked around this pure Turkish city
(no tourists) buying spices, fruit and munchies for the next day's van
ride. We also visited the Imaret mosque located in a park. It's design
shows the transition from Seljuk to Ottoman style as it has a
spiral-fluted minaret decorated Seljuk style, with blue tiles.
October 20:
LIke clockwork our group assembled in the lobby for 8a departure for Pamukkale.
We spent several hours exploring the famous white calcium travertines and most the extensive Roman and Byzantine ruins at
As duck approached we arrived at our final travel hub - the tiny
October 21:
After a lovely breakfast
with delicious fig and fruit jams, yogurt, eggs, cheese,tomatoes,
olives and sweet breads, etc., we hopped in our van for a short
ride to
In the afternoon we stocked up at a farmer's market, cheese shop and bakery, and then traveled to Dilek National Park.
We had a beach largely to ourselves
and the Aegean was warm and inviting. Brenda and Kent went swimming as others walked along the beach, relaxed and picnicked.
October 22:
Return to
We
arrived in Istanbul late that afternoon. We ate dinner oudoors at a
restaurant in the center of the fish market off the lively pedestrian
walkway named Istiklal. It's the heart of social nightlife in Istanbul.
The
evening concert was Niyaz led by Persian vocalist Azim Ali. She sung in
Farsi and Urdu, and took the house down singing the song "Beni Beni" in
Turkish.
October 23:
Today most of the group went wild buying cd's at wholesale prices.
Most of Turkey's record labels are located under one roof in an
industrial complex near the Galata Bridge. We first visited my good
friend Hasan Akkiraz (Sabahat's brother and her manager) and also
visited Kalan (the Arhoolie records of Turkey) and then camped out at a
remarkable cd shop. The group was into beefing up their Turkish cd
collection and I enjoy the role of cd consultant. If you check out the
testimonial link - you'll see this line excerpted from Ron Scudder:
"I had never paid much attention to Turkish music before (read any attention at all) but was a jazz fan, and was totally blown away by the range and quality of music that we encountered. After buying 26 CDs during the trip, I found that I liked every one of them, and have played each over and over. Unbelievable! "
We ferried to the Asian side for our evening concert destination. It was another intimate concert, this time with Emin Igus.
He plays heartfelt, authentic Anatolian folk. It seemed most in the
crowed knew the lyrics and sung along. This is common in Turkish
culture and gives the atmosphere a familial vibe and helps inspire the
artist.
October 24:
It's
important to occasionally have a chunk of planned free time and today
was the day.Some of the most cherished memories happen discovering
things on your own.
The night brought the return of fretless guitarist Cenk Erdogan.
We saw him accompany Sumru earlier in the tour. This time Cenk was
headlining at Istanbul's prestigious Akbank Jazz Festival and leading
his own trio. (No photography was allowed.) This was Anatolian jazz at its finest and wowed the
group, especially Kent Khtikian. He commented it was one of the best
concerts he'd seen, and I imagine Kent has seen hundreds over the
years.
October 25:
No Turkey trip is complete without a guided tour of Aya Sofya or a Whirling Dervish performance which we did later this night.
Aya Sofya is the most famous cultural
landmark in Turkey. Located 3 minutes from our hotel, the group spent
almost 3 hours there. It was the greatest church in Christendom until
its conquest in 1453. Aya Sofya was converted into one of the world's
greatest mosques and Ataturk changed its status to a museum in 1935 .
October 26:
The last full day was scheduled free time during the daytime.
Our
final group dinner was at a traditional meyhanes (appetizers)
restaurant situated in a picturesque backstreet in the bustling Beyoglu
district.They elevate mezes to an art form and we ordered one after
another.
Our final night was spent Tangential bar hopping. The objective is to
discover small neighborhood bars with outstanding live music. The first
bar hit the jackpot and I didn't feel the need to move on. The singer
was in the Sabahat Akkiraz folk mode and some of us joined the locals
in traditional circle dancing. Eventually, Hilary urged me to
find another bar as one outstanding bar does not a bar hop make. She's
right of course.
We walked to another area
with a bunch of bars and clubs most of which were not worthy. I
beckoned for the remaining hearty among us (Tom, Brenda and Hilary) to
enter an unassuming building. We walked up the spiral staircase, one
floor after another, after another. They thought I was playing a trick
on them. But they followed. We got to the rooftop and I pushed open the
door. Klezmer like music came pouring out. The band was hot and the
dance floor was happening. The setting was amazing with large
windows overlooking Istanbul's skyline. The bar hop was complete.
October 27
The weather had been
perfect throughout the trip. Warm and sunny every day. While some in
the the group returned home, others kept on going. Kent and Nancy
enjoyed another week traveling east and encoutered snow while Tom and Ron journeyed west
and went boating. Don, Sandra and Chris worked Turkey into a major
globetrotting journey and didn't return to the States until January.
I left on the 28th. As I departed, a little bit of magic descended from
above. For the 4th year in a row, the skies opened up and poured on my
final day. When the sky is crying, you know the Gods are sorry to see
you go.
More observations and thoughts can be found from group members in the testimonial link.
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with giant sized cauliflower
in Afyon
