Going back to the 'oud' school with Istanbul

By Brian Reinhart     1/14/10 6:00pm

The oud is a millennia-old Middle Eastern musical instrument that Arab conquerors brought to Spain, where the locals trimmed down its size, lightened the sound and renamed it the "guitar." However, the guitar never caught on in the Muslim world, and the oud remains, to this day, the stringed instrument of choice in countries like Turkey. My great-grandmother was one of the premier oud teachers in Turkey, meaning, then, that my mother lived in a household filled with great music. All her memories came flooding back after I put this new CD, Istanbul, into our stereo. Istanbul is a carefully researched, gorgeously performed album of Turkish folk music, uniting musicians from political rivals Turkey and Armenia. "The best Turkish music I've heard in ages," my mother mused, before singing along to several instrumentals.

The expert opinion is positive, but Istanbul is just as enjoyable for newcomers. It is an exotic, spicy feast for the ears, and a great way to discover a new musical tradition. Listening to Istanbul is like being transported to another world.

The CD begins with a group improvisation for five musicians at once. Improvisation is important in Turkish and Arabic folk music, much as it is in jazz, but rather than being incorporated into each song, improv stands independently. Musicians are expected to simply make up entirely new tunes, or transitions from one song to the next.

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The songs themselves, from Turkey, Armenia and the Ottoman Sephardic community, do not have lyrics or even titles, making them hard to discuss individually. Some of this music is meditative, some melancholy, some energetic - but all are beautiful. The cumulative effect is one of a magic carpet ride to a faraway land.

Almost none of the featured instruments will be familiar to American listeners, except, of course, percussion. The ney is a type of flute; the duduk is an indescribably beautiful Armenian woodwind with a deep, sad sound like a baritone sax. The oud gets its share of solos, as does the kamancha, a sort of three-stringed violin. Helpfully, the booklet that comes with the CD has color photographs of all the featured instruments in action.

Roughly half of the performers are Turks and Armenians who have been playing this music for decades. They are joined by Hesp?rion XXI, a group of Spanish and French artists whose curiosity and talent leads them to play everything from baroque Bach fugues to traditional Afghani songs. The performers are all, for lack of a better word, awesome.

The CD itself sounds terrific, though better on stereo than on headphones. The ensemble's presence is big and forceful, as if it were in the room with the listener, and the bass is powerful enough in parts (especially in the second track) to cause a disturbance at a traffic light.

One interesting lesson from Istanbul is that Turkish folk music has not changed much over the centuries. This album is based on songs composed in the 1700s and preserved in Ottoman archives, but many of them have since become Turkish pop tunes. My mother began singing along to one instrumental and revealed that it is now the chorus to a love song, "Katibim," which was even covered (poorly) by American jazz singer Eartha Kitt.

The Eartha Kitt connection is an interesting one, because Turkish folk music, with its emphasis on small ensembles of instruments and continual improvisation, inspires comparisons to American jazz. But jazz is, like the country of its birth, fast-paced and slick, eager to go exciting new places.

Turkish music, by contrast, is more laid back and contemplative. It reflects on the past, half-smiles and slips into a meditative state of dreams. My advice: Sit down in a plush chair with your feet on an Ottoman rug, sip some hot tea, put Istanbul on the stereo and experience for yourself a Turkish person's idea of heaven.

Author's note: Do not buy the CD from Amazon.com, which is inexplicably charging a price three times that of the rest of the Internet. The CD is cheaper as an import from British sites like MDT and Amazon.co.uk.

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