Mountain Quickstep

Our final day on the Rhthym Road!! We are exhilirated, a bit tired, but we all feel like we could go on doing this for a long time! These experiences feed our souls and appeal to our artistic natures.

Zeytunburnu is a small city just west of the ‘old city’ of Istanbul – just outside the old city walls in fact. We took part in a wonderful exchange with musicians from the CIty Cultural Center. Led by Ali Iskatamusz (?), a fantastic musician and player of the long flute called the ‘ney’. Ali is the principal ney player in the “İstanbul Devlet Modern Folk Müzik Topluluğu”, modern folk ensemble. He has several students of the instrument and they taught us the most beautiful song called “Katip”. We workshopped this melody and taught “Shady Grove” and combined the two and performed them at the end of the concert that night. A very special moment. Ali told a story of being in Cleveland, Ohio last year. He took part in a spiritual service during which he played ‘ney’ along with a Catholic priest pianist and a Hindu sitar player – bringing music and people together from 3 different religious disciplines to create harmony and peace. How beautiful . . .

A short walk from our hotel and we arrived at the Beyoglu Cultural Center. Here we had an afternoon workshop and exchange with the Beyoglu Youth Orchestra under the direction of Muhammad Yildirir. He is not only a virtuoso musician, but also a gifted educator and leader. Members of the orchestra shared their music with us, sparking several spontaneous tunes we could play together and we shared our workshop offerings as well. The energy in the room was palpable! Our concert that evening was lightly attended, but the energy was so good it seemed we were playing for a huge crowd! At the last part of the evening’s festivities, we all played together – Wow! “Cluck Ol’ Hen was the tune of the night and Muhammed’s improvisation on that tune was outasight! (note the pizzicato technique he employed, while holding the bow in his mouth – The students shared their hearts and music with us and we were so grateful for the opportunity to meet them and share! Here’s a photo of all of us at the end of the day’s activities:

Here’s a performance of our version of Woodchopper’s Reel from our concert this night at the Beyoglu Multi-Cultural Center in Istanbul, Turkey:

http://youtu.be/lz2NRdOKTSc

You can hear some of Muhammed’s incredible skills here:

We travel out to the small city of Tuzla just over the Bosphorus Strait, due east about a 45 minute drive. Turkey’s economy has tripled over the past 10 years and it is evident on this drive. Suburbia and industrial parks dot the landscape, signs the population is exploding here with a growing middle class. At the city’s Cultural Center, we gave an educational presentation to students from nine High Schools in the area. What an enthusiastic audience! So friendly and appreciative and a few local dignitaries presented us with flowers and warm greetings after the concert. Thank you Tuzla!!

The US Consulate in Instanbul created a video for the event (Thank You!) – the sound quality is not great but the content is very representative of our program:

Hope you had a Great Thanksgiving!

Sara and Greg enjoyed an American Thanksgiving at the US Consulate – turkey in Turkey and all the trimmings . . .

John and Trish met up with family, who had flewn over, and had meze, fish, and incredible music from a Roma band . . . here are a few scenes from that memorable night:

The trip from Adana to Malatya is a long one. You think, maybe, you will get rest, catch up on missed sleep . . . but you wouldn’t want to miss a mile of road. A landscape which at first looks desert-like and not a forest in sight, will be punctuated with an orchard, miles of grape vines, and plowed fields, which look rich and red and dark with nutrients. There are snow capped, soft shouldered high mountains towards the south and sharp white peaks in the distant north.

We arrived at our hotel, sampled the local food & grog and settled in for the night. Had a day off and 3 of us (you’ll have to guess which of us) took a traditional hamam – a Turkish bath. An exfoliation for the ages! In the afternoon, took a trip to the local historical museum and saw artifacts dating from 7000BC to 900AD – what a rich, ancient history in this part of the world. Malatya is the apricot capital of the world – what treats we had – apricots: sun-dried, sulfur cured, chocolate covered, fruit leathers with filberts or pistachios, jam, with honey, and of course in Turkish Delight – absolutely ambrosia! The local wine is really good – enough said . . .

We had an afternoon workshop for music education majors at Inonu University and an evening concert in the main recital hall. At the workshop we met 2 students, Dogukon and Samet, who later played on the concert with us. Dogukon opened on balama, and Samet joined us on bass for “Barlow Knife”.

Tomorrow we fly to Istanbul – several concerts and Thanksgiving too!

A video of scenery & performances and then, down the page, photos:

Just a quick post to show you some of the extraordinary sites in Turkey. These photos were taken out the van window on the 5 hour trip from Adana to Malatya:

Today a concert at the Çukurova Dogal Park in the Çukurova Municipality, a western suburb of Adana. Not a huge crowd but enthusiastic! We unleashed our one Turkish song, “Ali Babanin” – “Ali Baba had a Big Farm” to great acclaim, at least among the littler attendees! There’s a bit of video of the song, will try to post in a bit. As with many of the concerts on tour, we had really nice interaction and conversation following the concert, with local folks and with many US Consulate workers.

After today’s show we went for a great supper of Adana Kabob and meze – really delicious, and a great way to have a communal meal. Meze is a series of dishes all brought out at once – cucumber in yoghurt, eggplant seasoned with evo and spices, tahini sauce, sauteed onions with herbs and greens, dice tomoatoes with garlic and oil, radishes with hot peppers, a steak tartar dish known as küfta, a large pass around poofy pita, and greens (parsley and lettuce), and all of thgis with plenty of lemon. The raka, wine, and beer were all of excellent quality as well!!

Teşekkür ederim, Çukurova!!

Tomorrow a long drive to Malatya where well give a workshop to music ed students at the university in the afternoon and a concert in the evening!

Video of Ali Babanin -

Arrived at 2am in Adana, Turkey – exhausted – greeted by our embassy contacts in good order and settled in for a long rest . . .

Woke up in exotic climes ~ warmer, more humidity than we have encountered thus far, and the view out the window is compelling, so, took a walk . . .

On the Stonebridge over the River Seyhan – constructed under the Roman Emporer Hadrianus (2nd structure of his I have walked upon) in 385AD, It’s is the oldest continually operated bridge in the world (the Caffé Lena of bridges – the oldest continually operated coffeehouse in the US). Over the bridge bustling with vendors, through one of the many city parks and on to the grounds of the Central Sabanci Mosque, where all visitors are welcome. It is incredible! Completed for use in 1998, it can hold 28,500 people for service, is carpeted by the largest, most beautiful, soft, cleanest, carpet anywhere, and women are welcomed in covered or not.

Then on to the mall for a few essentials – the most interesting sight there was the ice skating rink – complete with instructors giving lessons.

Tomorrow we have an outdoor concert at Cukurova Dogal Park at 1500!