Turkish Whistling Language

As I was reviewing videos from my time in Turkey, I found this little treasure. . . I remember in my introductory linguistics class learning about a unique dialect of Turkish centered around Kuşköy, Giresun where the sounds of Turkish are expressed in coded whistle sounds. As an avid whistler myself, I was excited to meet people who were actually familiar with this language, a family on vacation from Girseun to Batumi, Georgia. Here is a video of him welcoming me in whistled Turkish, followed by an English news story on Kuşköy and the whistling language.

Busking in Istanbul

Recently a band I'm in, Ivır Zıvır has shifted from playing in bars to performing on the street. Playing on İstanbul's famous "İstiklal Caddesi" pedestrian street is exhilarating: we play to an estimated audience of 4 million people who pass through the street daily. Playing there has given me a new sense of the street and especially an appreciation for the community of people whose professional livelihoods depend on it whether they be musicians, fortune tellers, beggars, street-kids, caricature  artists, and so on. One thing that I'm struck  by is the number of self-identified "photographers" who take our photo seemingly thinking they're invisible to us despite their less-than-subtle presence. While so many people photograph us without consent or any monetary donation (which I personally don't particularly mind), Istanbul is a surprisingly good city to busk in and if the weather is right we make more on the streets than we did in bars. Here's are 2 videos. . .





Many thanks to James Burliegh Morton for the videos.

Ciguli!

Jeremy and Ciguli, both looking a bit crazy...

I few nights ago I went to a Ciguli concert... Ciguli, who was visiting from Germany, is  a Bulgarian Turkish-speaking Rom accordionist\singer who made it big in Turkey in the 90's with his one-hit wonder "Binnaz." I've translated the lyrics below along with a video I took of him playing the song in the concert (he played it 2 or 3 times much to the delight of the audience). Because of his rather maniacal personality, and the comic content of his songs, a lot of Turkish people don't take him very seriously. This being said, I actually think he is a remarkably talented musician, a versatile accordionist, and actually has an impressive control over his voice. After the jump is a second video from the movie "Nerdesin Firuze" in which Ciguli covers a Turkish pop song in a Roman style... his version is better than the original.

Binnaz, tonight at least,
were you furious, crazy or surprised?
Binnaz, Binnaz...

[Chorus]
Binnaz the musicians mate
Binnaz the worker's date
Binnaz the gambler's mate

Binnaz, Binnaz...

Binnaz, they saw you're a brave woman
They saw, they saw
Everyone loved you!

Hıdırellez

Yesterday was Hıdırellez, a holiday celebrated throughout the Balkans and Turkish speaking places known by several different names according to nationality or religion. You may also know it as Đurđevdan or Ederlezi as the famous song goes. In İstanbul, it is pretty much known a Roma holiday that takes place in their neighborhoods. In recent years it has caught on a little and it was moved into a large park only to be "canceled" this year due to concerns of over-crowding. Luckily this cancelation  brought the festivities back to the streets as they had always been in the past, eliminated the attempt of institutionalizing the holiday as a commercial festival, and led to one hell of a party! The added benefit was that it wasn't overcrowded because there were only locals and people crazy enough to ignore the announcement of its cancelation (like me).

The party started in the back streets of Ahırkapı with a handful of local Zurna, Davul, and Clarinet players competing for the attention of the dancing public, taking tips. Meanwhile other people sold beer, sequined fedoras, and snacks to fuel the party in a very Turkish synthesis between New Years Eve in New York City, Carnivale, and a wedding.

Eventually after some time and without any warning or leadership, the party  transformed into an impromptu parade of sorts... The crowd danced from the streets of Ahırkapı, just a stones throw behind the touristic capital of Istanbul, Sultanahmet, to the shores of the Marmara. On the way we passed several budget hotels with confused tourists peering out their windows hopefully with the impression that every night in Istanbul is like this. Some appeared concerned, while a handful joined the party.

While the festivities resembled a mob of sorts, it was peaceful and celebratory and so when a power-hungry police man tried to silence the musicians everyone began to sing to him until he went away.

Baba Zula

Last night I went to hear Baba Zula, Turkey's top psychedelic Electro-Anatolian Bağalama band... It was interesting. The band, especially the lead player, was dressed as if they what looked like old Janissary "Mehter" costumes that had accumulated 100 years of dust in the attic of the musician's aunt's house. The highlight of the night was a song called "Pırasa," meaning "leek." The performance culminated in a single leek suspended from a fishing line that was lowered down to the stage. As it dangled, the band danced around it in various levels of seemingly drug-induced delirium. They sung directly to the leek, and perhaps the leek was singing back to them in a sense as well. While I didn't have the state-of-mind to understand what the leek was saying to them, luckily they translated through music. The song climaxed as the lead-player began to violently strike his instrument with the leek. The stage went dark, except for a spotlight on the leek, which was then raised back to the ceiling.