Ryan and I are getting ready to leave Istanbul this morning so I thought I´d take this opportunity to update the blog before our computer access becomes more limited.
We entered Istanbul on a night bus from Sofia. We didn´t mean to return to Sofia, but for some reason Greece suspended all international train service, and the only bus office for service from Thessaloniki-Istanbul was closed. We had decided against hitchhiking as Mette was now with us, and altogether we had too many bags. So while we were waiting for a city bus in Thessaloniki, the bus to Sofia pulled up and we got on, and 5 hours later we were back in that city for which I have so many mixed feelings. And two hours after that we were on the night bus to Istanbul, the same one I had taken two years earlier.
Two years ago I spent the summer studying anthropology at Boğaziçi University in Istanbul. Over the course of 9 weeks I fell in love with this enormous city of contrasts and contradictions, beautiful people and incredible music and food. Together with my travels in eastern Turkey, it was my experiences here that led me to explore Central Asian culture and music. So it is fitting that we began our tour here, where the seed for Moyindau was born.
We stayed in Kadıköy (on the Asian side) with our wonderful hosts Jim and Mehraneh. Jim is from New York and ended up back in Turkey after a 14 month trip that started in Istanbul and took him as far as southeast Asia. Now after several years living here he speaks fluent Turkish and works as an English teacher. The ease with which he navigates the cultural fabric of Istanbul and communicates with locals is inspiring and makes me want to spend more time here and learn Turkish. Mehraneh is from Iran´s Azerbaijan province and studies design. Her thesis is on the relationship between hospital patients and the medical equipment they must use, and how it is affected by the design of the instruments...very interesting. Together they make a beautiful couple and we wish them all the best for their wedding next month!
Wednesday´s gig at Nardis was a great success! We got the chance to play some brand new compositions of mine as well as some older ones and a Tajik song "Sitorai Man" by Ziyodullo Shahidi. We got recordings and a nice dvd video of the gig so I´m hoping we´ll be able to post something here soon! It was wonderful to play with Mette again...I am in awe of the focus and intensity she brings to the music and improvisation, the clarity of her ideas, and the urgency and vulnerability with which she can sing a melody. Serhan, the Turkish saxophonist from Istanbul, complemented her on alto, developing the motives and melodies that I had written in endlessly inventive ways that taught me a lot about improvisation and composition. Not only that, but he also took the time to show us around Istanbul and share many cups of tea and coffee, beers, bowls of "head soup" (a late-night specialty that includes the brains of some animal...I forgot which), etc...great times! And finally Ryan, who held the entire group together with his fluid and flexible playing that can fit any situation... The group came together quite nicely, and I felt the audience really enjoyed it (except for one guy, who complained that we didn´t play traditional Kazakh folk music and wanted his money back).
Before I conclude this blog post, I wanted to share a few special experiences that happened here in Istanbul. On our first day here, we made a trip up to Boğaziçi University to look into a potential rehearsal space (it turned out to be under construction, but the folks there went out of their way to help us). As we were heading out from campus, I stopped to buy water and put some money on my Akbil (a debit card for Istanbul public transportation). I handed the cashier a 50 lira bill: 1 lira for water and 30 liras to be put on the Akbil. He asked if I had a 1 lira coin so he could give me 20 in change, and as I was reaching into my pocket, the girl behind me in line instantly put a lira down on the counter. I gave it back to her and paid my own lira, but her generosity touched me and, I guess, surprised me.
And yesterday, in a music shop in Kadıköy, I was reading through a book of Turkish folk songs when a guy came up and replaced the book on the stand with another...his arrangements of the same songs for piano. I started to read through those, then played a few jazz tunes...then his friend came and started to play some jazz and we shared music for awhile. After two hours and some glasses of çay, the guy (who turned out to be a composition professor at Marmara University) offered me the book of his arrangements, signing it with the nicest note... Then we went and ate the best mantı (Turkish ravioli) I´ve ever experienced in my life.
More soon...perhaps Ryan will write of his quest for cymbals in Istanbul... In the meantime, don´t forget our kickstarter project...10 days to go, $4,135 of $6,000 raised...we can do it!
We entered Istanbul on a night bus from Sofia. We didn´t mean to return to Sofia, but for some reason Greece suspended all international train service, and the only bus office for service from Thessaloniki-Istanbul was closed. We had decided against hitchhiking as Mette was now with us, and altogether we had too many bags. So while we were waiting for a city bus in Thessaloniki, the bus to Sofia pulled up and we got on, and 5 hours later we were back in that city for which I have so many mixed feelings. And two hours after that we were on the night bus to Istanbul, the same one I had taken two years earlier.
Two years ago I spent the summer studying anthropology at Boğaziçi University in Istanbul. Over the course of 9 weeks I fell in love with this enormous city of contrasts and contradictions, beautiful people and incredible music and food. Together with my travels in eastern Turkey, it was my experiences here that led me to explore Central Asian culture and music. So it is fitting that we began our tour here, where the seed for Moyindau was born.
We stayed in Kadıköy (on the Asian side) with our wonderful hosts Jim and Mehraneh. Jim is from New York and ended up back in Turkey after a 14 month trip that started in Istanbul and took him as far as southeast Asia. Now after several years living here he speaks fluent Turkish and works as an English teacher. The ease with which he navigates the cultural fabric of Istanbul and communicates with locals is inspiring and makes me want to spend more time here and learn Turkish. Mehraneh is from Iran´s Azerbaijan province and studies design. Her thesis is on the relationship between hospital patients and the medical equipment they must use, and how it is affected by the design of the instruments...very interesting. Together they make a beautiful couple and we wish them all the best for their wedding next month!
Wednesday´s gig at Nardis was a great success! We got the chance to play some brand new compositions of mine as well as some older ones and a Tajik song "Sitorai Man" by Ziyodullo Shahidi. We got recordings and a nice dvd video of the gig so I´m hoping we´ll be able to post something here soon! It was wonderful to play with Mette again...I am in awe of the focus and intensity she brings to the music and improvisation, the clarity of her ideas, and the urgency and vulnerability with which she can sing a melody. Serhan, the Turkish saxophonist from Istanbul, complemented her on alto, developing the motives and melodies that I had written in endlessly inventive ways that taught me a lot about improvisation and composition. Not only that, but he also took the time to show us around Istanbul and share many cups of tea and coffee, beers, bowls of "head soup" (a late-night specialty that includes the brains of some animal...I forgot which), etc...great times! And finally Ryan, who held the entire group together with his fluid and flexible playing that can fit any situation... The group came together quite nicely, and I felt the audience really enjoyed it (except for one guy, who complained that we didn´t play traditional Kazakh folk music and wanted his money back).
Before I conclude this blog post, I wanted to share a few special experiences that happened here in Istanbul. On our first day here, we made a trip up to Boğaziçi University to look into a potential rehearsal space (it turned out to be under construction, but the folks there went out of their way to help us). As we were heading out from campus, I stopped to buy water and put some money on my Akbil (a debit card for Istanbul public transportation). I handed the cashier a 50 lira bill: 1 lira for water and 30 liras to be put on the Akbil. He asked if I had a 1 lira coin so he could give me 20 in change, and as I was reaching into my pocket, the girl behind me in line instantly put a lira down on the counter. I gave it back to her and paid my own lira, but her generosity touched me and, I guess, surprised me.
And yesterday, in a music shop in Kadıköy, I was reading through a book of Turkish folk songs when a guy came up and replaced the book on the stand with another...his arrangements of the same songs for piano. I started to read through those, then played a few jazz tunes...then his friend came and started to play some jazz and we shared music for awhile. After two hours and some glasses of çay, the guy (who turned out to be a composition professor at Marmara University) offered me the book of his arrangements, signing it with the nicest note... Then we went and ate the best mantı (Turkish ravioli) I´ve ever experienced in my life.
More soon...perhaps Ryan will write of his quest for cymbals in Istanbul... In the meantime, don´t forget our kickstarter project...10 days to go, $4,135 of $6,000 raised...we can do it!
Moda seaside, after a wonderful breakfast on Mette´s last day in Istanbul
Music shop in Kadıköy (our friend Cemalettin in the red shirt gave me a book of his music)
Turkish breakfast in Moda with Jim and Mehraneh