Oriental Wind - Chila-Chila (Sonet - SNTF 809)

Oriental Wind is a duo made up of Lennart Aberg and Okay Temiz. Okay Temiz is a world known percussionist from Turkey. Actually he is much better known around the world. Main reason has been his style. He makes a fusion between ethnic music and avantgarde jazz. This puts him in a weird position as far as Turkey is concerned since his repertoire is not well suited for the still developing Jazz listener audience of Turkey.

Temiz has collaborated with many top artists of his genre with the main being Don Cherry. For this album, Bobo Stensson featured in piano, Tuna Otenel has joined forces with his Alto Saxophone, Lennart Aberg came along with his flute and on top Thomas Ostergren supported on the bass.

The album consists of Jazz versions of ethnic songs from Turkey as well as Africa. an interesting thing is that the rhythmic scale of all the tracks are written beside the track names. Since some of them are quite challenging for a European ear (Especially Turkish ones with 9/4, 9/8 rhythms), this has been a good clue.

I don't really know the two ethnic songs from Africa, but the Turkish ones are quite famous old songs. The arrangements are quite interesting to hear. Two of them are arranged by Stensson, one by Aberg while the rest is the work of Temiz.

Tuna Otenel creates marvels in "Karasar Zeybegi" while "Estergon Kalesi" seems to be the power struggle between the finesse of Bobo Stensson and Lennart Aberg.

These are arrangements and therefore bits and pieces of the original melodies/tunes can be found in them. This makes the whole process even more intriguing. On top, the talents involved create a show which is absolutely a pleasure to listen. It felt like a cold morning breeze after a heated summer night.

To buy this record:

@ Ebay - Currently none on sale.
@ Discogs

Tchaikovksy - Violin Concerto/Meditation, Stern, Rostropovich (CBS - 76725)

There are certain works which always leave a big effect on the listener. Today's record is about such a release by Pyotr Tchaikovsky. There is not much need to explain the late romantic era composer from Russia. I don't know anyone who is not familiar with Swan Lake, The Nutcracker or The Sleeping Beauty. However, even though Tchaikovsky is very well known for his works for ballet, he has created one of the best ever written works for violin. Of course I am not downplaying his symphonies, but when you are talking about a great composer as Tchaikovsky, you cannot stop the list from going on and on.

Tchaikovsky originally wrote his violin concerto for Leopold Auer. Well. Actually he wrote it to his lover Iosif Kotek. They even co-wrote the solo parts together. But later being afraid of his sexual choice being understood by the public, Tchaikovsky wanted to dedicate the work to Auer. More intriguingly, Auer rejected to premier the work since he thought it was "unplayable". Not a good reasoning for an established player. Later on Adolf Brodsky wanted to premier the work and he did with efficiency as we are told. Even though it was premiered, it took some time and effort on Brodsky's side to make it popular. When it became so, Auer also took it into his repertoire. Suddenly it was not so "unplayable" anymore. Moreover, he edited the solo parts based on totally "aesthetic" point of view. He also mentioned that he thought the piece was not at a high standard at first sight and he never rejected the piece as "unplayable", but rather as not suitable to the instrument's characteristic. What a fancy way of saying that he totally misjudged it. At least he had the decency to accept his misjudgment and ask for Tchaikovsky's absolution before the composer's death.

The performance on this record is by Isaac Stern. Obviously, Stern is one of the handful names that can come into mind when you can think of players who can perform this difficult composition with elegance. Actually, upto now among all performances I've heard including Stern's, Perlman's, Oistrakh's, Accardo's, etc, Oistrakh's execution stands alone. Some works are meant for some certain people like Elgar's Cello Concerto for Du Pre and Vivaldi's Four Season's for Perlman. This piece is meant for Oistrakh. On the other hand, I should not put Stern aside as his performance is also very good, but not perfect.

The piece is emotionally so interchanging that it is also hard to endure for the listener. From a very high point of enjoyment, the piece turns frantically to a very low point which can create drops of sorrow. This fluctuating feeling race is also derived by the fresh and gentle performance of Stern. He plays the piece very good which clearly doubles the effect. He is in perfect harmony with the National Symphony Orchestra under the direction of another legend Mstislav Rostropovich.

There is also one catch within the record. You first listen the violin concerto with three movements. There is also one more piece on the record Meditation Op. 42 which was originally written by Tchaikovsky as the second movement of the violin concerto, but later he found it not good enough and put it aside with another opus. In contrast to the stronger violin concerto, this piece is similar to Elgar's Cello Concerto with it's naivity and gentle feeling. I am yet to experiment the violin concerto by putting Meditation as the second movement and see how it feels that way, but since Tchaikovsky himself didn't see it right, I doubt I will.

To buy this record:

@ Ebay

Jo Chambers - Every Woman Will Be Free (Firebrand Records/Private Press - DMO 1020)

This is a record which I have bought as per the recommendations of the seller. Some may think this is not the most logical way of purchasing records which you have no idea about (Especially if the price is hefty), yet this guy was someone whom I've bought from for some time and he has an idea of my weird taste after all. Anyway, the result has been pure success. Of course I was not sure about the result even until listening it since this record is a private press with absolutely no related info or music about it on the web. Hell, even Wikipedia does not feature anything on Jo Chambers.

What you hear on the record is strictly Folk music with what seems to be an Irish Folk touch in it. Some of the vocals can also be tied to Psyhedelic Rock. If I need to be more precise, I can openly state that the tone of Chambers' voice and her style reminds me of Grace Slick. So now you can get the picture. She has only her acoustic guitar with her. This may of course be due to limited finances she had for this record, but all in all it created a much more effective sound than she could have wished for. What you see in her is what you get. Simple as that.

The record was made possible by nine women who leant money to Chambers. This is uniquely a self made project. She even mentions that she was shit scared during the recording. The cover picture belongs to a friend of her's and was sketched, but Chambers didn't want it to be sexually oppressive. There is no one else on the record as she plays and sings all by herself.

She mentions that her songs are an expression of her experiences in the 4 years prior to the recording.They are mainly based on an individualistic theme. Central to attention is her loneliness. She enjoys loneliness in some tracks like "It's Raining On The Boulevard Tonight" while she feels devastatingly lonely and in need of love in "Lonesome Saturday Night". As a result, I can honestly say that listening this album is opening several windows into the life of Jo Chambers. Some commercial artists always use phrases like "I found myself in this album", "This album really feels like mine" etc. even though there is always a feeling of commercialism and of course a producer behind. This album on the other hand is totally about expressing oneself. There is no producer, no one accompanying him apart from her friends during recording sessions. She plays by herself, expresses herself without anyone else telling her how to. It is pure and simple. What you listen is totally cozy, honest and sincere.

What I've witnessed was certainly not something I was expecting. It has overaccomplished what I could have ever dreamed of. It is most unfortunate that she went unrecognized yet I have a satisfied feeling that she went so. If she had received fame, she wouldn't be so sincere anymore. This album is perfect as long as it remains being the work of one truly remarkable woman with 9 others who has helped financially for it to come alive. It is the dream of someone coming true while it is my dream come true in listening an album with pure music and ideals on mind.

To buy this record:

@ Discogs
@ Music Stack
@ Ebay