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

Various - Chants & Danses Yougoslavie (Le Chant Du Monde - LDX 74384)

For the last two months, I have been in an inevitable mode of my record collecting frenzy. I had World Music records before, but a limited collection of known artists. This time I had an urge to go deeper and the result have been numerous records from prestigious labels like Arion, Ocora, and Lyrichord with more records from lesser known labels.

I am saying inevitable since due to my keen interest in 20th century Classical Music, ethnic melodies was to be a major point of interest. The main reason is modern classical music has gained huge momentum by Folk music and in due time ethnic music. Balinese, Java, African music have all shared important weight in the new developments not only on musical terms, but also on philosophical side (Here especially Chinese and Japanese).

The first record that I wanted to review is from a French label called La Chant Du Monde. Even though my French consists of several words, I can still guess what this label is about. This particular record is the native songs and dances from the former Yugoslavia region. Although it is called Yugoslavia in general, all tracks in the album have been detailed with region names which are now the small countries.

Honestly spoken, all the music on the album have a distinct gypsy flavor to it. This is all the natural since this area and also including the Balkans have been culturally rich and diversified with gypsies taking the main stage in the musical aspect. There are also small traces of Russian folk music with some emphasis on musical instruments, but it is negligable.
I cannot understand any of the names of the songs, but I can easily relate to all of them. Being Turkish and having breathed tons of gypsy origin music all my life, all the similarities directly strike me. The only thing that I found hard to grasp was the absence of a really powerful brass band. Brass bands are the key aspect of ethnic Yugoslavian music or at least I thought so. I may still have a lot to learn. I'll come back with more ethnic records in the not so distant future.

It is hard to find this record, therefore I cannot provide any link. However, you can search it regularly on Ebay. You might just get lucky.

Frederic Chopin - Waltzes 1-14, Dinu Lipatti (EMI - HLM 7075)

I should openly say that Waltzes were never an enthusiastic musical structure that encaptures me before. I still own a triple CD set of Johann Strauss's Waltzes. Blue Danube is probably the one everyone knows. My knowledge seemed to be somewhat similar. I didn't know much about Waltzes in detail which didn't really bother me until now. Now is the key word.

2-3 weeks ago, I was in another shopping spree from one of my favorite sellers from UK and there I saw Chopin's Waltzes being listed. The performer on the record was also another name unfamiliar to me, Dinu Ripatti. This somehow aroused an interest in me for which I still cannot find an explanation. On the other hand, I am still grateful for that moment of weird interest.

I started listening to this record the day that giant package arrived (8 Kg in total) from UK. Out of all the records I've bought with full intent on listening directly (Including Boulez, Elgar's symphonies, old DGG releases and etc), I chose to listen to this record which I bought out of sheer curiosity. What a fruitful purchase it has become.

Starting first from the composer, Chopin never composed Waltzes for dancing and you can also tell this after you start listening in 5 minutes. They are either too fast or too slow. It seems like Chopin chose to compose Waltzes just to direct his perfectionist ideas on another stage. He openly disliked the Viennese style and openly criticized Strauss along the way. When you listen, you can get the point why. Just not to forget to note, the record includes the first 14 Waltzes Chopin composed out of 18 total. .

The second point to mention is Dinu Lipatti. It is somewhat normal for me not to know a pianist who lived a total of 33 years. He was also a child wonder having earned international fame early on in his career, but this was disrupted during WWII and he died only 7 years after he fled to Geneva. He has an exceptional technique with fast and accurate, but still full of feeling touches. This is exactly the skill he needs to perform these Waltzes of Chopin. These are very good performances. I stood in awe in some passages as Lipatti literally throws the roof open and his fingers start flying all over the piano in breathtaking speed. Still, he gives the sudden turns and twists of the Chopin style Waltzes in crisp detail. Considering that he made these recordings some time prior to his death probably around 1945-6, it is even the more remarkable. There seems to be one more record from this recording series under the catalogue HLM 7046 which includes Grieg and Schumann's Piano Concertos. That will also be a record which I will seek from now on.

To buy this record:

@ Ebay

Various - Grime (Rephlex - CAT 156 LP)

Grime is one of the children of UK underground where other notable styles like Drum And Bass, Breakbeat, Jungle, UK Garage and Dubstep has also fledged into life. Actually these are all quite integrated in their musical backgrounds where they are originated from Dub music and the philosophy of Dub and then melted into a pot with a mixture of Electronic music.

Grime is a style which has been prominent in the music scene after more or less 2003. However, it was always there since the 90's under different style names and monikers. Many of the early Grime tracks you listen are either very close to Uk Garage or Breakbeat.

The three names featured in this 3 LP release are Mark One, Plasticman and Slaughter Mob. These were the new comers when this compilation was released and since Grime was still a baby, these people were the sought after names of those times. Unfortunately when you look at today's standing point, they are not like that anymore. The scene has developed rapidly and brought up young and quite vicious talents which took the genre to another level.

The tracks clearly show a direction for Grime from it's starting point to where it came now today. They are generally milder than what we listen today and the kicks are sharper.Producers like Caspa, Coki, Cotti, Skream, Benga, Rusko, and believe it or not a little Modeselektor are more agressive since they are directly aiming the dancefloor which has been dominated in UK by the two genres of Dubstep and Grime. Even in many other countries, this new musical approach has taken a strong foothold.

This set is surely not the best Grime music you can hear, but it is surely a good lecture in showing the connection between UK Garage, Breakbeat and Grime itself. The artist selection could have been a little wider than 3, but Rephlex is a label which has earned the utmost respect from me over the years, so I can directly forget about this.

To buy this record set:

@ Ebay
@ Discogs

Keith Jarrett - J. S. Bach - Das Wohltemperierte Klavier Buch 1 (ECM New Series - 835 246-1)

Keith Jarrett is a worldwide known Jazz and improvisational pianist/composer. Actually it would be hard not to know him if you are into Jazz since he has been one of the most prominent artists in the last 3 decades. However, his talents are not limited only to Jazz since he has tried (Similar to his fellow contemporary Chick Corea) many different musical genres, mainly on the piano.

This box set is the interpretations of Bach's works for Harpsichord. This is quite a brief explanation of the whole thing actually. The reality lies a little deeper. As Jarrett himself explains, he did not want to add another Glenn Gould style version of Bach's works. There were already too many by lots of excessively gifted pianists. What Jarrett wanted to accomplish was to emphasize the whole thought process of Bach while he was composing these works.

One other interesting thing about the box set is that Jarrett did not want to adopt the works to the more flexible and expressive piano. He rather stuck to the original instrument of harpsichord. He explains the reasoning as "The piece is better than the piano". This is of course a step in his total process of trying to be as authentic as he could get to the music of Bach as he could while still having a touch of modernism via his improvisations. Honestly Jarrett's improvisations are the only key factor of difference from the original scores. Yet, we don't feel any make up or excessive expressionism on Jarrett's part. He is not showing off the parts that he improvises on. There are no Hendrix style "I lose myself now" solos. Jarrett's true talent here becomes in syncronising his miniature improvisations according to the general thought process of Bach and thus giving a more subtle view. There is no reforming here, no innovations, no ground breaking interpretations. It is just Bach with a little touch of Jarrett, but still under Bach's supervision. Even Bach would have been proud of this work.

Please also note that Keith Jarrett will be performing live in Istanbul during the Istanbul Jazz Festival on the 18th of July 2012 with Gary Peacock and Jack DeJohnette. This will be a night to remember. Tickets can be found here.

To buy this box set:

@ Ebay

Kevin Ayers-John Cale-Eno-Nico - June 1, 1974 (Island - ILPS 9291)

It's not everyday that so many legendary names get together out of nowhere to give a concert. It is absolutely lovely that these once in a lifetime occurrings are documented. The case here is such a concert, and it is documented very well. This is all thanks to the sudden enlightenment of Kevin Ayers who started the ball rolling.

It all started in the mind of Kevin Ayers who was a member of the band Soft Machine. He had a concert in Rainbow Theatre in London and he contacted Nico, the famous German vocalist who also cooperated with Velvet Underground. Nico also brought in John Cale again from Velvet Underground. From here onwards, things started rolling fast as Cale asked Brian Eno to jump in (Of course Eno relished the opportunity). Ayers also asked Robert Wyatt and Mike Oldfield to come along.

After everything was arranged, the crew came out to be absolutely fantastic. So many talented people on the same stage. They also represented different eras and that is why the interest of the audience grew much stronger. 3000 tickets were sold out within days and everyone started expecting what a show it would be.

The record holds 9 of the tracks played that day. 2 of them belong to Brian Eno, 1 to Mae Axton, 1 to The Doors (Jim Morrison actually) and 5 to Kevin Ayers. It is exceptional that with only 1 week to rehearse, they have put on a very enlightening show with the crown to be Nico's version of "The End" from The Doors. It is pretty simple in itself with Nico on vocals and Eno on synth, yet it is very powerful.

The concert was held on June 1st, 1974 and it is still a delight to listen it today. I can just imagine being there, feeling that vast talent and savouring it as much as I can.

To buy the record:

@ Discogs
@ Ebay

Metallica - Live In The 80's (Unofficial - #68/150)

In the last few weeks, I won a grand prize in one of Ebay's bidding wars. It is the exceptionally limited edition box set of Metallica which features their live performances in the 1980's. Well, some might say that most performances were already either released as CDs or DVDs, but not like this man! This is a box set of 150. Considering the pop band explanation of Lars Ulrich (Since they are popular, hell yeah), it is a great feat. Of course this is an unofficial release, not that it signifies anything. Actually it's making me happy that Lars may not get his way out of everything. Enough is enough.

The box set includes 4 coloured records which are taken from 4 concerts. Records are light blue (Sea blue), blue, yellow and white. There are no numbers, no identifications on the records. The box set was unofficially released in Ireland in 2008 and this is all I know actually. There is a track list sheet, but you cannot guess which record is from which concert. You learn by test playing.*

The concerts featured are the 18th of October 1982 concert at Old Waldorf, San Francisco, the 20th of December 1984 concert at Lyceum, London, the 21st of September 1986 concert at Hammersmith Odeon, London and the 3rd of February 1989 concert at Erwin Events Center, Austin (White record).

It is needless to write all tracks from the box set, yet it's enough to say that it covers all the first albums of the 80s. I am in a lazy day perhaps. Sorry for that. If you really need it, I can add later on.

These concerts feature all tracks of a given concert, and they are somewhat concentrated on certain albums. The sound quality is not jaw breaking. It is just passing. You have to crank up the volume a bit from the normal level to get a good hearing from the records. However, the sound quality also suffers, so if you just want to listen Metallica's concert performances, this is not the version you'll embrace. It is not perfect. There are clear mistakes while the guys are playing. There is not a make up to make things look as perfect as it can be. No editions, this or that. It is pure and simple. Metallica live!

The only problem is that the rpm of the light blue record is wrong. It is not even 33 rpm. Probably 25 or something. It is obviously a mispress, but there's nothing I could do. I just slowed down the speed as much as I can. However, it was still not enough. I had to endure fast versions of Seek And Destroy, Master Of Puppets etc. More than that, the voice of James was quite squeeky eventually. This concerned me about his well-being for a moment until I noticed the flaw on the record.

Yet, it is live, performances are good and you feel special. Recordings are not that good. OK. Yet, this is the reality of consumerism. I can't honestly be caring less.

* I was so urged to listen to them directly that I forgot to check the etchings on the records. Actually if you figure out one of the records you've listened, you can find which is which afterwards from the numbers.

To buy the box set, you need to search and search and be patient. It's not easy to come by. Sorry for not being able to provide a link.