Under the (cloudy) Anatolian Skies

Erkan Ogur (http://www.erkanogur.net/) a Turkish musician who is one of the best names of ‘Anatolian jazz’ was in concert (‘under the Anatolian skies’) at the Royal Festival Hall on Wednesday, 15th March.

Except for some of his film music I didn’t know his work but it’s a duty to turn up at concerts of Turkish musicians in London! In the event, it was worth going to on its own right. ‘Anatolian jazz’ that was played on the night can in fact hardly be called ‘Anatolian’ since, while some of the tunes were inspired by Turkish folk music, it’s basically jazz…with lots of jamming...as it should be - universal and a little mad.

I liked it except for one thing, which is not a dislike as such but an observation: all the songs were intense…intensely searching, intensely yearning, intensely sad, intesenly rebellious…On the positive side, this intensity was an antidote to repetitive shallow rythms intended more for hips than senses (shikidam shikidam). On the other hand, one happy tune, one single happy tune, a glimpse of sunshine through the clouds would have been much appreciated.

Another Turkish concert is coming up in London. This time by a young group, Babazula (http://www.babazula.com/) , with at least some happy songs. The featured in the recent documentary of music in Istanbul (Crossing the Bridge). Check out the concert details at http://www.kazum.co.uk/

This is it for a couple of weeks. Busy week coming up and then on Saturday I am off for a short holiday to Morocco. Hopefully there will be many stories from there.