Rembetiko

As I've mentioned before, I'm in a class about the music of Istanbul. It's been a great way to learn about Turkish culture, and we also don't have a whole lot of homework; all together a great class for an exchange student.

One of our few assignments is that each student needs to give a presentation about a type of music. Past presentations have included military music (mehter), women in music, and entertainment music. My topic is Rembetiko, which my professor suggested since all the others were taken. He lent me a couple of CDs to help me with my research, and I've been listening pretty much non-stop as I've been doing my other assignments.

As far as I can gather, rembetiko is kind of like the jazz of Istanbul. It doesn't sound even remotely like jazz, of course, but it was the music of people who didn't really belong while they participated in less-than-legal activities. Actually, one of my CDs has the tagline "Songs of Love, Exile, Prison, and Hash Dens," which basically sums up the themes of the music. Performers were mostly Greeks who lived in Istanbul, and sometimes Greeks who had lived in Istanbul and moved back to Greece or to America. Some songs are silly, like the one about the guy who's invited into a hash den by two women. Some are sad, like the ones written by people longing for their homeland. But all in all, they're pretty fantastic. The songs also have some of the greatest titles; my personal favorite is "Min Orkizese Vre Pseftra," or "Don't Make Promises, You Lying Woman." Awesome.

Here's an example of one of the songs off my CD: it's sung by a Greek from Anatolia (Turkey) and was recorded in the US. Typical rembetiko. But this has Greek lyrics but is to the tune of a Turkish folk song. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MM59sFH1XTI