[URBAN LEGENDS] TATAVLA BRINGS REMBETIKO SPIRIT BACK TO ISTANBUL: A COSMOPOLITAN BAND UNITED THROUGH MUSIC
Today’s Zaman
04 October 2008, Saturday
Turkey
A century ago, Ä°stanbul and Ä°zmir were cosmopolitan cities with
diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds whose vibrant entertainment
scenes reflected this diversity in cafe amans (musical cafes) and
massive Milanese-style opera halls which now exist only in photos.
It was not a "multicultural" era where everyone merely tolerated one
another and never merged culturally; it was a time when cultures really
did merge, staging theater shows and playing music together. Greeks,
Turks, Levantines, Jews, Arabs and Armenians appeared side-by-side
creating something unique together. As a centuries-old empire
collapsed, the unexpected demographic movements of the era’s diaspora
had important cultural consequences, such as the emergence of new
artistic and musical forms. Rembetiko music was one such consequence.
Rising from the pain and misery experienced during this diaspora, this
new musical form talked about urban life in cities like Ä°stanbul,
Ä°zmir and Piraeus and about immigrant life for those caught up
in the diaspora. It was an era and a musical style that encouraged
cultural merging in a real sense. For example, Roza Eskenazi, the
greatest rembetiko singer of the era, was an Ä°stanbul-born Jew who
died in Athens in 1980 at the age of 97. She called out Turkish,
Greek and Armenian names when thanking the musicians in her orchestra
at her shows.
Tatavla, now known as KurtuluÅ~_, which still is one of the most
ethnically and culturally diverse neighborhoods in Ä°stanbul, was
so important to the era’s entertainment life that people would talk
about going to Tatavla to have a bit of fun that night and would
return home from Tatavla awe-struck, ecstatic about a new encounter
and filled with songs and joy.
Why am I talking about this long-forgotten era now, almost 100
years later? Because I have the impression that this era might not be
completely lost and that it can be rescued from oblivion. What gave me
this impression? A new band called Tatavla. Named after the Tatavla
neighborhood, Tatavla is a rembetiko band whose performances offer
a musical journey through time. Their audience is composed mainly of
members of the new Greek community in Ä°stanbul as well as those who
have an ear for world music. All are eager to do a bit of belly dancing
to oriental tunes. These oriental tunes are in two languages, Greek and
Turkish. They talk about the same sort of events occurring to people
on both sides of the Aegean before and after they left their homelands.
Tatavla is a multicultural band. The band has two Greek members,
and the rest is a mix resembling the United Nations. Tatavla has
six members: Harris Theodorelis Rigas on bouzouki, Nicholas Royard
on violin, Nicholas on lavta, Yiannis on percussion and Alper Tekin
and Fulya Ozlem on vocals and castanets. The band plays a rembetiko
repertoire of songs in the Izmir style and the Piraeus style.
It must be quite fun to see them on stage, but I have never had the
chance because I’ve always been on the stage. However, from the way
people madly dance, jump up and down and shake their bellies during
Tatavla concerts, I get the impression that a Tatavla concert is
definitely one activity not to miss if you are anywhere near Istanbul
these days. It is also a great opportunity to meet the new — and
old — Greek community in Istanbul: all the young Greek bankers,
businesspeople, freelance journalists, academics and teachers. Even
the Greek Consulate attended one of the many Tatavla gigs, so Tatavla
is highly appreciated even at a diplomatic level.
Reminiscing with the zeybekikos
One might freak out while looking at the increasing number of Greeks
who dance the "zeybekikos" and the "kasapikos" while Tatavla plays on
stage, saying: "Oh my gosh! They are back! The Greeks are back! Didn’t
we throw them into the sea?" I am joking, of course. There is
nothing more beautiful then the hope that Istanbul will return to its
cosmopolitan roots once again with a multi-ethnic, multi-religious and
multicultural crowd who have fun side by side in addition to working
and living together. Each time there is a Tatavla gig, I am filled
with hope that, perhaps 30 years from now, Istanbul might have a chance
to regain what it once was, namely, its status as a cosmopolitan city.
Who is Tatavla and what brought its members together? Harris is an
Athens-born Greek. He studied classics at Oxford and international
relations at the London School of Economics, but since his childhood,
music was a fundamental part of his life. He took bouzouki,
baglamadaki and singing classes and formed rembetiko bands wherever
he went. Forming a rembetiko band in London was not half as fun for
him as forming one in Istanbul because here there is so much energy
around this music. This music fundamentally relates to, and actually
is, the music of this city, historically. He is working on a Ph.D. in
political science at Bosporus University. He speaks excellent Turkish
and is great at reading fortunes from coffee grounds, a skill he
learned from his grandmother, who was originally from Ä°stanbul.
We have two Nicholas’s. The violinist Nicholas is from Quebec,
Montreal actually, but he is originally Armenian. His father is a
Cairo-born Armenian whose father fled Turkey in 1915. Nicholas’s
father immigrated to Quebec, so Nicholas is Quebecquois now. He is a
linguist who also studied jazz guitar. He plays oud and spent years in
countries like Morocco and Tunisia working with oud masters. He is in
Turkey to learn more about Turkish music. He says it is melody he loves
most in music, and for melodic beauty as opposed to harmonic, Turkish
music is the music to follow. When you listen to his fiery taksims
(solos) on the violin, you can tell he made the right choice. His
violin funks up the whole venue to his heart’s content.
The lavtaist Nicholas, is from Montpellier, France. His grandfather
was Algerian, and hence he has a genetic affinity for maqam music. He
played guitar for many years and received a master’s degree in
ethnomusicology, writing his master’s thesis on lavta, which he
spent two years in Athens researching. Now he speaks perfect Greek,
alongside his native French, acquired Spanish, with English and Turkish
in progress. He is now researching lavta in Istanbul in theory and
in practice while playing in Tatavla.
Yiannis works in the public relations department of a private
university. He joined the band recently and is doing great job of
adding a funky beat to the Tatavla sound and is teaching us how to
count the rhythm of "zeybekiko" for real.
Alper Tekin is from the Enez region in Thrace. He was born into
this cultural mix and has been listening to this kind of music since
childhood. People can’t believe how good Alper’s accent is when he
sings in Greek. His developed his rich repertoire by listening to
Greek music religiously. He recounts how he learnt songs from Greek
radio, tuning to Greek radio stations when his family went down to
their summer house by the Aegean every summer. He is a student of
economics at Yıldız Technical University.
As for me, the singer/castanet player of Tatavla, all I want from God
is to be the reincarnation of Roza Eskenazi and, as my high-pitched
voice mixes with the pounding of bright castanets in my fingers,
to feel and sound as gramophonic and nostalgic as she does.
When I look at the diversity of backgrounds that comes together to form
the band Tatavla, it is hard not to imagine a historical resemblance
to the rembetiko bands of the 1920s, when musicians from all walks
of life came together playing music. This nostalgic but vibrant and
entertaining element is what makes the Tatavla sound distinctive. Yet,
the question is, even if the music is recovered and re-introduced to
Istanbul by Tatavla and even if the young descendants of the people
who fled are somehow brought back to Istanbul from wherever they have
been scattered to, is Istanbul the same Istanbul? Can it ever be the
welcoming city it once was? Can it once again be a city where people
listen to each other’s songs and languages at least at live music
cafes? Let us hope so. In the meantime, keep an ear out for the next
Tatavla show, this cosmopolitan gang of musicians who have the most
fun each time they play together.
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