Search - Lalezar Ensemble :: Music of the Dancing Boys 2

Lalezar Ensemble
Music of the Dancing Boys 2
Genres: International Music, Pop

Track Listings (16) - Disc #1
1. Kemenge Takism
2. Turkmen Kizi
3. Ilkbahar Olunca
4. Nazh Nazh Sekip Gider
5. Yuru Dilber Yuru
6. Elem Cekeme Gonul
7. Selanik, Kahbe Selanik
8. Yine Yol Vermedi Acem Daglari
9. Yinede Kaynadi Costu
10. Benim Sevdicegim Bahcenin Gulu
11. Ikide Bulbul
12. Hortinanin Ufak Tasi
13. Taylada Beslerler Birascidoru
14. Mandira
15. Cirpan Havasi
16. Ulah Havasi

CD Details

All Artists: Lalezar Ensemble
Title: Music of the Dancing Boys 2
Members Wishing: 0
Total Copies: 0
Label: Trad. Crossroads
Original Release Date: 10/31/2000
Re-Release Date: 11/21/2000
Genres: International Music, Pop
Styles: Middle East, Turkey
Number of Discs: 1
SwapaCD Credits: 1
UPC: 780702430229

Synopsis

Amazon.com

Volume two of this essential and superbly played survey of music from Turkey's Ottoman Empire is dedicated to the repertoire of köçek dancers, longhaired boys who performed in women's clothing. For 200 years they were welcomed at the sultan's court or the homes of powerful patrons, but most were employed at taverns. The most popular soloists even caused periodic riots, but theirs' was a short-lived profession. Once their beards grew in, they were forced to retire and became musicians, prostitutes, or embittered has-beens. Their surviving accompaniments date from the late 19th century and are sinuous, juicy, and drop-dead sexy. The most common rhythm is an Anatolian-derived 9/8 known as aksak, which is synonymous with unbridled sensuality. The style is not closely related to Arabic raks sharki (belly dance) music, but traces of it still turn up in certain Greek and Jewish klezmer traditions. --Christina Roden

CD Reviews

Music to be seduced to

Pharoah S. Wail | Inner Space | 03/15/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This cd will certainly get your attention. I have 2 of the discs in this series by Lalezar, this one and Ottoman Suite. They are both rather recent acquisitions for me, I bought them about a month ago. So far this is the one I have listened to most. I popped it in first and it just sucked me in. That's nothing against Ottoman Suite it's just that I keep reaching for Dancing Boys and have yet to really delve into Ottoman Suite. Both discs come with extremely extensive liner-notes that are as much a history of various aspects of the Ottoman Empire as they are about the music. Again, if I hadn't gotten so sucked into the music on this disc I would have already had the chance to really sink myself into the liner-notes. Liner-notes such as this are great in that they are sure to point me to many new areas of reading that I may not have found on my own. I may be incorrect since I have only read bits and pieces of the liner-notes so far, but my initial impression of "the role of the Dancing Boys" seems to be that they existed in a strange realm that was simultaneously courtesan, exotic dancer, and geisha, yet also none of the above. The music they danced & performed to is equally intriguing. On one hand, you feel like this world of the Dancing Boys would be one of loud, mysterious, drunken bars of old. Part Turkish bazaar and part brothel with raucous, boisterous folk music. Instead, this is very much a "classical music" that just happens to be steeped in a world of sensuality and transvestism."