Saadet Türköz

There are so many places in the world that we don’t have the foggiest notion of, that I wonder why governments are spending billions getting off the planet when they don't even understand what the hell is on it! This is music by vocalist Saadet Türköz who was born in the Uyghur region of Islamic Turkestan, which fell victim to the expansion of China. In her exile which went from Istanbul to Zurich, she has sought to reclaim her roots through contact with the refugee community in Turkey but has transformed herself with the exposure to the vibrant improvising community of Europe. This music, however, has little to do with the heady explosions of free jazz. It is a beautiful and sonorous exploration of the traditional. Echoes of the "cante hondo” or deep song of flamenco, Arabic chants and folk song reverberate through this CD, yet it is as singular as the blues in its identity as well as reflective moods. I listened to this simply produced yet riveting music with a sense that I had very little idea of the ever present reality and loneliness of exile. The blues are everywhere in the music of people who have no home. This is a blues that does not sound like the blues but is unmistakably there in spirit. Buy it for its beauty and listen to it for its honesty.