Customer Reviews

Laco Tayfa

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Even though its rhytms and keys are much different, classical Turkish music is very similar to western jazz in terms of structure. Solo improvisations on the clarinet/violin/kanun/ud make the groovy main theme very colorful. The band, Laco Tayfa, is a bunch of very talented individuals who took one more step from Turkish mucic towards jazz in the western sense. The drumset and harmonized melodies make it sound a bit more western (considering that Turkish music is mostly played unisound).This album is not a sample of Turkish classical or folk music. It shall be graded in its own class. It's a great piece of work and it deserves five stars. Burhan Ocal's "goove alla Turca" and all Okay Temiz albums are worth checking out if you like Laco Tayfa. Also Laco Tayfa's latest album (Hicaz Dolap) is amazing. The talent of the performers, together with the wonderfully selected Turkish tunes as main themes, result in an acoustic feast.

Most of you would remember (or maybe not) Laço Tayfa with their super album -In the BuzzBag- made in company with Brooklyn Funk Essentials, mixing the classic turkish folk songs with the groove sound of acid jazz atmosphere.

This time they play alone and again most loved tradional folk songs around turkey are performed using instruments like Oud, Zurna, Kanun, Darbuka, Clarinet & Baglama.

If you want to discover the taste of authentic turkish sound, than go for it.

The music is so lively, so energetic. The tunes are well known and loved in Turkey and the Balkans. And don't miss the Turkish style clarinet virtuoso : Husnu Senlendirici. He can belly dance a cobra snake :))
But the album is innecessarily extended, because the stuff is actually for 20 min. of music. But it is not tragic.
For the ones who want to discover this kind of music. This is the best album to start.

The group Laço Tafa, featuring the clarinet and leadership of Hüsnüu Senlendirici, is contemporay Western fusion treatment of traditional Turkish tunes from various regions--the Aegean coast, the Black Sea, northwest near the Balkans, and Central Anatolia--as distilled by Romani musical arts. The musicians are from the inland Romani town of Bergama and the coastal large city of Izmir. Besides clarinet, the group includes davul bass drum, violin, kanun zither, baglama saz, keyboard, trumpet, electric bass guitar, and drum set. The musical arrangements are eclectic in approach, and at times we can hear jazz, other times turku folk forms, Arabic rhythms, and on further tracks familiar Romani styles. These, of course, are dance tunes. There is not a hint of Euro-pop, New Age electronica, rock, or rap, but rather we hear well-balanced, sophisticated arrangements. The band is regarded as experimental and innovative, but after spending a couple weeks in Turkey, including Bergama, listening to traditional village and Romani music, I can appreciate this group as the leading edge of modern mainstream Turkish music.