Rewind- Trabzon

I came here from Capaddocia, where the only musical experience was while hanging out at a café waiting for my food. The music was geared towards the western tourists, and it sucked. Elton John tried his best to be bluesy, soulful. C’mon, leave that to us, Elton. The sights in the region there were surreal, really. And I fought off a little stomach problem, so it was nice to have a room and nice scenery to take short hikes.

So back on a bus, and off to one of the places that I was really looking forward to musically. Another long 11 hour bus ride, and at this point I was getting good at just resigning myself to long hours of complete boredom and uncomfortability. The one redeeming factor on these bus rides was the hand cologne that the attendant would spray on your hands periodically, or after a rest stop. A great smell and truly refreshing after long, stale hours just sitting there. This particular bus ride was different from the start-it was obvious I was going somewhere not many tourists ventured to, the stares from the people on the bus telling me that, not all of them very friendly. It was coming up on the end of Ramadan, and I was lucky to get on a bus at all, as everyone was traveling to visit family for the 3 day celebration of Eid, or the Sugar Festival as it is referred to in Turkey. So off I went, the only westerner on the bus.

As we approached the Black Sea Coast, it went from dry and hot to overcast and rainy. Vegetation covered the hills and sides of the road, something I hadn‘t seen for a while. We turned on to the coastal road, and we followed the Karadeniz for another couple hours until Trabzon, it raining the whole time. But the nice scenery changed again into urban Turkey as we approached Trabzon, a sizable city.

I had told myself to spend at least a week in Trabzon, to let the music of the region find me, hopefully finding some live music and stores. But as luck would have it, most everything was closed for the first three days I was there, in observance of the holidays. I did run into a music shop that had great kemence and tulum cd’s that I bought and listened to in my room. I familiarized myself more with the odd timings and infectious sounds of the black sea towns. I went to check if any of the live music venues were open, but they weren’t. I did manage to find two shops that were selling kemence karadeniz. One of the shops was selling them from a range of qualities- from cheaply made- to intermediate, playable ones- to professional grade, decorated ones. But again, the prices were steep. And I knew by now that with the kemence at least, it was more about the player than having a superbly crafted fiddle. They looked nice, with fake diamonds inlaid, etc., but that was unnecessary. The kemence karadeniz is, compared to the other Turkish instruments, a basic and rudimentary instrument, but the sounds that come out electrify the dancers and the people of the region.

So my mindset at this point in the trip was to play and look at as many of the instruments as possible, so I could judge what to buy later online. It seemed the most realistic way of buying the instruments, considering if I bought them now, I would be lugging them around Turkey, or paying the high price of shipping them home. And to boot, with the nice people back in Canakkale, I was shown the Turkish version of Ebay, and there were loads of high quality instruments for sale for much less than I was finding in these stores. In addition, as much as I asked, I couldn’t get a clear idea from where these instruments were made. I can of course understand a shop owner being hesitant about telling where he buys his product, when someone could just go buy from that source, so I didn’t prod excessively. But the answers I got were still very vague, only pointing towards the source being from the locality or nearby.

As it turned out, I had some memorable experiences in Trabzon, including an interesting experience with a Turkish communist and the police. I continued to explore the culinary delights of Turkey, now enjoying the different cuisine of the Karadeniz. Highlights were the great, cafeteria style restaurants that served excellent local food, finding a dish of the heart stopping, buttery corn meal dish- kuymuk- that I was looking for, and hanging out in the tea gardens, writing in my journal.

And when in Trabzon, especially at night, the café and restaurants would play the horon music with the kemence taking center stage. This wasn’t just folk music to be relegated to the past. It still very much invigorated the ears of the people here, it was the local music. The 5/4, 7/4 and 9/4 rhythms pumped out into the night, and put me into a kind of trance as I explored the city. Nowhere that I have been in the world yet has put so much emphasis on odd timings as they did there. It was actually unusual to hear a song in 4/4 here, and it lent to the uniqueness of the place, which I’m sure would have revealed more musical treasures had I stuck around more. But I wanted to see Rize, a smaller town down the coast where the music was just as important to daily life. And where the tulum, a Turkish version of the bagpipe, joined the kemence in the enchanting rhythms of the Karadeniz.

If you’re interested in hearing the sounds I speak of, see the videos I’ve posted previously in “Rhythms of the Black Sea Coast”.