Turkish Tango, Dance the Romance
Türk Tango - Turkish Tango
Turkish Tango Stars: Nilüfer, Fehmi Ege, Seyyan Hanim (Seyyan Oskay), İbrahim Özgur, Necdet Koyutürk

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Fans of Turkish tango dance the romance of musical numbers performed by Nilüfer Time Tunnel Photos (1975-2005) Turkish singer of wide-ranging repertoire -- including tango Click large! Thanks to Gözcü Gazetesi 26 March 2005 In Turkey - Türkiye'de In Turkey - Türkiye'de Ads by HepsiBurada Free updates for life! Jim and Peri's Commercial-free CD/Broadband Editions for Turkish Learning -- with triple ebook bonus! Learn Turkish with this Essential Suffixes Printed Book

Bypass Turkish Government Censorship Ask about our free Speed Trial account -- for in-country Türkiye Click the image to learn how to protect your Internet freedom for less than $8 a month! Dance the Romance of the Turkish Tango Turkish Tango Stars The tango composers, singers, and dancers of Turkey, past and present... In Turkey - Türkiye'de Tüm cd fırsatları için tıklayın ! Fehmi Ege (1903–1978) Wrote the score for the 1952 Turkish film, Süt Kuzuları (Mama's Boys) Thanks for the photo to Sinemalar.com157 It Takes Atatürk to Tango... A sultry summer day, and we headed for Pier 45 in Manhattan. Jutting into the Hudson River, its cool breezes provided the relief we needed from the oppressive city heat. It is there we hold our milongas, or dance parties. Argentine Tango has a long history, and one hears music from every decade since sound recording began. As I slipped into the rhythm of a slow tango that night, I felt more than the emotional tone of the old recording. The words were not the usual Spanish or Greek or French, but Turkish! In that velvety voice so popular in the early half of the twentieth century, İbrahim Özgür158 was singing... Thanks for album cover to Oriente Musik159 Son nefesimde bile Seni düsünüyor Seni anıyorum. Mazinin hatıralarını arıyor Seni özlüyorum Gel, sevmesen de bile Bir ılık bakışın, Bir okşayışın Son arzuyu söyler bu ses, Çünkü bu son nefes. Later that evening, I again heard the voice of Nilüfer160 singing an emotional tango of passion, longing, and separation: Caddelerde rüzgar, aklımda aşk var Gece yarısında, eski yağmurlar Şarkı söylüyorlar, sessiz usulca Özlediğim şimdi çok uzaklarda. Deli dolu günler, hayat güzeldi Kahkahalarıyla, günler geçerdi Ellerim uzanmaz, dokunamam ki Özlediğim şimdi çok uzaklarda O da özlüyormus, benim bir tanem Çok üşüyormus, ben olmayınca Öyle yazıyor, son mektubunda O da özlüyormus, benim bir tanem Hep ağlıyormus, ben olmayınca Öyle yazıyor, son mektubunda Imagine gracefully dancing with your loved-one to this romantic Turkish tango, Çok Uzaklarda (The things I miss, are... Very far away), performed in old-fashioned string-ensemble style, with Nilüfer on mournful vocal... Thanks for album cover to Tempa Müzik161 Some quick reading brought a fascinating history in view. Not only in music history, but in political and social history as well! The tango became extremely popular in the 1920's and 1930's in Turkey. This paralleled the advent of the Turkish Repuiblic, and the openness toward the West fostered by Kemal Atatürk actually helped its spread and acceptance by the urbanites. Thanks for photo to Alkışlarla Yaşıyorum162 In fact, the second Turkish Muslim-woman to appear on stage in Turkey (after Afife Jale), Seyyan Hanım (the stage name for Seyyan Oskay 1913-1989), was a tango singer and a colleague of Atatürk. In a rather ironic twist of fate, Seyyan Hanım later married a Turkish army officer and spent most of her life tucked away in rural Anatolia. Nonetheless, from time to time she managed to sneak out and take a train to Istanbul for a recording session!) İbrahim Özgür (1905-1959)163, the “Bel Ami of Turkish Tango”, began recording on 1938, and wrote some of the most famous Turkish tango lyrics as well as compositions. His most famous song, Mavi Kelebek, was allegedly written to express his longing for an Indian princess he loved obsessively throughout his life. The song I heard wafting across the Hudson River, Son Nefes, was sung to a tune by the Romanian composer Georges Boulanger. Its haunting melody led me to wonder who else had recorded it. I discovered it had been recorded by over 40 musicians from The Inkspots and Glenn Miller to the Righteous Brothers and Wayne Newton! Of course, I find Özgür's version more interesting and less saccharine... Thanks for photo to last.fm164 I was hooked! And so began a mad scramble across the Internet in search of the roots of Turkish tango and more this whole new genre of Turkish music. I was used to listening to a wide range of Turkish music: Ottoman court music, arabesque, jazz, grunge, rock. Eastern Anatolian folk, sema. Then there were the “Turkish Five” classical composers of the early Republic, Cemal Resit Rey, Ulvi Cemal Erkin, Hasan Ferit Alnar, Ahmet Adnan Saygun and Necil Kazim Akses. But who were the tangocular? Thanks for album cover to Disktür166 The skies began to open and out poured one Turkish tangocu after another! There was no going back. I love them all. Composers like: Necdet Koyutürk (1921–1988); Fehmi Ege (1903–1978)165, who wrote the score for the 1952 turkish film Süt kuzulari; Esin Engin (1945–1997); Necip Celal Andel (1908-1957). And singers like Şecaattin Tanyerli (Şecaettin Tanyerli) (1921–1994). Still the beat goes on. You can learn more about current Turkish tango events at TangoTürk website (www.tangoturk.com) - to find out where you can dance your heart out in Istanbul, Ankara, or Eskişehir! Or... you may click the following to explore the Essential Turkish Musical Links on this website... Your LPT WebMasters Jim and Peri, on... Glenn Williams, the author of Turkish Tango Stars We first 'met' Glenn Williams when he contacted us by email way back in 1997 (on Sunday, the 6th of April, to be exact) -- with a proposal he had about the then-popular web-browser Netscape. That initial contact blossomed (why, we even included Glenn in our first and only Golden Cookie 'Less is sometimes more' Awards Registry in 1998) into a continuing and ever-more genial Internet friendhip to the present day. So when Glenn contacted us recently, with another proposal... to include the Turkish Tango article you see above, we immediately agreed! Glenn ranks at the top of our list of good people we have never met face to face. But, never mind what we think, let Glenn tell his own eventful (bitter-sweet) life-story, in his own words... about what led to the idea for the article... Glenn Williams -- What I did, and what I think I did... I have been interested in language studies since I was an exchange student (1969-70) in Switzerland (Winterthurer Klassische Gymnasium) for my senior year in high school. After two years' service working in a hospital as a conscientious objector (against the Vietnam War) I continued my education and completed a Master's degree from the State University of New York at Stony Brook (SUNY Stony Brook) in European History (Major in 19th Century Germany and minor in Ancient Greek and Roman Cultural and Intellectual history). I did my Master's thesis on Jean-Paul Sartre's "Critique de la Raison Dialectique". Unable to see any prospect of getting a job in my field, unable to find restaurant work in New York (this is true!) , and disliking teaching anyway, I ended up taking a course for adults at NYU in computer programming (COBOL and Assembler Language). At that time 'they' really needed computer people so I immediately found a job. More than I had ever made: $12,500 a year! During my early career I established the bold precedent (in the eyes of my boss, at least)... of taking off two-consecutive-weeks vacation every year. And sooner than I expected, to my agreeable surprise, my boss (supposing I had special privileges granted by upper management) got used to the idea. That suited me to a 'T' and it led to my first (in 1985) of several trips to Turkey, which I immediately fell in love with. In preparation for returning I studied Turkish for a few months in New York with an Emekli Hakim, a retired judge from the Turkish Army. And I've been going to Turkey ever since. Lean on me... Click Large! Extremely happily married since 1981, my wife Vicky died in 2008. Since then I have continued to travel (India, Turkey, Italy, France) and study languages. And this year I took up tango! So now, dear readers, you know the 'long version' of my life, and how the idea for the Turkish Tango article came to pass... GW - 15 August 2011 In Turkey - Türkiye'de Ads by HepsiBurada

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Essential Turkish Musical Links -- right here on LPT:

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