Live at Efes Pilsen Blues Festival 1997 EP
Artist: Istanbul Blues Kumpanyasi
Label: Black and Tan Records
Released: 2022
Number of Tracks: 5
Duration: 22:49
Website: https://boneunionrecords.bandcamp.com/album/live-at-efes-pilsen-blues-festival-1997-ep
Review by Craig Whittington
While my rural Missouri public education didn’t spend much time on the middle east, I seem to recall that after the Romans fell, Istanbul became the center of the civilized Byzantine universe for the whole homo erecti gang. This here music I had not heard before. The musicianship is strong and there’s no denying that it’s fun. The band formed in 1993 loosely based on British Blues collectives like Blues, Inc and John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers. A wayward collective themselves, of shifting experimental improvisationalists, this cd captures the band before they drifted into Turkish Underground Psyche Extravaganza (WT?) and ended in 1998. They clearly respected the blues and played it with Turkish instruments and a wonderful sense of harmony and melody, the hand percussion that connects us all and a bright sophistication that’s hard to resist. I know we cling to what we know, us grumpy old farts, but you will find joy in this music long before you remember the name of that one album we all love, it’s on the tip of my tongue, I had the damn 8-track, for crying out loud.
Hear for yourself: Click here
