Mustafa Karami

“We’ve had some Persian and Kurdish tunes in the repertoire for a while – including Persian reggae” says Kim “but this gig will give us a chance to learn a few new grooves. Mustafa and I played together in Davood Tabrizi’s Far Seas last year, and hopefully that will be an ongoing project too. Llew Kiek has also played some Iranian music over the years, and Peter Kennard is a great frame-drum player, so there should be a lot of things happening”.

There will also be music with a Balkan Gypsy brass band feel, driven along by Sam Golding’s sousaphone.

Kim Sanders: ney, kaval, gaida, saxofon
Llew Kiek: bouzouki, baglama, oud
Sam Golding: sousaphone
Peter Kennard: percussion
and special guest Mustafa Karami bringing a taste of Persian nights on oud, vocals and percussion

Friday 10th February 2012
Camelot Lounge
19 Marrickville Rd (cnr Railway Pde, 2 mins walk from Sydenham station)
Marrickville, NSW
Entry: $25/$20

Doors open 7.30 for 9 pm start

Bookings: http://www.trybooking.com/BDAJ

Fully licenced. Pizzas, mezzes, snacks and sorbets available.

For more info http://www.camelotlounge.com/

World Music pioneer Kim Sanders has become the first Australian to have a composition of Turk Klasik Muzigi (Turkish Classical Music) published in Turkey.

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“Saba Saz Semai” has been published on www.neyzen.com, a website dedicated to the ney, the flute used by the Mevlevi Order of Dervishes, known as the Whirling Dervishes. It contains an extensive archive of Turkish Classical and Sufi music.
Sanders first visited Turkey in 1984, and has returned many times since to study and perform. Originally interested in Gypsy and folk music, he began his studies in ney and Turkish Classical Music in 1993.
“A makam is the equivalent of a raga in Indian Classical Music,” he says. “I have been studying Saba Makam for nearly twenty years now, and I felt I knew it well enough to attempt a formal composition. It is a great honour to be published by Neyzen.com.”
Kim will be performing on ney and a variety of other instruments with Kim Sanders & Friends at the Sound Lounge in the Seymour Centre on Friday December 9th.

For more info, HiRes photos, to arrange interviews etc contact Kim at kimzgaida@hotmail.com or +61 2 9569 4203

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“The thing about Steve is, wherever the music takes us – and in this band we go to some places that might seem pretty strange to some people – Steve always plays so musically” says Kim. “Tonally, melodically, rhythmically. He’s a great improviser, and has been playing various kinds of ‘world music’ – how I hate marketing terms! – for long enough to be able to play without thinking about the sources he has internalised. And I have been playing with Steve, Sandy and the others for so long now that we can all forget that stuff, and just play! That’s when the magic happens!

A lot of my tunes consist of a circular bass-line, a melody-line and a rhythm. The bass-line holds it all together. When you have a bass-player like Steve, when you are improvising, you always know exactly where you are, even though the tune might be in 13/8 or 17/8, because the feel is there. It’s like a Cuban son tune – Cachao Lopez never plays the bass-line the same way twice but the feel is there, all right! The African infinite-minute-variation approach.

We’ll be sorry to see him go, but we’ll all be fired up at the gig!”

In a career spanning more than twenty-five years Kim Sanders has performed with Gypsy wedding bands in Macedonia, studied with Sufi ney-masters in Turkey, played in mosquito-infested night-clubs in Gambia, tavernas in Greece, concert-halls indonesia and China and on national radio in Bulgaria.

The occasion is also an opportunity for the band to perform with two drummers, Toby Hall, a regular at the Sound Lounge and Peter Kennard, a superb colourist and a master of the frame drum. Together with Steve, it’s a dynamite rhythm section! They will be joined by saxophonist Sandy Evans, herself an explorer in many World Music idioms including the Classical Carnatic tradition of Southern India.

* Kim Sanders: Ganesha (hybrid Bulgarian/Turkish/Balinese/Australian bagpipe), ney (Turkish Sufi flute), kaval (Bulgarian wooden flute, mey (Turkish double reed), tenor sax
* Sandy Evans: tenor and soprano saxes
* Steve Elphick: double bass
* Toby Hall: drums
* Peter Kennard: dhaf (Middle-Eastern frame drum), darabukka (Balkan/Middle-Eastern goblet drum), percussion

8.30 – 11pm
Friday Dec 9
The Sound Lounge
The Seymour Centre
Cnr City Rd & Cleveland St
Chippendale
$20(non-member) – $15 (member) – $10 (student)
Details and on-line bookings at www.sima.org.au

For HiRes photos, to arrange interviews etc contact Kim at kimzgaida@hotmail.com

This is the second in the Elphick’s Last Stand series put on by Sydney Improvised Music Association. The first will feature Steve with “The World According to James” at the Sound Lounge on Saturday November 26. Details, bookings at www.sima.org.au

Kim has just completed a recording session (on ney and kaval) with composer Amanda Brown for a documentary on divorce in the Muslim community in Australia. The film will be shown on the ABC’s “Compass” programme later in the year.

Performance details for Kim Sanders & Friends at the National Folk Festival in Canberra at Easter are as follows:
Friday 22 April, Cat & Fiddle, 5.30pm
Saturday 23 April, Brindabella, 10am
Sunday 24 April, Marquee, 9.30pm

…but check your programme!

Line-up for NFF 2011 is:
Kim Sanders (ney, mey, kaval, gaida, sax)
Llew Kiek (bouzouki, baglama)
Mark Szeto (fretless electric or double bass)
Bobby Singh (tabla)

KIM SANDERS & FRIENDS will follow their stunning gig at Peats Ridge Festival on New Years Eve with a more expansive performance at Camelot in Marrickville on Sunday February 27.

Line-up this time will be

Kim Sanders: ney,kaval, mey, tenor sax

Llew Kiek: bouzouki, baglama, oud

Mark Szeto: double bass

Bobby Singh: tabla

“It’s great playing with such great musicians with such varied backgrounds”,  says Kim.  “It means the music never gets stale.”

Kim Sanders & Friends will hit the stage at 7.30 pm. Second band will be Modern Gong Ritual, kicking off round 9 pm.

On-line bookings will be up soon. See www.camelotlounge.com

Kim Sanders & Friends Trio will be performing at Osman’s Turkish Restaurant in Townsville on Saturday December 4.

The show will naturally have a Turkish flavour and will feature Kim on ney, kaval, mey and gaidas,  Llew Kiek on baglama, bouzouki and oud and Peter Kennard on dhaf, daire, darabukka and percussion.

7.30pm, Osman’s Restaurant, 241/43 Flinders St East, Townsville

Bookings 07 421 4772/info@osmans.com

Osmans website is www.osmans.com

Kim with Glen Doyle, Solo International Ethnic Music Festival, Indonesia, 2008

One time cane-cutter, meatworks labourer and documentary film researcher, World Music pioneer Kim Sanders has steamed up the coast of Sumatra in a tramp steamer full of rubber, survived border crossings with Georgian gun runners and been arrested for spying by a Macedonian Brezhnev lookalike. He has played on national radio in Bulgaria and national TV in Indonesia, with Gypsy wedding bands in Macedonia, in mosquito-ridden clubs in Gambia, tavernas in Greece, tea-houses in China and concert-halls from the Ataturk Cultural Centre in Istanbul to the Sydney Opera House.

With Gypsy wedding band, Berovo, Macedonia, 1984

In ’84/5 Kim spent eighteen months studying and performing in the Balkans, Turkey and Gambia and Senegal in West Africa where he played with the Libidorr Band. In ’93/4 he returned to Turkey and the Balkans and performed with Turkish/Greek group Phanari tis Anatolis (aka Bosphoros or Anadolu Fener), Zimbabwean mbira-player Stella Chiweshe and musicians from the Filip Koutev (Bulgarian State) Ensemble. He performed solo on Radio Sofia and recorded with Phanari tis Anatolis and Turkish singer Oguz Yilmaz.

With Sawung Jabo's Bayang-Bayang, Jogjakarta, Indonesia, 1996

In ’96 he toured Indonesia with Sawung Jabo’s innovative music/dance production Bayang-Bayang and returned to Indonesia in 00 and 03 with Indonesian-World group GengGong, in 05 and 07 with Trio Dingo and in 06, 07 and 08 as soloist. He has recorded in Indonesia with GengGong and singers Setiawan Djodi and Oppie Andaresta.

In ’00/01 Kim returned to Turkey to continue his studies in Turkish Classical, Sufi, Gypsy and folk music. He performed with Laz musician Birol Topaloglu and with the Turkish Ministry for Culture’s Istanbul State Modern Folk Music Ensemble. He was the subject of a short documentary on Turkish television. He returned to Turkey in 07/08 and studied with ney master Ahmet Kaya and Gypsy clarinetist Selim Sesler. Amongst others he performed with percussionist Okay Temiz and with the Turkish incarnation of Kim Sanders & Friends.

With Tianchuang at Jintai Museum, Beijing, 2004

In 04 he performed in Beijing as a soloist and worked with pioneering Chinese World-Jazz ensemble Tianchuang.

In Australia Kim was co-leader (with Linsey Pollak) of Australia’s first World-Jazz band (Rabadaki, 79) and has since played with musicians from every continent except Antarctica (including Flamenco Dreaming, Nakisa, Okapi Guitar Band, Seaweed & Wire, Chichitote, Davood Tabrizi, Descendance and Balcano). He performed with Zülfü Livaneli and Fatih Kisaparmak (Turkey), Bahar (Iran) and the Bisserov Sisters (Bulgaria) on their Australian tours.

With Birol Topaloglu, Istanbul 2008

In the 90s he lead legendary “Gypsy-Afro- World” band Brassov and worked with Bulgarian folk singer Silvia Entcheva in the Silvia Entcheva Trio.  He also performed in Australia with GengGong and led various ensembles featuring musicians including Indian tabla master Bobby Singh, Macedonian clarinettist Bobby Dimitrievski, Greek singer/bouzouki-player George Doukas and jazz masters Sandy Evans and Toby Hall.

Wedding in The Gambia with Bas Jobarteh, 1985

Kim plays Macedonian, Turkish and Bulgarian gaidas (bagpipes), aardvark (Australian-Turkish- Bulgarian bass bagpipe); Bulgarian and Turkish kavals (long wooden flutes), saluang (Sumatran flute), furulya (Hungarian flute) and ney (Dervish flute); mey, duduk, guanzi (Turkish, Armenian, Chinese double reed instruments); zurna (Turkish/Balkan shawm); tenor sax; tin whistle; davul (dauli, tapan)(drum) and small percussion. He also arranges ensembles for special events, and composes music for films and stage productions.

Kim also teaches gaida, kaval, mey, ney, duduk and theory.

With Madurese group Semut Merah, East Jave Persussion Festival, 2008

“Masterly control of subtlety…very soulful playing” – Diaspora Worldbeat Magazine

“Sanders’ skills as an instrumentalist are impressive… (As a composer, his work is) new and genuinely exciting” – Chris Williams, fROOTS Magazine (UK)

“I will never view animals in quite the same way after seeing Sanders’ inflated menagerie of bagpipes. But it was the saxophone that most warmed the blood: a big, braying honking beast of a thing that could unexpectedly whisper sweet nothings in your ear” – John Shand, Sydney Morning Herald

Recording with Phanari tis Anatolis, Istanbul 1993

“Virtually a force unto himself in world music scenes” – Drum Media

“…the magical voice of Kim Sanders’ saxophone” – Yogja Pos, Indonesia

“There are no more than a few Australian musicians who have made certain types of folk music their stamping-ground. Multi-instrumentalist Kim Sanders is one” – Australian Financial Review

With Stella Chiweshe, Istanbul 1994

“Kim Sanders was particularly effective on Turkish and Macedonian bagpipes, peeling off lines that were both inventive and convincingly idiomatic.” – John Clare, Sydney Morning Herald

“More, more, more!” – Kuranda Seyit, Australian Muslim News

Click here for a downloadable interview with Kim on the Jazz and Beyond Web site

and click here to hear Hans Stoeve of 2SER-FM talking with Kim

For links to videos, see “Links” page

For news on forthcoming gigs see “Gigs and News” page

Because of the spam deluge, “Comments” have been disabled for this website.  If you would like to comment on any aspect of Kim’s musical activities you can do so by email (kimzgaida@hotmail.com) or on the “Kim Sanders World Music” page on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Kim-Sanders-World-Music/131697043563700?sk=info ).

]]> http://kimsandersworldmusic.com/home/feed/ 9 http://kimsandersworldmusic.com/kims-instruments/ http://kimsandersworldmusic.com/kims-instruments/#comments Wed, 02 Sep 2009 19:46:46 +0000 kim http://kimsandersworldmusic.com/?page_id=243 [Kim has a small number of kavals, neys, meys, darabukkas and one zurna for sale. Meys and zurna include spare reeds. kimzgaida@hotmail.com]

“I play many instruments.  Some of them have stories as well”

AARDVARK

A hybrid Turkish, Bulgarian, Australian bass bagpipe.  There’s only one in the whole world, and this is it.  The range is an octave plus a major third. The basic scale is Turkish Ussak scale – like Aeolian Minor with the second flattened by a quarter-tone. The bag is goat-skin. The chanter is made from Cooktown Ironwood and the drone from privet.

A Tale of an Aardvark

On my first trip to Turkey in 1984 I saw a cassette of gaida (Balkan bagpipe) music in a shop – rare in Turkey. I bought it, and it was fantastic. Guy by the name of Kamil Gül (“Perfect Rose” in Turkish). I thought I might follow it up, maybe score some lessons. I rang the record company to find out how to get in touch: “Dunno,” they said, “We think he lives in Lüleburgaz…” So Linda and I got on a bus to Lüleburgaz, checked into the El Sleazo Hotel, and did what I have done many times on my travels: headed for the local tea-house (or taverna, or equivalent), whipped out an instrument (in this case a gaida) and, played a tune (to establish local street cred). After which I asked if anyone knew Kamil Gul, gaida-player…After a while, someone appeared who had heard of him; but we had to wait for the other guy who knew a guy who knew a guy whose uncle had a car…who arrived in the fullness of time and we headed off to the address. There were wild dogs and other diversions along the way, but we eventually established that he didn’t live there anymore. Dang! Up to this point, everyone had been telling us (as best they could, given that they had no English, and my Turkish was, at this early stage, fairly rugged) that this guy was a Bad Man, a motherf****r, a fatherf****r, who would rob me, rape Linda etc etc, which I was inclined to take with a grain of salt, reasoning that anyone who could play gaida like that couldn’t be all bad…We were eventually taken to meet The Doctor (head of the local hospital), who could speak English (sort of), and who explaıned that Kamil Gül was a very bad man, motherf***r etc etc and advised us not to proceed with our quest. By this time, I was getting stubborn, and dug my heels in. The Doctor was a bit strange. His wife, apparently, had been some sort of Beauty Queen. They had gone to Canada several years before, but had had to return to Turkey on account of her (unspecified) “psychological problems”. He offered us accomodation in the hospital, which seemed strangely deserted…At this point the whole thing felt like it was beginning to turn into a horror movie, so we declined, and took our leave as rapidly as possible.

Next day, it was back on the bus to Kirklareli, near the Bulgarian border. Our man allegedly lived in a nearby village. We needed the permission of the Hamdi (headman) of the village, who actually lived in the town; so we went to his place, and were immediately adopted as Guests, in the sometimes suffocatingly hospitable Turkish manner. The Hamdi couldn’t understand why we’d want to go to all this trouble to meet some vulgar villager. He insisted we stay the night, which we did, dutifully chatting with his Nice family, watching a Nice variety programme on tele before putting on the Nice pyjamas they gave us (we didn’t have any with us in our rucksacks at the time) and going to bed (mmmmm, soft…). Next day we got the 6am minibus to the village (twice daily service) and hit the Official Office. They sent for Kamil (though they still couldn’t understand why we were interested), and eventually dragged him up, unshaven and wondering what the hell was happening, and was he in deep sh*t for some reason?

Kamil Gul

I introduced myself, explaining that I was from Australia, a gaida-player who dug his cassette, and wanted to talk, have a bit of a blow, and maybe get a lesson or two. He was a little suspicious (as you would be), but after a while loosened up a bit, and invited me back to his place. This did not go down too well with the officials, who could not understand why I would want to commune with this nebish rather than exchanging small-talk with them. Inevitably, he turned out to be a very sweet guy, as was his wife Bedriye, and we had a ball playing and singing all day. It turned out that the Bad Guy reputation came from one of his sons, who had been arrested in the company of a Swedish tourist who had one joint in his pocket (and was serving an “indefinite” jail sentence – he did about 18 months, as it turned out), and his daughter, who, we were told by some old ladies of the village, had “gone to be a prostitute in Istanbul” (not true, as I suspected: She had gone to Istanbul, as I later discovered, but more to escape village closed-mindedness than to flog the bod…She was working as a hairdresser) One thing was for sure: Kamil could play a gaida just like a-ringin’ a bell, and when he was playing he wasn’t in a two-roomed house with dirt floors in a village in Turkey, he was way, way out in Gaida-Land. We had to leave at 6pm on the minibus, but we commuted there and back for three days, and then went to Greece for a festival we wanted to check out, promising to return. This we did, and bulldozed our way through the Polite Hospitality in the town, arguing that Kamil Bey had invited us to stay in his house, and it would be impolite to refuse. They couldn’t get round that one. We stayed a week, I got some lessons and learned a lot of tunes. I was allowed to slip him a few bucks for the lessons (paying for bed and board being out of the question, of course). A magical time was had. The neighbours would cram in, and sing, eat, dance, Kamil and I (and assorted darabukka-players) would play and play… And then we left, and I never saw him again. Back in Australia, I wrote, but they had moved, and I lost touch with them. In 2001, whilst studying in Istanbul, I followed up a very tenuous lead on the daughter, expecting a wild goose chase (had a few of them on the travels!). But to cut a long story short, I eventually did track her down to a town 80 km out of Istanbul on the bus. So (the day before I was returning to Australia), I went up there. Kamil had died three years previously (dang!), but Bedriye was well; and the whole family (five kids, now grown up, of course, including Ruhi, the only one we had met – he was five then. He was now 22, but had gone a bit feral in the meantime, and hadn’t seen his mum for two years… After eating, I took out my gaida, and played, and I had this strange feeling that it was Kamil playing…Ruhi had to go out into the hall for a bit of a cry (and he wasn’t the only one). I was crying too… And that’s the story. He was the wildest, grooviest, craziest, swinginest gaida-player I ever met, and my CD You Can’t Get There From Here was dedicated to him.

Evolution of the Aardvark

Linsey Pollak

Kamil was half Bulgarian, half Turkish and had made his own gaida similar to Bulgarian in construction, but with Turkish fingering and scale. I measured it up as best I could with a school ruler, and sent the measurements back to Australian musician and instrument-maker Linsey Pollak, who had introduced me to the Macedonian gaida many years before. A year or so later, Linsey presented me with his bass version – what a great sound! The drone was a bit of a problem, though.

To make it short enough so it wouldn’t bang on the ground, he had to make the bore narrower than it should have been, which had the effect of making it a bit unstable – it tended to jump around between various overtones. So I figured what I needed was a u-turn at the bottom and some kind of classy spout thingie. This would give the extra length that would solve all the problems. Linsey was too busy, so I asked Craig Fischer, a maker of uillean pipes in South Australia, to do it.

Aardvark drone

Sure enough, five years later, the new drone arrived (with a loop-da-loop instead of a spout). Fantastic sound, and solid as a rock! In the meantime, I had made a discovery. Many wind instruments have big or little holes near the end, called end-correction holes. They are developed by trial and error, and make the instrument play in tune right at the bottom of the range, where all that stuff you learn at school about sine-waves in tubes goes a bit wierd and doesn’t work any more. I discovered that if I closed the end-correction holes with the inside of my knees (whilst sitting), I could get an extra low note – and a very useful one at that (the 5th of the scale).

Aardvark chanter Mk I (rear) and Mk II (showing Nicholson key)(front)

I recalled the scene in “Five Easy Pieces” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wtfNE4z6a8) where Jack Nicholson, frustrated at not being able to get a serve of plain toast, tells the frowsy waitress in the diner to give him a chicked sandwich, hold the chicken between her knees, and give him the bread, toasted (she was very impressed). So I figured that what I needed was a Nicholson Key to let me close the bottom hole with my little finger (clasping a gaida between the thighs is not easy when you’re playing into a microphone). So I asked another Scottish/Irish pipe-maker, Ian MacKenzie (of Blackheath) to see what he could do, and he came up with a new improved chanter with a Nicholson key. What we now know as the Aardvark was ready to roll. And it wails! Incidentally, many people think it’s called an aardvark because of its appearance. Certainly it is hairy, has a long snout, and two beady little eyes. But it is actually called an aardvark because that’s what you say when your reeds go out of tune in the middle if a gig and make you look like a complete goose: “Aardvark!

KAVAL

Kavals

Edge-blown wooden flute found in Macedonia, Bulgaria and Turkey. The joints and blowing-edge are made of buffalo horn or composite materials. In Bulgaria they are usually made in three pieces, elsewhere in one piece. They come in various sizes from about 40 to 80 cm.

Bulgarian 3-piece kaval

My favourite is a three-piece Bulgarian kaval in E,  made from plum wood and horn. It belonged to the father of my friend and teacher Georgi Doytchev.  It is at least 50 years old, probably more, and a beautiful instrument.

Turkish kaval in A

I also have a low A kaval.  When it finally arrived in Australia (four years and many phone calls after I ordered it in Istanbul!) I discovered it was too long for my little finger to reach the bottom hole, so I asked Ian Mackenzie to makey a key.  Not orthodox, but it works!

MEY

Meys, reed

Turkish double-reed instrument The cylindrical-bore body is made of wood (often plumb or apricot) and the reed (“kamis”) from cane, flattened at one end and left cylindrical at the other. The opening at the tip and the fine tuning of the reed are done by sliding the cane ligature (“kiskac”) along the reed. Circular breathing (like with didgeridu) is often used.The brass plug on the side of my instruments is for a pickup – it is a very soft instrument, and on live gigs a microphone can’t cut it without massive feedback.

Guanzi

My meys were made by Ayhan Kahraman in Istanbul, but he is apparently not doing it these days. My current reeds were made by Adem Ceylan, who also showed me how. It’s kinda tricky! Instruments similar to mey are found from the Balkans all the way to China.  I  have a guanzi from a trip to China in 2005, but I haven’t had time to learn how to play it properly yet.

MACEDONIAN GAIDA (GAJDA)

Macedonian Gaida

Bagpipe with chanter and single drone, made from wood and horn (or, increasingly, composite materials). Chanter is theoretically cylindrical, but sometimes slightly tapered, according to the maker.

Blow-pipe showing cage valve

The blow-pipe has a valve to prevent the air from going back out the in-pipe. This  is either a leather flap bound onto the mouthpiece, or a disc of leather (or bicycle inner-tube) in a wire cage.

Cane chanter reed

Reeds are single, made of cane.  The bag is made of salted goatskin, with the fur on the inside. This skin was made in Australia by Risto Todoroski (see Links Page).
The gaida is tuned by a combination of any or all of the following: moving the ligature on the reed up or down (thereby making the vibrating tongue of reed longer or shorter),  putting a little piece of beeswax on the tip of the reed, shaving the reed in different places and partially covering particular holes of the chanter by wax.

Horn chanter stock, carved by Risto Todoroski

The drone can also be adjusted by sliding its three component parts in or out. My Macedonian gaida is from Prilep, in Macedonia. It is made of boxwood and horn.  The chanter stock (the bit tied into the bag that the chanter goes into) is from Jack Thompson’s bull Desmo, who unfortunately got stuck in a bog some years ago and drowned.  His spirit lives on.

DUDUK

Duduk

A very old Armenian double-reed instrument with a cylindrical bore, usually made from apricot  wood, though plum and mulberry are sometimes used. The duduk is similar to the Turkish mey, but with eight finger-holes on the front, and an extra hole at the bottom that can be closed by pressing against the body. Variants are also played in Azerbaijan (balaban), Georgia (duduki), Iran (balaban) and elsewhere. The duduk is commonly played accompanied by a drone (“dam”), using circular breathing. The duduk comes in various sizes and has a total range of an octave plus a 4th, although the easily usable range is one octave.  Mine goes from D to G.

Duduk reed

The large double reed (“yegheg” or “ramish”) is made from cane, flattened at one end and left cylindrical at the other.  The edges of the reed have pieces of very thin leather glued to them to prevent splitting. The opening at the tip and the fine tuning of the reed are done by sliding the cane ligature along the reed. I got this one from Zafer Tastan in Istanbul in 2008.

NEY

The ney plays a primary role in the rituals of the Mevlevi (“Whirling Dervish”) and Bektasi Sufi rituals as well as for for Turkish Classical Music. The Turkish ney is distinct from the Arabic and Persian varieties.

Turkish neys

The Turkish ney is an edge-blown flute made of carefully-selected cane, usually from Southern Turkey or Syria. The cane must be cut in October/November when the diameter and wall thickness of the cane are most suitable.  The cane must be  carefully dried and often needs to be heated and straightened as well. The “baspare” (mouthpiece) is made from buffalo horn, ivory, wood or, increasingly, composite materials. Its interior is not cylindrical but slightly curved – one of the skills of the maker. The baspare fits into the “bogaz” (throat) or first section of the ney. There are metal rings (“parazvane”) on the ends of the ney to stop splitting. During construction the ney is tuned not only by placement and size of the holes (remembering that every piece of cane is different) but also by the degree to which the interior nodes of the bamboo are opened. The ney has six finger-holes on the front and a thumb-hole on the back.

Baspare (mouthpiece)

Its apparent simplicity hides the difficulty of playing the 53 pitches per octave necessary for playing the complete range of classical makams. Pitches are adjusted by partially uncovering the holes, cross-fingering and changing the angle of the air-stream striking the edge of the baspare. Range is over two and a half octaves. Ney comes in a variety of sizes from the lowest, Davud (lowest note Eb) to the highest Bolahenk (lowest note D). Occasionally smaller neys are found. The neys I am currently playing are by Rifat Varol and Hanefi Kirgiz.

Arabic nai

Persian ney

The Arabic nai is similar to the Turkish ney, but has no baspare – the blowing edge is bevelled like the kaval.  Blowing technique is similar. The Arabic nai ise usually played in a higher range than the Turkish.

The Persian ney is played using the interdental blowing technique, where the player places the ney in his teeth and upper jaw and directs his breath with his tongue – very difficult!

BULGARIAN GAIDA

Bulgarian gaida

The Bulgarian gaida differs from the Macedonian in that it has a “conical” bore.  Each maker has his own shape and makes his own tool to bore it. The other dimensions (length, size and spacing of holes etc)  are therefore often quite different between different makers. The range is a ninth.

Blow-pipe showing flap-valve

There are seven finger-holes and a thumb-hole.  The top hole is very small and is therefore called the “flea-hole”.  This hole is used for ornamentation, vibrato and for some chromatic notes.

Composite/cane drone reed

A lot of ornamentaion is also done with the thumb on the back hole. The original salted goat-skin wore out.  This one is tanned, formerly a feral from Percy Island in the Great Barrier Reef, but now a patron of the arts. I got this gaida (in D) through my teacher Georgi Doytchev in Sofia in 1993. It is my favourite – a particularly delicate piece of work. I also have gaidanitsas (chanters) in G, E and D from Traiche Baldzhiev and A and D from Kostadin Varimezov.

BULGARIAN KABA GAIDA

Bulgarian kaba (bass) gaida

Bass gaida from the Rhodope Mountains in Southern Bulgaria. This one is from Corey Dale who got it in Bulgaria in 2007.  I swapped it for a Hungarian duda which Laci Lakk got for me in Hungary on a tour in 1988, and which I’ve never had time to get working and learn how to play.

Kaba gaida drone dismantled

The chanter and bag are by Kostadin Illchev and drone by Todor Todorv. Wood is cornell cherry and stocks are cow-horn. The bag is goat-skin.

BULGARIAN/TURKISH/BALINESE/AUSTRALIAN (“GANESHA”) GAYDA

Turkish/Bulgarian ("Ganesha") Gayda

Bulgarian gaida in C (chanter from Kostadin Varimezov) modified by “moving” the fifth hole from the top up a quarter-tone and making the five-fingers-closed hole the tonic (drone)  note (A).

Ganesha gaida stock ready for staining

(It took me three months to pluck up enough courage to take a rat-tailed file to the hole…) Fingering is similar to Turkish zurna and mey.

Ganesha chanter stock bagged up

I had the front stock carved by I Wayan Sudiarta,  a craftsman from Mas in Bali in 2005. It is the Hindu god Ganesh (Lord of Removing Obstacles, Patron of Arts and Sciences and Deva of Intellect and Wisdom).  I stained it (except for the eyes and tusks) to match the colour of the chanter. The other stocks, bag and blow-pipe were made by Cory Dale (see “Links” page).

I also use a standard-fingering Bulgarian A chanter with this set-up.

Tulum from Rize

The Turkish gaydas that I play (Ganesha and Aardvark) are different to the other (more common) type of Turkish bagpipe, the tulum. Tulum comes from the Black sea and is similar to the Pontian (Greek) tsampouna, still played in some of the Greek islands.  It has no drone and a double-chanter with a curved bell (like a saxophone) at the end, sometimes made of horn but usually  from wood.  Some of them have very fancy covers.  See Links page for video of me playing gayda with Birol Topaloglu on tulum in Istanbul, 2008.

TAPAN (aka tupan, dauli, davul, tabla)

Macedonian tapan

Balkan, Middle-Eastern double-sided drum, with a thick skin and a thinner one, played with a big beater and a thin switch. As well as playing its own strokes, the little stick can be placed on the skin, producing a snare affect when the big stick hits the other side.

Tapan sticks

My little tapan was made by Risto Todoroski.  I carved the big stick myself from Australian brush-box.  The little stick is plum.

ZURNA (ZURLA)

Turkish zurna (Uzbeki necktie)

Known as “zurla” in the Balkans, the zurna is a wooden shawm with double reed.

Pollock extenda-range zurna

Similar instruments are found in the Middle East, Central and East Asia, Indonesia and North Africa. The bore is cylindrical till the bell. The reed is traditionally made from a soft reed flattened at one end and tied onto a staple.  Circular breathing is used to produce a non-stop sound.  Often played in pairs, with one instrument playing melody, the other playing drone using circular breeathing. This technique is also often used on the melody pipe as well. I got the traditional zurna above from Istanbul luthier Yusuf Toraman in 1984.

Zurna reeds: cane (rear), plastic straw (front)

I also have a zurna designed and made by Linsey Pollak, incorporating elements from the Chinese suona. This allows the normal range of a ninth to be extended by a flat 6th. Linsey also uses reeds made from plastic drinking-straws – less affected by changes due to moisture.

FLUTES:

Saluang, suling, furulya

Saluang (L) is an edge-blown cane flute of the Minang people of West Sumatra. It has only four finger-holes, so a lot of half-holing is done. The blowing technique is similar to ney. Possibly influenced by Arab traders over several centuries. This one was given to me by Sawung Jabo. Another Indonesian cane flute is suling (centre) with a fipple and six finger-holes. This one is a Sundanese suling I got from Agus Super in  Bandung, West Java. Hungarian furulya (R) is another fipple flute, with six finger-holes and no thumb-hole (like a tin whistle). It is in two parts, which allows fine-tuning.  Laci Lakk got this one (made from wood and bone) for me on a tour in Hungary in 1988.

TENOR SAX

With Tianchuang, Jintai Museum, Beijing, 2004

Good ol’ Selmer Mk VI. It’s a bit gnarled now (I’ve had it since 1972) but I wouldn’t swap it for anything. I use an Otto Link 7* mouthpiece with Rico Royal 2 1/2 reeds.

Kim Sanders, Sandy Evans

Kim Sanders & Friends bring their unique blend of serene Sufi meditations, deranged Balkan Gypsy dance rhythms, magical Indian wizardry, Persian reggae and seriously bent Afro-jazz grooves to the Chapel by the Sea in Bondi on Friday September 18.
Kim will be joined by Sandy Evans, Steve Elphick and Bobby Singh. “There is a pool of wonderful musicians who play in the band,” says Kim, “and this helps the music stay fresh and keep evolving. I couldn’t think of anything worse than playing the same old stuff with the same old musos (or their clones) over and over again (sorry Mick and Keith, you poor sad b*ggers!) I have been playing with these guys for a long time now, but they each bring different things to the band, and what’s more, they are all wonderful improvisers, so every gig is different, and sometimes amazing stuff happens!”

• Kim Sanders: ney (Sufi flute), kaval (Bulgarian wooden flute), gaidas (Balkan bagpipes), mey (Turkish double reed) or maybe duduk (Armenian double reed), tenor sax
• Sandy Evans: tenor and soprano saxophones
• Steve Elphick: double bass
• Bobby Singh: tabla

7.30 pm, Fri 18 September
Chapel by the Sea
95 Roscoe St Bondi Beach
Tickets available at the door. $20/15 (conc)
Bookings 02 9130 3445 chapel@ucabondibeach.com.au
Public transport info: http://www.chapelbythesea.unitingchurch.org.au
Light meals are available at Ruby’s Café onsite

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