Feyzullah Çinar Eserleri 1

If there’s any Turkish record label going to pay tribute to the Alevi-Bektaşi minstrel Feyzullah Çinar then it’s got to be Kalan. Çinar (1937-1983) was born near Sivas in Central Anatolia, started singing in the 1950s and released his first record in 1966. In Turkish he’s called an aşık (minstrel) or ozan (poet), although he also set the words of other poets such as Pir Sultan Abdal or Aşık Dertli. After living in France for several years performing and lecturing, he faced persecution when he returned home; he was arrested several times and had his passport confiscated for reasons of Alevi propagandism; he died aged 45 working as a park cleaner in Ankara. Of course, without understanding Turkish it’s not possible to grasp the poetry and meaning of the lyrics, but even though it’s largely voice and saz, the variety of performers singing the 13 selected songs is impressive. From Erdal Erzincan and Cengiz Özkan, who supervised the project – Erzincan opening with glorious saz playing and Özkan singing the sombre ‘Kara Bahtım’ (My Dark Fate) – to Grup Abdal with piano, the poppy Zeynep Bakşi Karatağ and the cinematic closing with super speedy saz on ‘Dolanı Dolanı Gelir’ (Death Comes up the Winding Road). An impressive tribute.