Taverne, Café Amán e Tekés

Orchestra Bailam have been around since 1989, with a respectable backlist discography still available. The core group of five guys play reeds, percussion, violin and lutes including the oud, bouzouki and bağlamas; often in collaboration with guests. Their repertoire revisits both Ottoman art and more popular music of the eastern Mediterranean, ranging here from the two-part Armenian folk suite ‘Hayastan’ to the Sephardic song ‘Hija Mia’ by way of a fairly straight-ahead rendition of court composer Tanburi Cemil Bey's much-covered instrumental standard, ‘Çeçen Kızı’. No new interpretive ground is broken and the music – while more than competently played – feels earnest rather than spirited. One can quibble with Orchestra Bailam's decision to use translated lyrics for the half-dozen Greek tracks, while leaving original Ladino and Arabic lyrics alone; for me at least, it was supremely bizarre to hear one of the best-loved Greek-island songs, ‘Psaropoula’, sung in Italian.

Recording quality is not what you’d expect from Felmay – overwhelmingly bass-boomy, and very two-dimensional. Guests include fine ney (end-blown flute) player Jalal Ayham, and Alessandra Ravizza's show-stealing vocals on four tracks.