v/a: To What Strange Place: The Music of the Ottoman-American Diaspora

Label: Tompkins Square

The latest intense document of the past to come from the Tompkins Square label is a monster work (you know, like a big hairy masterwork), especially for anyone who's become interested in Middle Eastern music over the past few years (ie., fans of everyone from Omar Souleyman to Tinariwen, among others). Compiled by Ian Nagoski -- who appears himself on one of the discs, discussing the music and the 78rpm life -- the three discs here feature the sort of passionate expression that can only come from people whose lives are intertwined with their music, people who had left their lives behind in the Old World and were struggling to find the promise of the new while holding onto their culture like a liferaft. These were immigrants to New York in the early 20th century, and this is the living (well, recorded) definition of folk music, and that's only one of the things you're constantly reminded of when sitting with these three discs. Another is the sheer virtuosity on display; you'll never forget the voice of Marika Papagika, a famous Greek singer who emigrated in 1915 and who appears four times on the set. There's extraordinary soloing spread across the three discs, but you'll also be amazed by the sophisticated group chemistry heard on Naim Karakand's "Gazabieh" and the dramatic quasi-waltz-time of Markos Sifnios's "Bate Koritsia Sto Horo" -- that last word indicating its blood-relation to the famous Yiddish hora. And anyone who associates "Miserlou" only with surf-rock will go slack-jawed at hearing an early incarnation from Tetos Demetriades. An astounding work of scholarship and devotion, To What Strange Place will be of equal interest to music fans and historians alike.