MP3 Leigh Cline & Nikolas Michailidis - Al Asha Bi Daha -Traditional Songs of the Eastern Black Sea

An album of traditional, archaic Greek & Turkish Eastern Black Sea fiddle music with guitar, musically related to the Celtic family, from the land of Colchis where Jason and the Argonauts secured the Golden Fleece. The fiddle is called lyra or kemenche.

16 MP3 Songs
WORLD: World Traditions, WORLD: Eastern European



Details:
AL ASHA BI DAHA
Traditional Songs from the Eastern Black Sea
Scimitar SRD 0601

MUSIC FROM THE LAND OF THE GOLDEN FLEECE


"a technically sensitive recording of the vocals and fiddle that has rarely been bettered and the result is a delightful, refreshing CD of Black Sea music"

Chris Williams
Froots December 2006




This is an album of traditional music of the Eastern Black Sea region of present day Turkey bordering Georgia â the area adjacent to ancient Colchis, the land from where Jason and the Argonauts secured the Golden Fleece and returned to Greece with Medea, princess of Colchis.

This archaic music has as its main instrument an upright 3-stringed fiddle called kemenche or lyra. Al Asha Bi Daha is a collection of traditional songs and dances, played on this fiddle, guitar and double-headed drum called davul, with vocals in both Pontic Greek (ancient Greeks called the Black Sea Pontos Euxinos) and Black Sea Turkish.

Al Asha Bi Daha is a dance call in the local dialect meaning âkneel one more timeâ.


Magazine reviews are available here
http://www.scimitarmusic.com/asha/frootsreview.html

Also available as an iTunes download from the Scimitar Music website.

For more information and background on this type of music, please visit:
The Pontic Music Home Page http://www.scimitarmusic.com/pontos

Leigh Cline - Guitar
Nikolas Michailidis - Pontic lyra, vocals, davul

Produced by Leigh Cline
Recorded at Canterbury Music, Toronto, Canada
David Travers Smith - engineer
Mixed at Canterbury Music, Toronto, Canada
Jeremy Darby - engineer
Mastered at Joao Carvalho Mastering, Toronto, Canada
Brett Zilahi - engineer

SCIMITAR RECORDS
PO BOX 148, STN O, TORONTO, ON, CANADA, M4A 2M8
TEL (416) 778-5379 - FAX (416) 778-5359
scimitar@scimitarmusic.com
http://www.scimitarmusic.com


BIOS
LEIGH CLINE is a Canadian guitarist who has worked in Greece and Turkey with major singers and musicians in many genres. He has played extensively with most of the well known performers of Pontic/Black Sea music, including the legendary masters of kemenche Kostikas Tsakalidis and Gogos Petridis; Chrysanthos, the finest exponent of Pontic singing; as well as with most other major Pontic musicians and singers such as Stathis Nikolaidis, Mihalis Kaliontzidis, Yorgos Amarantidis, Panagiotis Aslanidis and Thanasis Tsoleridis.

Leighâs internationally licensed solo CD, Orient Express, has been released in Turkey and the Middle East, India and South Asia, Uzbekistan and Central Asia. Leighâs recently released CD single Galatia, that combines Celtic and Pontic music is receiving airplay worldwide and he is researching material for a radio/ television documentary on Celtic/Pontic connections.

Before moving to Europe he was a performer in the North American folk scene throughout Canada and the United States. He has researched World Music for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the World Crafts Council and the Mariposa Folk Festival. He was audio designer for the National Ballet of Canadaâs ballet Kraan Erg by Yannis Xenakis.

Leigh is webmaster of the Pontic Music homepage at http://www.scimitarmusic.com/pontos

A full bio is available at http://www.leighcline.com


NIKOLAS NICHAILIDIS, lyra, davul and vocals, was born in Thessaloniki, Greece, of Pontic Greek ancestry. He has been playing the kemenche/lyra since the age of 10. He has performed in many festivals in Europe, the Ukraine and U.S.

Nikolas founded the music group IASON (Jason) in Greece, composed of Black Sea musicians from Greece and Turkey. As well, he produced and played on the CD Horon ke Tragodia in Turkey released by Kocer Music.

His research and collection of songs among the Greek-speaking Muslims of Turkey's Black Sea region led to the production of a collective CD titled IASON, Songs from Black Sea (Minos EMI, Greece) with Filippos Kesapidis (kemenche) and Alexis Parharidis (vocals). He is currently in the process of founding a Pontic Music Archive for Greece and Turkey. He has also recorded a CD of Pontic songs called Romaika Tragodis on the Iris label with Adem Beskoylu and Filippos Kesapidis