Mustafa Kandirali (Traditional Crossroads)

The name-only title for this collection is telling indicator of its subject’s stature. No “Master of the Turkish Clarinet” tagline necessary, Mustafa Kandirali’s name speaks for itself amongst fans and scholars of Turkish music. Traditional Crossroads gives Kandirali the royal treatment in terms of packaging too with a slipcase and 100-page hardbound book as accoutrements to a 15-track disc culling the purported best of his work from the 1970s and 80s. Where the collection falters is in the accompanying essays, which are long on superlatives and adoration, but bereft of discographical specifics. It’s an odd omission considering the number of pages the compilers had at their disposal. Frustrating as that facet of the presentation is, the music is anything but, featuring Kandirali’s keening clarinet in spectrum of settings from solo to small group accompaniment. Building on the innovations of Sukru Tunar, the acknowledged high doyen of Turkish microtonal clarinet, his is the equivalent of that “high lonesome sound” heard across cultures in everything from Roscoe Holcomb’s Kentucky hymnody to the Sufi devotionals of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. Expert accompaniment on oud, violin, darbuka and def bracket Kandirali’s whirling improvisations on taksim, romani and havasi song forms sometimes at vertigo-inducing tempos. Compiled mainly from LP and cassette releases, the fidelity of the recordings is uniformly excellent. Kandirali’s passion and genius are helpful reminders that conventional Western music constitutes but a drop in the bucket in the larger scheme of global musical activity.