The "Magic" Of John Bilezikjian
Recorded By
John Bilezikjian & Souhael Kaspar

A Music Review By Shira

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Summary

Overall Rating: (on a scale of 1 to 5 stars)

A collection of traditional Middle Eastern music played on the oud, primarily intended for dancers. Most of the songs are Turkish, but there are one Armenian American and a few Arabic ones included. Some of the songs are good choices for beginning dancers to use in practice or student performances, while others are musically more complex and better suited to more experienced dancers. John Bilezikjian is widely acknowledged as a superb oud player, and this music showcases his skill very well. This is one of my favorite CD's to use in teaching and performing dance.

What I Liked, What I Didn't

What I Liked:

The musicianship on this album is excellent. Every song is precise, richly textured, and competently performed.
The sound quality is very clear, and suitable for professional use.
I very much enjoyed the choice of songs included. On some CD's and tapes, I'm lucky to find just one song I like enough to use in teaching, practice, or performances. On this collection, I regularly use three of the songs when teaching my classes, and there are others I'm thinking of using in the future.
The CD liner notes provide excellent information about the songs themselves. Although they don't include translations of the lyrics, they do translate the song titles and include a few comments about the type of dance that John recommends using each song for.

What I Didn't Like:

On the CD version of this album, many of the songs were arranged in medleys within a single track. Two of these were in the form of complete dance routines, and the third was just a medley of three songs. This makes it extremely difficult for a dancer to pick and choose selected songs when assembling her favorites into a tape for her own performance. This is the primary reason I held back and didn't give this music five stars.

The Chart

Overall Rating
Production Quality
Musicians' Skill
Suitability For Practice
Suitability For Performing
Educational Value
Packaging
Style	Traditional Turkish and Arabic songs
Amount Of Music	55:51 minutes
List Price	$10.00 for cassette tape $20.00 for CD-ROM
Cost Per Minute Of Music	18 cents/minute for cassette tape 36 cents/minute for CD-ROM

Description

This collection features mostly Turkish songs, but also includes a couple of my favorite Arabic selections. The bulk of the music is played by John Bilezikjian on oud and Souhael Kaspar on percussion, but supporting musicians include Helen Bilezikjian, Paul Foti, and Tony Kaspar. Some overdubbing was used to provide a richer texture to some of the songs. Most (but not all) of the songs feature vocals sung by John Bilezikjian. His voice is very well suited to this type of music, and is particularly expressive on the love songs.

You will probably like this collection if:

You like both Arabic and Turkish music, and you enjoy collections that include both.
You enjoy music played on the oud.
You like versatile music that works equally well for glitzy nightclub performances and traditional folkloric presentations.
You're already a fan of either John Bilezikjian or Souhael Kaspar.
You're looking for music that would be good for classroom use, beginner practice, or beginner performances. Although not every song on this album fits this description, there are enough that do to make the collection a good choice for beginners.

You probably won't care for this music if:

You use only music with the large 40-piece orchestra sound that characterized performances by top Egyptian dancers in the 20th century.
You strongly prefer Arabic music over Turkish.
You'd rather listen to pop music than traditional favorites.

Some of the songs, like Istemem Babacim, are in the verse/chorus format characteristic of traditional music. Using such musically simple songs as a starting point, the musicians embellish them in a way that adds excitement yet preserves the integrity of the original rhythm and melody. These characteristics make these songs especially well suited for beginning dancers in classrooms, practice, and student performances because the melody is simple and predictable, yet compelling enough to hold audience attention.

Songs Included

A note about the RealAudio clips that appear below: the nature of how RealAudio works is that it makes sacrifices in sound quality. It does that because it tries to make the file sizes as small as possible, thereby allowing you to download them faster. As you listen to these clips, please remember that the sound quality on the original recordings is far superior to what these clips sound like.

Song Title	Length	Nationality	RealAudio Clip?	Translation?	Comments
Istemem Babacim (opening song of "Julia's Dream" medley)	3:43	Turkish	Yes	Yes	Folk song. Peppy, upbeat, in verse-chorus form. Ayyoub rhythm. Excellent for beginners, except that it may be a little fast for them. One of my favorites -- I used it for a choreography.
Jemilleh (second song of "Julia's Dream" medley)	3:37	Armenian American	Yes	Yes	Beautiful for veil work. John's vocals are enchanting. I frequently use this in my classes for teaching slow, flowing moves.
Geceler (third song of "Julia's Dream" medley)	2:10	Turkish	No	No	Medium speed. Steady, consistent rhythm makes it good for beginner performances, classroom use, practice. Vocals. 2/4 rhythm. Not one of my favorites.
Çile Bülbülüm (fourth song of "Julia's Dream" medley)	1:32	Turkish	No	No	Medium speed. Vocal. Steady, consistent rhythm. Geceler transitions seamlessly into this, so I'd expect most dancers to use the two together because they can't be separated cleanly. 2/4 rhythm.
Drum Solo (fifth song of "Julia's Dream" medley)	6:12	Not Applicable	No	Instrumental	For advanced dancers. Fast, exciting, rich sound. Varied.
Tuta-Fakarouni (Finalé of "Julia's Dream" medley)	1:06	Arabic	Yes (fakarouni only)	Instrumental	Fabulous for finalé. Tuta is 38 seconds long, and Fakaruni is 28 seconds long.
Medley Mavi Mavi Telegraphen Tellerini Sivasda	5:55	Turkish	No	No	All three of these songs are cheerful and upbeat, played at a medium speed. The medley is not ideal for performance because of the 6-minute length, but it could be good for audience participation, collecting tips, practice use, open floor dancing at a party, or classroom use.
Azziza	4:04	Arabic	No	No	Medium-speed. Famous Arabic song. Not recommended for beginners due to frequent rhythm changes and breaks. This version has a rich texture, but feels a bit mellow in nature.
Sallasana Mendillini	5:29	Turkish	Yes	No	This song is typically played at a fast, upbeat speed, but John has opted to turn it into a soft, flowing, lyrical number. It's a beautiful song that I love to use for veil work, and I use it when I teach slow, undulating movements to my students.
Lamma Bada Yata Thanna	3:48	Arabic	No	Instrumental	Fascinating 10th-century Classical Arabic song. Recommended only for advanced dancers who understand its challenging Samai (10/8) musical rhythm.
Orientale Delight Pinar Basha Sevda Sevda Yar Saçlarin	11:17	Turkish	No	No	Short 3-part routine. Pinar Basha is fast, upbeat ayyoub rhythm with some breaks. Not ideal for raw beginners. Sevda Sevda is soft and flowing, good for veil or standing undulations. Yar Saçlarin is a peppy, upbeat song in ayyoub rhythm. Each song ends in a clean break so you can use them separately if you wish. These aren't my favorites.
Bekledim de Gelmedin	3:12	Turkish	No	No	Soft, flowing song in 3/4 waltz rhythm, which is rarely used in Middle Eastern music. It's probably not be the best song for beginners to perform because most classes don't teach moves suitable for this rhythm.
Seni Sevdi Geönlüm Yine Sevecek	3:24	Turkish	No	No	Pretty and flowing. Would be beautiful for veil work or standing undulations.

Disclosures

I have been using John Bilezikjian's music in my dancing for many years, and I highly respect his skills as a musician. I have met John and his wife Helen in person a few times, and although I don't know them very well, I have enjoyed their company. John was kind enough to contribute the translation of the song Jemilleh to this web site for my translated Middle Eastern song lyrics section.

Contacting The Producer & Ordering The Music

Dantz Records - John Bilezikjian
P.O. Box 2434
Laguna Hills, CA 92654-2434
U.S.A.

Phone: (+1) (949) 581-5664

The "Magic" Of John Bilezikjian Recorded By John Bilezikjian & Souhael Kaspar

A Music Review By Shira

Summary

What I Liked, What I Didn't

What I Liked:

What I Didn't Like:

The Chart

Description

Songs Included

Song Title

Length

Nationality

RealAudio Clip?

Translation?

Comments

Disclosures

Contacting The Producer & Ordering The Music

The "Magic" Of John Bilezikjian
Recorded By
John Bilezikjian & Souhael Kaspar