THE Sufi music of Turkey is an ancient tradition, and witnessing a live performance can be an esoteric experience, as demonstrated by the Whirling Dervish ritual at this year's Edinburgh International Festival.
In complete contrast, Latif Bolat,
who lived and practised Sufism in the USA for many years before returning home, knows how to strike the right balance between performance and exposition.
At this intimate gathering, Bolat introduced the mysticism of Sufism by way of troubadour folk ballads, explaining how a song about earthly love could also be interpreted as a song about love for the divine – the "beloved up there".
Playing his long-necked saz lute with aplomb, he told stories and read the devotional 13th-century poetry of Yunus Emre and Rumi, while fluently introducing the complex ideas that underpin some of the songs. The slide show of Turkey that accompanied the long self-composed piece which ended this performance were perhaps more "shuffle mode" than the music deserved, but the spiritual element of the music came through powerfully, and that's what mattered.
The full article contains 183 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
