Bazaar is the latest Greek/Anatolian folk instrumental single by Gerasimos Papadopoulos with his group Ferah. Ferah consists of Gerasimos on the oud, Achilleas Tigas on the ney, and Stefanos Agiopoulos on percussion. We also hear on the contrabass, Thomas Meleteas. The trio plays oriental music from Greece, Cyprus, Turkey, and Arabia and their original music.
Born in Athens in 1988, Gerasimos grew up in Cyprus. He relocated to Athens in 2008, where he attended the University of Athens and earned a degree in Greek Philology. He earned his Byzantine Music certificate.
Bazaar makes use of the string instrument Oud and the flute wind instrument Ney as the primary melodic instruments. The song is full of drama with phrases building on top of each other. The main motif is established and then the further phrasing builds on the primary motif with elegance, class, and stunning musical dynamics and narration.
Gerasimos Papadopoulos studied the Oud and Ottoman singing with Greek and Turkish instructors. He earned a Master’s degree in linguistics in 2016, and since 2017, he has been working on his doctoral research in Byzantine musicology. At the European University of Cyprus, he is presently teaching English terminology of Byzantine musicology.
This two minute song expresses more than many other longer songs which have much less to say with grander arrangements but little melodic substance. The song is written for the fairy tale “Zahrenia” by Fotini Kaimaki. The song is an ode to the Bazaar, the market, with its flurry of colour, commerce, emotions, and culture. Kudos to Gerasimos Papadopoulos for bringing to the fore traditional music and continuing to make such stunning music in idioms rooted in the soil.
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Discovered via musosoup.com
