“Gül (Flower)” (2006) – Zainidin Imanaliev * Written by Atai Ogonbaev * Produced by Joel Gordon and Theodore Levin * CD: Tengir-Too: Mountain Music of Kyrgyzstan * Label: Smithsonian Folkways
Zainidin Imanaliev is the man on the cover of this compilation. He plays the komuz, a pear-shaped instrument with a long neck that you see players holding upside down (as he does in the photo) or cradling guitar-style. The song tells of hollyhocks and nightingales who “cling to the flowers” like dew and “exchange glances.” It’s written by Atai Ogonbaev, the region’s best-known bard, who lived from 1904 to 1949. Songs such as this, according to the notes, express a general optimism wafting through early thirties Kyrgyzstan, notwithstanding Soviet occupation. (“Our spirits rise and we open up [like fine flowers] in this new era,” goes the final verse.) It’s mountain music, with sunny strums and falsetto phrase-endings, with intriguing possibilities for an Appalachian interpreter. (Tengir-Too is the name of a Kyrgyz folk ensemble who receives top billing on this album.)