A posting at Excavated Shellac got me started on this threadlet. It links to an mp3 of a ca. 1911 Turkish-language record (though probably sung by two Christian or Jewish women) that's in the Pretty Boy Floyd tradition. Or so I learned by reading Ian Nagoski's masterful summary, which served to connect up a bunch of dots I already knew something about, having to do with pre-1921 Smyrna, its ethnic composition and its various musics. I've been acquainted with Nagoski's enterprise since acquiring his compilation CD Black Mirror: Reflections in Global Musics 1918-1955, but I hadn't turned Google loose on the case until today, and the documents linked below tell a tale that I could only wish was my own:
Distant Transmissions: Ian Nagoski brings obscure World Music 78s to CDNews from Home: a short tour of non-English language music for sale in Baltimore
Ian Nagoski: Musician and Writer (2001 interview, before his immersion in 'World' stuff, but there's a money quote: "...curating and re-presenting consensus-reality culture with insight [as in Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music] can be completely mind-shattering.")
Lyrics under 'More Info', on the right on the YouTube site. "Tell me your story" indeed. (via Savage Minds)
via BoingBoing, so EVERYbody's already seen it, right?