Oglan, Oglan / Marko Melkon / 1937 / Oǧlan, Oǧlan

The great Marko Melkon Alemsherian recorded this Turkish song twice and this is the FIRST posting of the 1937 recording. (All other versions on YouTube are of the Balkan/Me-Re recording from the 1940s.) This version was recorded on 2/15/37 at a session where Melkon's oud accompanied the lyre master from Crete, Harilaos Piperakis, on two songs, "Chalepiano Syrto" and "Pentozali". Melkon then recorded "Oǧlan, Oǧlan" and "Hidjaskiar Taxim", with only the former being issued.

Of Armenian heritage, Melkon hailed from Smyrna (now Izmir in Turkey) and recorded over 80 Greek and Turkish songs under his own name from the late 1920s until the 1950s. As accompanist, he recorded with Victoria Hazan (singer), Nick Doneff (violin), Nishan Sedefjian (violin), Garbis Bakirjian (kanun) and others, and was something of a "house" oudist for the Kaliphon-Balkan-Metropolitan labels in the 1940s.

There are excellent reissues of Melkon's work on Traditional Crossroads (CD), and Canary Records (via Bandcamp).