Karsilama (2+2+2+3)

The karsilama (face to face), Turkish and Greek: nine eighths grouped 2+2+2+3, four beats with the last one long — quick-quick-quick-slow. Here the darbuka plays it: the deep dum on each beat, the sharp tek just after, the light rolls filling the long fourth beat. It is a dance and a rhythm of the café and the wedding, from Istanbul to Thessaloniki. Listen for the drag on the fourth beat; everything else is even. Practice: say dum-tek dum-tek dum-tek dum-tek-ka.