April 26th, I had read in an English speaking Turkish paper (kind of like the Pasatiempo) of a concert of Portuguese Fado music.  The concierge at the Turkoman got me a couple of tickets.  I invited Trici to go along and we took a hair raising cab ride to the new part of Istanbul at rush hour.  There’s a surprising lack of horn honking considering the amount of traffic.  Everybody seems to make their way inching by each other with little mishap.  Trici said, in the 8  years she’s been there, she’s only seen one altercation.  One day, someone, ill- advisedly had decided to turn around in the middle of the street, blocking everyone, including Trici’s cab.  Trici’s driver jumped out, ran to the car blocking the street and started pummeling the driver through the open window.  All the other cab drivers jumped out of their cabs, restrained the driver and got him back to Trici’s cab, got in their own cabs and everyone continued on their way.

No such excitement happened on our cab ride.  We got there without incident although I did hold on to the door handle for most of the ride!  The concert was in a bank building in a concert hall with the best sound I have ever experienced.  As I understand it, fado is usually a singer and a guitar but this was a group.  The singer was accompanied by two violinists, a cellist, a keyboardist and a guitarist.  Not knowing Portuguese I couldn’t understand what she was singing but we were, many of us, in tears, transported by her voice and the sadness of the music.