At the Gateway to the East: Fatima Spar and the Freedom Fries with "Istanbul"

Fatima Spar and the Freedom Fries provides our random tune for today, called Istanbul. Fatima Spar is an Austrian/Turkish jazz musician who started singing jazz at age 13 but broke it off for a while to study music and theater and then fashion design in Vienna. She left her studies to resume her music career in 2004 and formed Fatima Spar and the Freedom Fries - they promptly won the Austrian World Music Awards. Spar sings in Turkish, English and German and the band's style consists of swing, Balkan brass, calypso and eastern music. She and her band also became the first band from Austria to appear on the official Womex schedule. You can find Istanbul on their 2006 album Zirzop.