Bonus: Trio Mustafa Sudžuka i Merkuš
The Bosnian Instrumental and Vocal Trio of Mustafa Sudžuka and Merkuš recorded as many as
30 sides for the Gramophone Company in 1907. The clarinettist Mustafa Sudžuka, a musician
from Sarajevo, was already playing professionally by 1898. At that time the clarinet was mainly
associated with military bands. The musician with the Sephardic first
name Merkuš may have been Merkuš Alkalaj, who was born in 1886 and killed during the SecondWorld War. The third member of the trio remains unidentified.
The trio recorded a large repertoire of Bosnian instrumental tunes and songs, one song from
Serbia, one from Vranje, four songs in Ladino, and several Ottoman pieces, most of them
marches. This version of Kad ja poñoh na Bembašu is the original Bosnian-style tune for the poem
rather than the nowadays popular melody which is based on the Ottoman march "Hürriyet marsı"
from 1877 by Rıf'at Bey (1820-1888) (see 8).
M. Sudžuka: clarinet / possibly Merkuš Alkalaj: accordion and possibly vocals / Unknown Artist: def and possibly
vocals / archive recording from 1908 kindly provided by Dr. Risto Pekka Pennannen (Finland) / mat. 5689L / cat.
Zonophone X 100657 Kad ja poñem na Bendbašu
PRODUCTION
ORIGINAL RELEASE

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