Originally a nomadic people, the Uzbeks gradually settled in towns and villages. The nomadic flavor of their music is evident in a bardic vocal style that resembles that of the Kazakhs and Qaraqalpaks, farther to the north. Jaule Bakshi is a well-known bard (bakshi) from the Qarshi area of Qashqadarya. Here he sings an episode from Alpamish, a great epic (dastan), in which the hero expresses the pain of exile and his longing to return home to beautiful Baysun, an ancient city in what is now southern Uzbekistan. (During, Levin 2001)