Turkey's 95-year jazz odyssey

Thursday was International Jazz Day, and Anadolu Agency spoke to veteran musicians, artists and performers to trace Turkey's 95-year jazz adventure. The history of jazz in Turkey dates back to the 1920s when adventurous youths traveled to America and Europe to study.

"They brought back some jazz albums and interest in jazz in Turkey started just like that," said 75-year-old Ankara jazzman and conductor Durul Gence.

The account given by the legendary musician, who taught jazz history at the Ankara-based Middle East Technical University and Hacettepe University for around 20 years, is just one part of the tale. Turkish jazz remained a niche interest until American performers like Dizzy Gillespie, Louis Armstrong and Dave Brubeck popularized the genre when they traveled to Turkey to perform in the 1950s.

During this era, Turkey's first female jazz singer, Sevinc Tevs, was performing on Turkish Radio and Television (TRT) Istanbul Radio. Other female jazz performers like Ayten Alpman and Rüçhan Çamay followed suit. In 1978, pianist and saxophonist Tuna Ötenel along with drummer Erol Pekcan and bass guitarist Kudret Öztoprak released Turkey's first jazz LP: "Caz Semai." Many Turkish jazz artists found wider fame by collaborating with English-language performers.

As a producer and arranger, Arif Mardin, who died in 2006, was an important name in jazz's development. He collaborated with non-jazz acts like Queen, The Bee Gees, Phil Collins and Norah Jones, going on to win 11 Grammy Awards.

Istanbul-born Ahmet Ertegün - best known as the 1947 co-founder of Atlantic Records - together with his brother Nesuhi, hosted a series of jazz concerts in Washington, D.C. In 2007, legendary rock band Led Zeppelin held a tribute concert to Ahmet Ertegün in London.

Singer and composer Özdemir Erdoğan, guitarist Önder Focan, jazz percussionist and drummer Okay Temiz and trumpeter Muvaffak "Maffy" Falay are just some of the other important jazz performers from Turkey. "Thanks to these people, jazz music spread [in Turkey], and many jazz musicians started performing in Turkey at the start of 1990s," said Pelin Opcin, director of the long-running Istanbul Jazz Festival.

Jazz festivals in Istanbul, Ankara and İzmir, along with courses at universities like Hacettepe and Bilkent, also increased the demand for the genre. The Istanbul Jazz Festival is held every year since 1994, and it will take place this year from July 1-20. The Ankara Jazz Festival will be held for the 18th time this year starting May 9.

More than 200 jazz albums have been released in Turkey so far, according to Özlem Oktay Varoğlu, director of the Jazz Society, which was established in 1995 in Ankara.

Although most songs are in English, over the last five years, the number of Turkish-language jazz songs has increased, Varoğlu said. Even so, the numbers of jazz lovers are fewer, compared to other music genres. "Jazz is not known by every young person, but their interest is increasing with every passing day. We have started seeing more youth attending festivals and going to jazz clubs," said 35-year-old jazz singer Elif Çağlar.

Bass player Ozan Musluoğlu, 38, who presents "Jazz Hour" on Turkish national radio, agrees. "I think giving a place to jazz in concerts and festivals, in addition to the increasing number of jazz departments at universities, contributes to the development of jazz," Musluoğlu said. Around 15 percent of Turkey's population are jazz lovers, claimed veteran composer Gence -meaning fans of the genre run into the millions. Moreover, musicians are hopeful about jazz music's future in the country. "In my opinion, people's interest is already high. Tickets sell out very quickly," said jazz singer Aydın Kahya. "I think it has a promising future here," he said.