Orhan Gencebay

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Orhan GENCEBAY

Background information
Birth name	Orhan KENCEBAY
Born	August 4, 1944
Origin	Samsun, Turkey
Genre(s)	World fusion music, Arabesque music, Turkish folk, Turkish classic, Psychedelic, Progressive
Occupation(s)	Singer, composer, music producer, music director, arranger, actor
Instrument(s)	baglama, tanbur, violin, sitar, guitar, ney, piano, cumbus, oud, bouzouki, percussion,
Years active	1963 - present

Orhan GENCEBAY (August 4, 1944–)

Turkish musician, baglama virtuoso, composer, singer, arranger, music producer, music director, and actor.

1 Early life and musical background
2 Career
3 Discography
4 See also
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Early life and musical background

He was born on the Black Sea coast town of Samsun, in 4th August of 1944.

He started music at the age of 6, taking violin and mandolin lessons from Emin Tarakci who was an old Classical Musician from Ukraine Conservatoire.

At the age of 7, he started playing the baglama which is a traditional Turkish instrument, and kept on taking Traditional Turkish folk music lessons. At 10, he made his first composition.

At 13, he started training tanbur, an instrument often used in Turkish classical music. He improved himself in therotical and practical details of Turkish Classical Music.

During his high school years, he performed tambur and baglama in Classical and Traditional Turkish Folk Music societies, taught music lessons in his own music courses, and took part in organizing community music centers in Istanbul and Samsun.

From 16, het got interested in jazz and rock music, and played tenor saxophone in wind orchestras. He entered Turkish conservatory in Istanbul, and stayed there for 4 years. In the military, he kept on playing saxophone in the military brass band.

[edit] Career

At 20 and 22, he accomplished Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT) exams twice, officiated there as a baglama virtuoso for several months.

In 1966 he got an excellent grade in National Baglama Contest with Arif Sag and Cinucen Tanrikorur, two other contemporary masters of Turkish music.

In the late sixties he collaborated with a wide range of musicians in performances and film music. Between 1966-1968 he played baglama with Arif Sag in many records of singers such as Muzaffer Akgun, Yildiz Tezcan, Ahmet Sezgin, Sukran Ay, Sabahat Akkiraz, and Nuri Sesiguzel. Took part as a music director in many Turkish films such as Ana, Kuyu, Kizilirmak-Karakoyun. Got together and made music with many musicians from different genres, such as Erkin Koray, Omar Faruk Tekbilek, Ismet Siral, Burhan Tonguc, Ozer Senay, Vedat Yildirimbora, Neset Ertas, Abdullah Nail Baysu, so as he exhibited the first impressions of his music synthesis that he was going to form in the future. He got to appear as a baglama performer and a well-known composer in musical societies, besides releasing several singles in genre of Traditional Turkish Folk Music.

In 1968, he released his first "free-style" single "Sensiz Bahar Gecmiyor / Basa Gelen Cekilirmis", and got a great achievement. During 70s he released many singles in a new genre seems like a fusion of Traditional Turkish Folk Music, Turkish Classical Music, Western Classical Music, Jazz, Rock, Country, Progressive, Psychedelic, Indian, Arabic, Spanish, and Greek music styles. Even though some musical societies such as TRT named that kind of World fusion music recordings as Arabesque music, Orhan Gencebay refused the term arabesque in case of complaining about it being inadequate to define his style.

In 1972, he founded the Kervan Record Company which became very successful, attracting many other talented musicians such as Erkin Koray, Ajda Pekkan, Muazzez Abaci, Mustafa Sagyasar, Ahmet Ozhan, Kamuran Akkor, Semiha Yanki, Samime Sanay, Nese Karabocek, Bedia Akarturk, Nil Burak, Ziya Taskent, Semiramis Pekkan and Ferdi Ozbegen.

Till today, he performed leading role in 36 movies, took part as a music director almost in 90 movies, made over 1000 composes, released about to 35 singles, 15 long plays, and dozens of MC's. His albums sold out over 60 million legal copies, besides 200 million illegal copies at a guess.

As a composer, film musician, and as a person interested in other musical cultures, Orhan Gencebay is one of the major exponents of Turkish music in the 20th century.

In 2005, Gencebay was featured in the film Crossing the Bridge: The Sound of Istanbul by director Fatih Akin, as well as on the film's soundtrack with the song "Hatasiz Kul Olmaz."