Türkiye - Ankara

 

Amkara Castle.  Photo credit: By Bernard Gagnon - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=37705866

We arrive in Ankara, the capital city of Türkiye in the geographical centre of the country.  It is only the second largest city after Istanbul with 5.1 million inhabitants.

This is where musician and composer Erkan Oğur was born in 1954.  He is a pioneer of the fretless classical guitar, which he invented in 1976 to obtain more detailed notes for traditional Turkish music.  He is also a master on other string instruments such as the baglama and oud.  He has collaborated widely with musicians in Turkey and even blues musicians in the USA and is still active to this day.  Here is a song he plays with Derya Türka called Zahit Bizi Tan Eyleme, which he recorded with İsmail Hakkı Demircioğlu on their 2000 album Anadolu Beşik:

Oud player and teacher Gülçin Yahya Kaçar was born in Ankara in 1966 to a family originating in Greece, which was part of the great population exchange.  Her family discovered her musical talent early on and she went on to study music and the oud at university, specialising in Classical Turkish music.  She is mainly teaching the instrument these days and has written books on it, rather than being a major recording artist.  But here is her latest single called Gülizâr Sirto:

I don't know where or when singer and pianist Süeda Çatakoğlu was born, but she now resides in Boston, where she is developing her skills in jazz composition, jazz piano and contemporary writing and production at Berklee College of Music.  She combines the jazz elements with Turkish folk as on her 2022 album Süeda Sings Sezen, where she interprets some songs from the legendary Sezen Aksu, which I mentioned in my last post. She is accompanied by a host of international guests on the album and here is a song from the album called El Gibi:

 Finally we are making a song and dance for folk music group the Radio Ankara Music Ensemble.  Don't know much about them, except what it says on the tin, and that they are performing traditional folk music from various regions of the country.  Here is a song from their 1996 album Songs and Dances of Turkey called Folk Song from Adiyaman:

That's it from Ankara, next we are heading to the northeast of the country and the Black Sea coast.  Until then you can check out my virtual travels on my Tripline map.

Türkiye - Between Izmir & Ankara

 Next on our virtual trip through Türkiye, we're heading to the southwestern city of Muğla, where singer / songwriter Selda Bağcan was born in 1948.  She was born into a musical family and started playing the mandolin at the age of 5, later picking up the guitar and baglama.  She went to university in Ankara, she became interested in Turkish folk, influenced by the likes of Cem Karaca, Barış Manço and Fikret Kızılok.  Like her influences, she often incorporated elements of rock and psychedelia into her music.  She met many of her idols in a music club her brothers ran in Ankara, and performed there herself.  Her often critical lyrics got her into trouble with the authorities many times, but made her a darling of the political left.  Here is a song called Ağlama Anne, which features on her 2014 40th year anniversary album 40 Yılın 40 Şarkısı:

Singer / songwriter Sezen Aksu was born in the municipality of Sarayköy in the Denizli province of western Turkey in 1954.  She is one of the most successful Turkish singers, having sold more than 40 million albums and written more than 500 songs, and has been dubbed 'Queen of Turkish Pop'.  Her songs are very much influenced by Anatolian folk and are generally upbeat and positive, although she has never been shy to speak up for minorities and the disadvantaged and has helped fundraise for disaster relief such as the 1990 earthquake.  Here is a song called Ihanetten Geri Kalan (Remnants of Betrayal), which features on her 2017 album Biraz Pop Biraz Sezen:

Singer Dilek Koç was born on Antalya on the south coast of Turkey. She sings both in Turkish and Greek, incorporating folk influences from both traditions, and in fact lives in Greece these days.  Here is a song from her 2020 album Songs of Cappadocia called Kaleden Kaleye:

Folk singer Feryal Öney was born in Akşehir in the Middle Anatolia region in 1970.  In 1987 she relocated to Istanbul, where she studied music and founded Kardeş Türküler (Songs of Fraternity).  Later she began recording solo albums singing folk songs of her home region, with a modern electrified twist.  Here is a live version of a song from her 2006 album Bulutlar Geçer (Clouds Pass By) called Irak Olduk:

Turkish folk singer Ramazan Kubat, better known as just Kubat, was actually born in Belgium in 1974, but to a family of poets and musicians from the town of Emirdağ in Afyonkarahisar province in central Turkey.  Now based back in Turkey, he combines Anatolian folk with electronic instrumentation.  Here is his latest single called Arabaşı:

That's it for this leg, next we're heading into Ankara itself.  In the meantime, as usual, you can follow my virtual ramblings on my Tripline map.