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Orhan Gencebay (born August 4, 1944 in Samsun, Turkey as Orhan Kencebay) is a Turkish musician, baglama virtuoso, composer, singer, arranger, music producer, music director, and actor.
Early life and musical background
Orhan was born in the coastal town of Samsun on August 4, 1944. He
started learning music at the age of 6, taking violin and mandolin
lessons from Emin Tarakci who was an old Classical Musician from the
Ukraine Conservatoire. At the age of 7, Orhan started playing the
baglama (a traditional Turkish instrument), and continued taking
traditional Turkish folk music lessons. At 10, he created his first
composition. At 13, he started playing the Tanbur, an instrument often
used in Turkish classical music to improve himself in therotical and
practical details of Turkish classical music.
During his high school years, he performed in Classical and Traditional
Turkish Folk Music societies playing the tambur and baglama, taught
music lessons in his own music courses, and took part in organizing
community music centers in Istanbul and Samsun.
From 16, he became interested in jazz and rock music, and played tenor
saxophone in wind orchestras. He entered the Turkish conservatory in
Istanbul, and stayed there for 4 years. In the military, he kept on
playing saxophone in the military brass band.
Career
At 20 and 22, he passed the Turkish Radio and Television Corporation
(TRT) exams, allowing him to become a resident baglama player at the
network for several months.
In 1966 he got an excellent grade in National Baglama Contest with Arif
Sağ 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 with singers such as Muzaffer Akgun, Yildiz
Tezcan, Ahmet Sezgin, Sukran Ay, Sabahat Akkiraz, and Nuri Sesiguzel.
Orhan also took part as a music director in many Turkish films such as
Ana, Kuyu, Kizilirmak-Karakoyun. He also collaborated with many
musicians from different genres, such as Erkin Koray, Omar Faruk
Tekbilek, Ismet Siral, Burhan Tonguc, Ozer Senay, Vedat Yildirimbora,
Neşet Ertaş, Abdullah Nail Baysu. He appeared 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 was rewarded. During the 1970s he released many
singles in a new genre that is 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.
Throughout his career Orhan has performed leading roles in 36 movies,
has been a composer almost in 90 movies, composed of about a
thousand[1] works, released almost 35 singles, 15 albums, and dozens of
MC's. His albums sold out over 60 million legal copies.
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 German Turkish director Fatih Akin, as well as on
the film's soundtrack with the song "Hatasiz Kul Olmaz."
A selection of Orhan Gencebay's songs and performances may be currently (2007) viewed on YouTube.
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