The most remarkable feature of jazz is its ability to incorporate and synthesize various music styles. The genre succeeds in adapting to music from anywhere in the world.
After phonographs and records, jazz reached millions of people through films and radios, discovering new music with technology. The best aspect of recordings is that they enable distant cultures to touch each other. As jazz spread worldwide, it established itself in almost every country. Musicians adapted their traditional rhythm patterns to the style, gradually moving away from American jazz to find their own sound. Many of the innovative and creative developments occurred thanks to musicians who could interact with American jazz using their local music traditions.
Based on this context, we welcomed the “Jazz Semai” project.
“Jazz Semai” is Türkiye’s first jazz record, published in 1978 by Tuna Ötenel, Erol Pekcan and Kudret Öztoprak. They were inspired by listening to LPs titled in Spanish, Polish and Flamenco, asking themselves, “Why not Turkish Jazz?”
Before making the record, the three musicians performed together for six years at the Ankara Hotel. Kudret Öztoprak played bass guitar, Erol Pekcan played drums and Tuna Ötenel played piano and saxophone.
In the album, they adapted and performed a Bektaşi hymn called “Ali’yi Gördüm Ali’yi” in a jazz style. Apart from “Ali’yi Gördüm Ali’yi,” all compositions were by Tuna Ötenel. The title track, “Jazz Semai,” which features Sufi or sometimes traditional Turkish melodies, uses the hicaz mode, one of the most commonly used in Turkish music.
Looking at the history of jazz in Türkiye, the 1930s are significant. We see jazz musicians like Viktor Kohenka, Haris Akıncı and Arto Haçaturyan during this period. Cüneyt Sermet, a notable figure in the formation of jazz in Türkiye, mentions the influence of Armenian and later Jewish musicians, and subsequently, significant contributors to Turkish jazz such as Arif Mardin, Ismet Saral, Erol Pekcan and Emin Fındıkoğlu.
In the 1960s, Cüneyt Sermet, a jazz critic and double bass player, was the music director of Ankara Radio and produced a jazz program on TRT. Upon listening to the Jazz Semai record, he criticized, “I felt like I was at a circumcision ceremony while listening to this music.”
After reading Cüneyt Sermet’s response in an interview with Batu Akyol, I concluded that his criticism might not be worth considering since he also falsely stated, “There is no music among the Turks; there is no such thing as Turkish music.”
"Jazz Semai" is a significant work in Turkish music, especially in Turkish jazz history. It is a record that will be remembered and listened to for years to come.
