‘Jazz is a language that has reached wide audiences’

By Seda Sevencan

ISTANBUL (AA) – Jazz music developed into a unique language that has become an important international ground for communication, according to a Turkish musician.

"During the last century, jazz music has become an important international ground for communication. It became its own original language by combining its own historical and social background with the legacy of Western music. This language reached wide audiences by interacting with all kinds of world music," Guc Basar Gulle told Anadolu Agency in an interview on the occasion of International Jazz Day.

"These have been influential for me in picking the jazz quartet form to present what I am trying to do, after applying a reverse perspective approach to jazz harmony."

April 30 marks the 10th edition of International Jazz Day, which was designated by UNESCO in order to raise awareness of the virtues of jazz as an educational tool and a force for empathy, dialogue and enhanced cooperation among people.

"As the great Nina Simone said, 'Jazz is not just music, it is a way of life, it is a way of being, a way of thinking.' The story of jazz is written into the quest for human dignity, democracy and civil rights. It has given strength to the struggle against discrimination and racism," UNESCO said on its website.

It believes in the power of jazz as a force for peace, dialogue and mutual understanding.

- Traditional Anatolian songs during childhood

Gulle is a composer, performer and educator in jazz and contemporary music and a director at the Modern Music Academy in Istanbul.

On how his journey into music started, he said that during his childhood, he listened to various traditional Anatolian songs from the recordings that his father brought from Anatolia.

"That was my first experience with music," he added.

After high school, Gulle started to learn flamenco and classical guitar, and at that time, he was in the Philosophy department at Bogazici University in Istanbul.

Because of his Turkish music background, he completed Turkish music studies at the Istanbul Technical University master's program in 2004 after completing his undergraduate degree in philosophy.

Later, he went to the Berklee College of Music in the US to study jazz composition between 2004-2006 and studied contemporary composition at Istanbul Technical University in advanced music studies from 2007 to 2009.

- Ottoman, Western and Jazz music

Gulle's background has versatile musical sources: Ottoman, Western and jazz music. He noted that he has always been searching for the connection between structural points and surface in music.

"By means of this approach, I was able to receive what I need to express my own perspective. In this sense, trying to find new musical material turned out to be first creating contextual references and then designing musical form from musical materials depending on the cultural references."

Thus in his first album ( Ud-Bass-Percussion trio), after realizing the structural value of rhythmic forms in Ottoman music, he developed forms in his compositions on the basis of variations in rhythmic forms, he said.

In his last album, he did the same thing, he said, adding, "In this time, my concern is to apply a medieval visual art technique to jazz harmony."

Underlining that the last album is a consequence of his endeavor to understand Western, jazz and Ottoman music, he added: "In terms of its content, it reflects my own journey in these music cultures. Its language is jazz, though. It also has a philosophical discourse."