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Erkan Oğur

 
Artist: Erkan Ogur
Home > Library > Entertainment & Arts > Pop Artists

Influenced By:

Jimi Hendrix, John Coltrane, Pat Martino, Bill Evans

Worked With:

Eric Vloeimans
  • Born: 1954, Ankara, Turkey
  • Active: '70s, '80s, '90s, 2000s
  • Genres: Rock
  • Instrument: Guitar
  • Representative Albums: "Okan Murat Ozturk," "Eskiya," "Telvin"

Biography

Hailing from Elazig, a town in East Anatolia, but born in Ankara in 1954, Erkan Ogur started on violin as a child and learned cumbus, a small fretless lute, from local musicians playing traditional dances at weddings. Hearing Jimi Hendrix on the radio was a major shock, and in high school he began studying guitar. While in Munich on a scholarship to graduate in physics, he decided to dedicate fully to music and threw himself full-time into a classical repertoire. He developed a bad inflammation of the wrist, and this -- with the idea of playing on guitar in the microtonal style of Turkish maqams -- was a key motivation to develop his fretless guitar. After meeting Robert "One Man Band" Johnson in Istanbul, he went to the U.S. for two years, playing blues on the road; he returned in Turkey in the '80s, finished his Conservatory studies, and his guitar and saz fills were soon very much in demand by producers of pop music and can be heard on Sezen Aksu's CDs. His first CD was released in Germany (Fretless, Feuer und Ice); after that in Turkey he published Gulun Kokusu Vardi (Kalan, 1998); Hiç (Nothing) with saz/cura player Okan Murat Öztürk, (1999); Anadolu Besik, Bir Ömürlük Misafir including a duet with Philip Catherine, and the soundtrack to Yavuz Turgul's film Eskiya (all on Kalan 2000); and Fuad (2001) with Djivan Gasparyan. He plays in Öztürk's brilliant Bengi saz Trio. His yet to be recorded Telvin Trio is dedicated to concentrated and freewheeling improvisations in the spirit of John Coltrane and Bill Evans, based on the traditional maqam system, of which Ogur is a major practitioner. ~ Francesco Martinelli, All Music Guide
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Wikipedia: Erkan Oğur
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Erkan Oğur

Erkan Oğur holding a kopuz lute in April 2007, giving a workshop in Rotterdam.
Background information
Born 1954
Ankara, Turkey
Genres Turkish folk
Occupations composer, score composer, musician
Instruments guitar, lute
Years active 1982–present
Labels Feuer und Eis, Kalan
Associated acts Telvin
Notable instruments
Fretless classical guitar, fretless electric guitar, kopuz lute

Erkan Oğur (pronounced [eɾkan oːuɾ]), or Erkan Ogur in the West, (born 1954) is a Turkish musician. A pioneer of fretless guitars, he invented the first fretless classical guitar in 1976.[1][2] A composer, he has influenced many musicians with his compositions combining the sounds of Turkish folk music, classical music with the ancient traditional music. He has played many concerts all over the world. He is regarded as a master of the kopuz and bağlama lutes.

Contents

Biography

Erkan Oğur was born in 1954, in Elazığ, Turkey. He spent his childhood in Elazığ, eastern Turkey[1], where he became interested in violin and the Turkish bağlama lute, and started to practise them frequently. He graduated from high school in Elazığ, then moved to study physics at the Ankara University Faculty of Science from 1970 to 1973.[1] As a result of encouragement to be a scientist by his father, he started to study chemical engineering and in 1974 continued his education in The Ludwig-Maximilians University Munich, Germany, for three years. He was introduced to guitar education in 1973. Instead of being a scientist, he chose to be a musician. Since he needed detailed sounds from a guitar in order to obtain Turkish melodies, he modified his guitar and invented the fretless classical guitar in 1976.[1][2]

In 1980, he returned to Turkey, and started to study at the State Conservatory of Istanbul Technical University.[1] After his military service, he worked as an oud lute teacher. He had live performances with Fikret Kızılok and Bülent Ortaçgil where he contributed to scene with fretless guitar. He released his first album in Germany called Arayışlar ("Searches"). In 1989, he went to the U.S. to work with numerous local blues artists. He introduced fretless guitar into blues.[1] A year later, he released his first album in Turkey, Bir Ömürlük Misafir ("A Lifetime Guest"), which was ranked 4th in European lists. He still performs concerts through the world and in Turkey. He works with Kemal Eroglu on technical improvements on bağlama lute; and continues his performances with Fahir Atakoglu and Bülent Ortaçgil. In 2004, he played on Yansımalar's album Pervane ("Moth"). He is a member of the Telvin trio, which mainly performs Turkish folk music in improvised jazz style, with İlkin Deniz and Turgut Alp Bekoglu,[1] and has released an album called Telvin in 2006.

His soundtrack for the 2004 movie Yazı Tura by Uğur Yücel won two awards: the 2004 Golden Orange for Best Music at the Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival, and the 2005 award for Best Music at the Ankara International Film Festival.

Discography

Chronologically, subsections by the date of their first item:

Early works and collaborations
  • 1982 - Istanbul'da Bir Amerikalı
  • 1983 - Perdesiz Gitarda Arayışlar - small-distribution cassette
Soundtrack albums and collaborations (by film date)
  • 1989 - Sis OST - Zülfü Livaneli film soundtrack
  • 1996 - Eşkiya OST (The Bandit) - with Aşkın Arsunan, Yavuz Turgul film Eşkıya soundtrack (Kalan, released 2000)
  • 2003 - Yazı Tura OST - Uğur Yücel film soundtrack, (Kalan, released 2005)
Solo and collaboration albums
  • 1993 - Fretless (Feuer und Eis)
  • 1996 - Bir Ömürlük Misafir - reworked reissue of Fretless (Kalan)
  • 1998 - Gülün Kokusu Vardı - with İsmail Hakkı Demircioğlu (Kalan)
  • 1999 - Hiç ("Nothing") - with Okan Murat Öztürk (Kalan)
  • 2000 - Anadolu Beşik - with İsmail Hakkı Demircioğlu (Kalan)
  • 2001 - Fuad - with Djivan Gasparyan
  • 2006 - Telvin - in Telvin trio
  • 2007 - The Istanbul Connection
Featured on albums
  • 1995 - The Other Side of Turkey - compilation, includes Oğur (Feuer und Eis)
  • 2004 - Pervane ("Moth") by Yansımalar - studio album, Oğur on four tracks (Kalan)

References

Sources consulted
Endnotes
  1. ^ a b c d e f g Martinelli, op. cit.
  2. ^ a b Unfretted, op. cit.

External links

Official sites
Other sites
Awards
Preceded by
Timur Selçuk		 Golden Orange Award
for Best Music Score
2004
for Yazı Tura		 Succeeded by
Tamer Çıray
v • d • e
Golden Orange Award for Best Music Score
Nedim Otyam (1965) · Nedim Otyam (1966) · Yılmaz Duru (1974) · Atilla Özdemiroğlu-Şanar Yurdatapan (1975) · Melih Kibar (1976) · Cahit Berkay (1978) · Nedim Otyam (1981) · Cahit Berkay (1982) · Yeni Türkü Topluluğu (1983) · Yalçın Tura (1984) · Tarık Öcal (1985) · Atilla Özdemiroğlu (1986) · Atilla Özdemiroğlu (1987) · Atilla Özdemiroğlu (1988) · Selim Atakan (1989) · Atilla Özdemiroğlu (1990) · Cahit Berkay (1991) · Münir Nurettin Beken (1992) · Can Hakgüder (1993) · Serdar Kalafatoğlu (1994) · Mazlum Çimen (1995) · Yalçın Tura (1996) · Pivio-Aldo D. Scaltzi (1997) · Uğur Dikmen (1998) · Tamer Çıray (1999) · Cahit Berkay (2000) · Kardeş Türküler (2001) · Mazlum Çimen (2002) · Timur Selçuk (2003) · Erkan Oğur (2004) · Tamer Çıray (2005) · Gökçe Akçelik (2006) · Zülfü Livaneli (2007) · Mazlum Çimen (2008) · Mehmet Erdem - Özgür Akgül (2009)

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