Saadet Türköz | en

I was born in Istanbul in 1961 and I am currently living in Zurich.

Due to the political pressure of the Chinese government upon the Turk people in East Turkestan (Uyghur Autonomous Region), my parents fled to Istanbul, where they settled as Kazakh refugees. They transmitted us the rich oral and musical traditions of the highlands of Central Asia.With the tales of their far away country and their journey to Turkey, the elderly people of the Kasakh community influenced my imagination as musician until nowadays.

As a child, living in Istanbul near the Marmara Sea, I wanted to be a hodscha, a Koran teacher. I was fascinated by the Arabic language and the melodious texts of the Koran which gave me the first opportunity to deliberately improvise without paying attention to sense and correctness.
I was 20 years old when I left Istanbul to join my sister in Switzerland. There I experienced an exciting new world of music: free jazz, improvisation and a refreshing openness towards experimentation which parallelled my unbiased approach of the musical traditions of my origins.

In my improvisations as well as performances of Kazakh and Turkish songs I am looking to transform memory. I seek to evoke pictures and atmosphere by means of voice and music which transcend cultural boundaries. Memory is everywhere and every time the same - not changeable - but the expression is different: Individual perception develops a universal impression of the cultural life.

In addition to my frequent solo concerts, I regularly perform in duos, trios or bigger formations with free improvising jazz musicians - such as Martin Schuetz, Elliot Sharp, Eyvind Kang, Werner Luedi, Urs Leimgruber, Thomas Rohrer, Miya Masaoka, Norbert Moeslang, Andy Guhl, Peter Kowald, Gianni Gebbia, Ikue Mori, Carl Ruediger, Okkyung Lee, the Koch-Schuetz-Studer Trio, Pascal Schaer, Nils Wogram, Jaques Widmer, Mark Dresser, Fred Frith, the Black Sea Trio, Larry Ochs, Carl Stone, Xu Feng Shia, Peggy Lee, Mich Gerber, Peter SchŠrli, Fritz Hauser, Graham Haynes, Satoshi Takeishi, Alex Cline, Brent Arnold, Yagi Michiyo, Makigami Koichi.

Formations:

Duos:
Nils Wogram, posaune (Switzerland/Germany)
Martin Schuetz, cello (Switzerland)
Urs Leimgruber, sax (Switzerland)
Pascal Schaer, trombone (Switzerland)
Jaques Widmer, drum (Switzerland)
Elliott Sharp, git, sax (USA)
Okyung Lee, cello (Korea, USA)
Eyvind Kang, viola (USA)
Peggy Lee, cello (CA)
Xu Feng Xia, kuzheng (China/Germany)
Carl Stone, electronic (USA/Japan)
Miya Masaoka, koto (USA)

Trios:
Fredy Studer, drum and guest instrument (Urumchi-Uyghur Region/Switzerland)
Satoshi Takeishi, drum, Okkyung Lee, cello, (USA)
Mark Dresser, bass, Okkyung lee, cello(USA)
Larry Ochs, sax, Miya Masaoka, koto (USA)


Quartets:
Trio "what we live", Larry Ochs, sax, Lisle Ellis, bass, Don Robinson, drum (USA)
Trio Koch-Schuetz-Studer, Hans Koch, sax, Martin Schuetz, cello, Fredy Studer, drum, (Switzerland)

Quintets
"Blast" (Dirk Bruinsma, sax, (NL), Paed Conca, bass, electronic, (CH), Frank Crijns, git, (NL), Fabrizio Spera, drums, (I)

*from her website http://www.saadet.ch/ .