Tag Archives | Orhan Gencebay

Orhan Gencebay and…Bubbles?

Orhan Gencebay is one of the giants of the Turkish entertainment industry. In his monumental career Orhan Gencebay has been the lead actor in almost 40 movies, composed an estimated thousand songs and sold over 65 million records — watch this video and you’ll sure get why. Musically, Gencebay pioneered a multifaceted mix of international sounds from Turkey. Wikipedia describes the genre like this: “During the 1970s [Gencebay] 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.” Rather than call this new genre “Turko-folko-clasico-jazzy-
rocky-country-prog-psych-Indi-Arab-Spania-Greek” music, musicologists termed it “Arabesque.” Gencebay didn’t like this categorization because it initially implied that he stole his songs from Arabic music he heard on the radio, but the term “Arabesque” has since grown to become synonymous with Turkish music about heartache, longing and even deep suffering. In that way, Arabesque is the Turkish equivalent of the blues.

Orhan Gencebay in all his Baglama Glory

Turkish music legend Orhan Gencebay is not just a pretty face; he specializes in the Turkish baglama. The instrument — sometimes referred to as a “saz,” especially in Iran — is a Turkish long-necked lute, a descendant of the fretless. leather-covered, wolf-gut-stringed Turkic komuz…but you already knew that. Players use a pick or pluck the baglama with their fingers, using a style called şelpe. In this video Gencebay plays the Turkish baglama with a pick, but one could be forgiven for missing that detail, distracted by his snazzy suit, his marvelous mustache, and the mastery of invisible oud player performing in the seat beside him.