The Oslo Born Turkish Jazz musician Serkan Karaman was trained as a classical guitarist throughout his childhood. He spent his early youth in Istanbul where he got to be the student of Rene Macaroglu at Pera School of Music and Fine Arts and that was his first encounter with Jazz. Soon after,
his talent was noticed by the Berkeley scholar Macaroglu and Karaman took his teacher’s advice and moved to Germany to enjoy a more international musical environment. It was by then that he met Al Di Meola who gave him the most precious advice and inspiration for his first album “Between Orient and Occident” which was to make more use of the Turkish musical patterns in his musical expression. After meeting Al Di Meola, there has been a definite turn in Karaman’s music to integrate more Turkish influences into his music both with its off beat rythms and its down right melodical emphasis finding its roots in the microtonal richness of ottoman modal music. “Between Orient and Occident” was the first stage in shaping his loungy and atmospheric sound, which can be counted among the very first examples of Turkish Lounge music which is a pretty non-existent genre apart from a few rather eclectic works. In this respect, Karaman’s fusion is a revolutionary turn that makes use of many colours without falling prey to an eclectic sound. It was followed by his second album Blue Journey, where his atmospheric sound as a gateway of many influences was sharpened ever more. He met Wolfgang Gerhard, the pianist and flamenco guitarist who became his musical “partner-in-crime” for the years to follow , when he was 21. His newest project is the outcome of this years long musical togetherness with Gerhard as the Serkan Karaman Duo.
Editor: Fulya Özlem, Berlin
(C) 2009 ORIENTAL MEDIA NETWORK
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