LOCAL JAZZ HEROES
Ediz Hafızoğlu was born in Bulgaria. He started playing bağlama and darbuka (traditional instruments) at an early age. His performance on the stage was with the orchestra founded by his grandfather. He gave hundreds of concerts with his grandfather in a 2-3 year span. When they emmigrated to Istanbul, he started to study at Kabataş Erkek Lisesi (Kabataş High School) and to play the drums in the school orchestra. He explains how he decided to become a jazz drummer: “The reason I chose jazz is because it is a freeing kind of music that allows improvization. It means being able to play different things spontaneously, being influenced by your bandmates and to travel to far away lands with them, to discover the unknown.”
Hafızoğlu is now one of the most prominent jazz musicians in Turkey. Hafızoğlu doesn’t prefer to draw too much attention to his own albums or his own music, and explains the situation like this: “Because I start getting uncomfortable with myself when I start to draw too much attention. You won’t hear a drum solo in my albums. I always wrote music like that, to get that ‘he plays with that band’ kind of feel.”
He played these pieces from his album, Nazdrave, that came out this year for NTV Radio’s ”Bizim Cazcılar” program: ”Cereyanlı”, ”Laf Laf”, ”Kimse Bilmez” with Eylem Aktaş’s vocals and Hafızoğlu’s lyrics and composition, ”Mila” with Ceylan Ertem’s vocals. You can tune in to one of these pieces to accompany this interview. I am sure it will be enjoyable.
Now, let’s travel through Hafızoğlu’s jazz journey…
“I Got On The Stage When I Was 11″
You started your music life at a very early age. You even performed on the stage when you were a child. How did this happen?
I might have gotten the biggest experience in my life then. Because I was very young. I started to perform on the stage when I was 11 years old and I gave 3 concerts per week for 2-3 years. It is much for effective in those ages. So I played in 300-400 concerts in 2-3 years. I played bağlama, darbuka and such. My grandfather founded an orchestra called “Sakin Tuna Sanat Topluluğu”. He was a writer. Because back then, a big raid against Turks had happened and minority rights were slowly being given. So, these were the first movements. I was involved in this by chance.
Then you moved to Turkey. Did you earn a lot of awards at Kabataş High School?
Kabataş High School hadn’t participated in the competitions for a while. When we got enrolled, they went back to participating as a school policy. We earned a lot of awards in that period. We started playing pieces that maybe lead me to jazz later on. We played musical songs for years. We played ‘Cats’ musical, and other pieces with swing, punk or classical music elements in them with that orchestra.
Can we say that you started playing jazz when you were a member of the Kabataş High School orchestra?
Not exactly. Because I got in to the Industrial Design department at Mimar Sinan University when I graduated. I met the esteemed drummer Şenol Küçükyıldırım when I was preparing for the exams in that period. He has just returned from the States. I can say that he opened the doors to jazz for me. He directed me to jazz. Back then, I didn’t know what jazz was, because we were only playing rock and metal, aside from the musicals. I stepped into the world of jazz with Şenol Küçükyıldırım.
“I Told Myself That I Should Do Whatever I Want”
So how did you make the decision to become a jazz musician?
Actually, a tragedy happened in our family. I lost my cousin to leukemia when he was 17 years old. I felt like the whole world has gone bleak. I was playing here and there back then. Pop and whatnot. I had stepped in the music circles. When my cousin passed away, I thought, we could die tomorrow, or in ten years or in a hundred years. We should do whatever we want. I wanted to study Industrial Design, but I wanted to work with music even more. I made my decision (of course, it isn’t as easy to convince those close to you about this). I started to go to Bilgi University. I attended Cengiz Baysal’s lessons, I used Derin Bayhan’s drums. I practiced there. They gave me a room that we all mutually used. Ferit Odman was there was well. I worked there for a year. I couldn’t attend the university. Then, when I got full scholarship, my family couldn’t object any more.
I should ask “Why jazz”?
There is only one reason for that. I had a tough time all my life with genres like pop and rock that doesn’t include any or little opportunity to improvize. Sometimes it is fun, but I have a limit with playing the same thing over and over again for many concerts. These are the genres that kill creativity. It means being able to play different things spontaneously, being influenced by your bandmates and to travel to far away lands with them, to discover the unknown. This is the reason why I was drawn to it the most. Even when I am not playing jazz, I switch things up and play something different every day. Whatever I am feeling that day. Most musicians don’t like this, but this is why I make music.
You got into the Jazz Performance department of Bilgi University. Could you tell us about your school years?
There is no longer such a department. I broke records. I graduated in 12 years. They forcefully graduated me. Since it was the jazz performance department, everyone there were jazz performers. Our teachers were, too. Ricky Ford is the most important teacher I have had, and he has a special place in my life. We play together every time he comes to Turkey. We played with Ricky Ford Orchestra for 3.5 years, for example. We toured Europe. We played at Lane Jazz Club for three consecutive nights. We experienced these opportunities, not available to many people, during the student years. Can Kozlu was our teacher as well. He gave lectures on Indian and World musics. Cengiz Baysal was a drum teach, very special to me. I apologize if I am forgetting some names! But the faculty was very esteemed and I learnt a lot from them. İmer Demirer was a very valuable teacher as well. Now we play together at TRT Jazz Orchestra. The student years there were great.
“I Play Bağlama”
Why did you focus on playing the drums?
I don’t know why. Maybe I felt close to them because I also play darbuka. But I completely stopped playing bağlama in that period. We had piano and composition lessons both before and after getting into the school. We had to play a little piano. Even though I don’t feel close to it, I still use it while I’m composiong. We played the sax with Ricky Ford for a year. I didn’t take any drumming lessons. It was an important time period for my ear training. Now, I picked up the bağlama again. I got a beautiful bağlama made, ‘divan sazı’ (court instrument). Like Engin Arslan, who is a close friend with whom I play together frequently. I am taking lessons from him. It was very easy going back to it. It was an instrument that I played when I was a child. Now I want to get deeper into playing it.
“I Lived In A Cottage House For 9 Months”
How was your tempo when you were studying to become a musician?
The practice period was tough. I had nothing else in my life back then. Even when going out to dinner, we would think “Will the dinner last too long?” and opt for a sandwich and eat at home instead and continued on practicing. I had a routine of playing an average period of 8-15 or 16 hours per day for 3 years. Now I cannot do such a thing. There is always a concert to play somewhere. But I still isolate myself to practice from time to time. For example, I left many bands a year ago and I lived in a cottage house for 9 months. I set up my drum kit there. I spend time alone, without anyone around. I spent 9 months there, practicing for 7-8 hours a day, 3-5 days of the week. That felt really good. I still need that alone time when I write music. It doesn’t work out if I have someone around. I get distracted. I stop seeing people. I get bored if someone is around. Are they waiting around? Are they bored? Are they okay? Do they need anything in the house? Did the phone ring? And that’s how it ends. I like hanging out byself and to spend time alone. And then you spend time with people also involved with music. That’s how it went. Things aren’t much different now, either. I still practice alone. During the concerts, we spend time with whomever we are playing with the most.
“A Society That Tells Not To Jazz”
It seems like the Turkish society isn’t internalizing jazz, what is the reason for this?
Let’s not make this only about jazz. It is about music in general. We were playing big pop concerts mid-2000s. You give a stadium concert for 25-30 thousand people, and then you go and play for 20 people in a club. They are all interconnected. Aykut Gürel actually noticed this back then. I was about 25 years old. He said: “It feels like we are shooting ourselves in the foot.”, because back then there was a trend of giving free concerts through organizations made by the municipality. Especially around the 2000s. People got used to going somewhere for free. It could be pop concerts, or folk music, or traditional music, and such. As a society we started to feel the entitlement of going to concerts for free instead of spending money on them. Jazz is a very niche music for this country, when those people don’t listen to anything else other than their genres anyways. There is even a saying that we use “Jazz yapma” (‘Don’t jazz’). This means, don’t make things too long and complicated, and give us a headache. There is a generation that is met with contempt when they say they listen to jazz at home. It is hard to fix this, especially in these times and with this political policies. However, people can individiually get rid of these kind of mindsets. I don’t have any hope as a society. But, for example, we played at a festival in Berlin. There were 60 concerts that day and all were full. Duman was also playing there, as well as us. There are folk music bars there. A lot of Turkish people live there as well. There are those who play African music, and those who play Brazilian music. People are out there on the streets.
“Pop Isn’t Interesting, I Don’t Listen To It”
You also play pop and rock, as well as jazz. What genres do you like to listen to when you are by yourself?
Even though I play pop music, I don’t listen to it much. Actually, I don’t listen to it at all, because it isn’t interesting. I get close to the genres I play occasionally. After I stop playing it, I don’t listen to that genre at all. We listen to Turkish Classical Music, of course. Especially Müzeyyen Senar. I also play with Yansımalar. So I already have interest in Turkish music. I listen to almost everything from the older periods, or, to phrase it more correctly, the songs that resurface. “Kalan Müzik” did a very nice thing and opened its archives for everyone. TRT is also bringing out its archives too. On the other hand, I also listen to metal music as well. I always play that in my car. Megadeth, Testament, Pantera and such. I listen to loud music often.
Do your marriage and your job have positive or negative effects on each other?
I got divorced. My wife couldn’t stand me for too long. Music truly has a big effect. I gave 25 concerts per month for 3.5-4 years. I have been a part of many different musical projects and traveled a lot with different people. So, you cannot be home often. Why do you get married? So that you can spend more time together. When you end up not doing so, it doesn’t work out. It naturally came to a point like that. But music also had a big part in it. Because you want to spend time with someone but you aren’t by their side. So it doesn’t work out, or it does, but to a certain point.
