Saadet Türköz

After the festive, swinging and exuberant  opening concerts of the Mahotella Queens and  Astrid Hadad, City of  Women decided to close on  a more intimate chord with a solo-concert of Saadet Türköz.
The Kazakh -Turkish vocalist will perform from both her traditional, as well as from  her more experimental,  contemporary repertory. Her songs —with roots in Turkey, Kazakhstan, Azerbeijan and Uzbekistan — recall scenes of ordinary life, speak of work, marriage and love. Saadet also scores and improvises on her own poetry. Transforming tradition and memory Saadet’s songs evoke pictures and atmospheres that transcend cultural boundaries. As an exquisite improviser she has shared her impressive vocal range and the tonal beauty of her voice with musicians such as bass player Joëlle Léandre, New York’s downtown musician Elliot Sharp, cellist Martin Schütz, Gianni Gebbia, Carl Rüdiger, and Werner Luedi.
Saadet was born as a second generation Kazakhs immigrant in Turkey and lives since the 1980s in Switzerland. Due to political pressure her parents (together with some 3000 Kazakhs) fled from East Turkestan. After years of fleeing and provisional settlement in Pakistan, they finally moved to Middle Anatolia in the 1950s, where the Turkish government promised them citizenship.
“Being a child born of nomadic parents leaves an indelible mark on the soul, just like a song stuck in your mind that accompanies you wherever you are. For us music and songs are an essential part of our lives, and are handed down among ourselves as the core of a collective memory. A balm to our hearts, songs and poetry are the fundamentals of our society, as they express the tragedy of life and exile ... and maintain a bondage between us .... My repertoire, laced with Persian and Arab influences, ranges from songs from Central Asia down to Anatolia. Our music is a mosaic and we are the guardians thereof.”
But Saadet is no conservative guardian of tradition. That what she remembers of the traditional songs “makes up a point of departure, from which she has developed her own preferences and starts again and again an unpredictable adventure.” (R. Zehnder, Music Szene). Improvisation is an essential part of her work. And for Saadet improvisation is like storytelling. In this sense it reaches an authenticity that is more ‘pure’ than the traditional songs it was based upon. “When improvising, I have the feeling of being myself and another person simultaneously. Thus I reach another level of communication with myself and the world around me.”

Selected discography: Saadet Türköz: Marmara Sea. Duos with Elliott Sharp, Burhan Öçal, Joëlle Léandre, Martin Schütz. Intakt CD 061, 2000. Saadet Türköz: Kara toprak. Solo-album, Amori, Lausanne, 1994.

organised by: Mesto žensk / City of Women
in cooperation with: KUD France Prešeren