Baki Duyarlar (1967) is an improvising pianist and composer who feels that the term “jazz” is too restrictive for his music. His works are characterized by a melodic and lyrical power and a characteristic, distinctive sound, which in the softer pieces is called velvety or pathetic. His motto is: "I make music for human soul, but I haven't reached them all yet." However, he never bows to public taste and always remains himself.
Duyarlar started his music education at a young age, first at Istanbul University State Conservatory; He first studied cello, then composition, and then jazz piano in the Netherlands.
In the mid-1990s, Duyarlar is considered one of the young generation of musicians who combined bebop with rock and typical fusion improvisation in Turkish flavor but soon developed a distinctive, unique sound and style. Duyarlar, who has been leading his own quartet since the beginning, will release his first album (Overseas) years later.
In 2011, their entire band was replaced by a jazz quartet consisting of electric bassist Kai Eckhardt (USA), Drummer Sean Rickman (USA) and Saxophonist Stanislav Mitrovic (Serbia) and the album "Overseas" was released.
Since 2012, the pianist has been very active with his acoustic band Kemenjazz, which echoes elements of Turkish classical music and jazz, and includes Derya Turkan (TR) on Kemenche (TR), Erdal Akyol (TR) on double bass, Cem Aksel (TR) on drums, and guest artists Şenova Ülker (TR) on trumpet and Dilek Turkan (TR) on vocals.
This group is often referred to as Duyarlar's version of a personal salute to his "father, a esteemed musician". Ney player Harris Lambrakis (Greece), who was a guest of the group from time to time, added a different color to the music.
He also continues to develop other projects, such as his band named "Colors" with electric bassist Eric Calmes (Aruba), Drummer Enrique Firpi (Uruguay) and Saxophonist Stanislav Mitrovic, because they represent different cultures and colors.
Additionally, the released project album "Time for spring" features Duyarlar, Janek Gwizdala (USA) on electric bass, Louie Palmer (USA) on drums and Justin Vasques (USA) on saxophone.
Baki Duyarlar has established various one-off partnerships with like-minded musicians over the years, establishing and continuing. He gained international success with the album "Istanbul Connection", which he released together with, Saxophonist Dick De Graaf (NL), Percussionist Ruben Van Rompaey (NL), Double Bassist Erdal Akyol (TR), Guitarist Erkan Oğur, (TR) and Drummer Joost Kroon (NL) Afterwards, Trumpeter Eric Vloeimans (NL) joined the band for live concerts.
Duyarlar collaborated with artists from different music worlds. His longest-running relationship was with Bülent Ortaçgil (TR) in the field of alternative pop music. He took part as arranger and pianist in three of Ortaçgil's albums (Gece Yalanları, Sen and Elli Buçuk) and has been his stage companion in all his concerts since 1999.
In his project called JazzArk, which he developed in a different genre and published in 2020, he brought together Antonio Serrano (Spain), one of the world's most important harmonica players, whom he knows from the band of the famous flamenco guitarist Paco de Lucia, Double Bassist Kristian Lind (Sweden) and Percussionist Mehmet Akatay (TR) He came up with a new experiment that can be theorized with Turkish makam approaches rather than modal connections in the context of played compositions and improvised solos.
Duyarlar, who has been attaching importance to his identity as a music educator for years, has been an instructor for a long time, especially in the Bahçeşehir University Jazz Academy and later in the conservatory formation of the same institution, and in the past years, he hosted the famous trumpeter Nicholas Payton (USA) with the Istanbul Youth Jazz Orchestra, which he continued to conduct (which lasted for 4 years).
Duyarlar, who still shares the stage interactively with different improvisational groups, continues to produce classical western music forms and interprets his own music in different cities of the world. For example, he produces his own music in different formations in countries and cities such as Umbria Jazz festival (Italy) North Sea Jazz festival (Netherlands) Istanbul Jazz festival (TR) Akbank Jazz festival (TR) Almaty Jazz festival (Kazakhstan) Dushanbe Ethnic Music festival (Tajikistan) Ahmet Ertegün Sessions (USA) Los Angeles, New York, London, Paris, Amsterdam, Lisbon, Vienna, Kosovo and Croatia. He had the opportunity to have his music heard in different formations.