Biography

Hijazz Project is a melting pot of the top notch musicians in Turkey. It is a way to surrender their unity in the eclectic music they make hand in hand in spiritual collectivity representing the love of life and people motto of Mevlana Rumi and Sufism. The repertoire blended seamlessly with jazz in the foundation ranges from Turkish root music to W. A. Mozart, from Hasselman to J.S.Bach.
We have always maintained our signature sound through eclectic sound of root music, with members, each bringing his or her own unique talent and vision to the music featuring the influences of both Eastern and Western composers who created and inspired the music with love and peace that Hijazz still keeps vital and alive.
We believe in the motto of Sufi mysticism: “The Absolute Being is also Absolute Beauty”. We have not hesitated to use the “ney – an Eastern instrument- which is related to the basoon in Mozart’s “Laudate Dominium “ (Psalms 117)
We emphasized the spiritual meaning of “ney” with “breath”. This is also in harmony with the philosophy of Mevlana Rumi’s saying : “I am the breath of every creature”. We hope we have got the point what we intended to communicate the Sufi point view. The sound (or rather the voice) of the ney-*basically a hollow stick – is the very breath itself, and to achieve this, we make use of a fusion of Ottoman root music, Classical Western music, ethnic regional music, and jazz.
We visit the roots of our respective cultures, going back to the age of Ottoman Empire through the Works of Tamburi Büyük, Osman Efendi, Tamburi Cemil Bey, Nayi Osman Dede, and İsmail Dede Efendi..
W e also celebrate W.A. Mozart, A. Hasselsmans, J.S. Bach…
We combine those old Turkish Art Music melodies and classical music with a modern jazz twist for a distinct flavor of the West. In some of the melodies we introduce instruments or melody lines that intertwine these respective styles to reflect a unity in spirit.
The content has a soul unity, consisting of elements as Turkish Root MusicModes, Jazz, Classical Western Music and the “spirit” of Anatolia (Turkey).