Okay Temiz

Okay Temiz — Biography

Shaped early on by his mother Naciye Temiz's classical training, Okay Temiz began schooling in Çatalca before spending a year studying percussion and timpani at the Ankara State Conservatory of Classical Music, from which he was dismissed for taking outside gigs; from 1957 to 1959 he trained in instrument-making at the Tophane Art Institute, where he began forging his own copper drums modelled on the darbuka. He settled in Sweden in 1967, formed the group Sevda with trumpeter Maffy Falay, and recorded and performed with Don Cherry; with South African bassist Johnny Dyani he taught at New Hampshire College in 1971 as part of that trio, then formed the band Xaba the following year with Dyani and trumpeter Mongezi Feza. In 1974 he founded Oriental Wind with pianist Bobo Stenson, bassist Palle Danielson and saxophonist Lennart Åberg, blending Western instruments with Turkish ones, and in 1979 his album Zikir, made with ney player Aka Gündüz, brought the ney into jazz. He married Anna Temiz in 1994 and they had a son. After returning to Turkey in 1998 he led the Ministry of Culture's Mehter military band for five years and kept building his own instruments from materials such as camel bells and motorcycle helmets; since 2002 he has marked his birthday each year with a "Rhythm Day" event.