Bio:
Currently living between Istanbul and Zurich, Burhan Öçal found himself in the bosom of the world of music and art from the very first days of his arrival in Europe.
His inclination and enthusiasm for discovering new horizons led him to meet prominent global musicians and artists at an early age, with many of whom he had joint projects, and he continues working with them today.
During his early years in Switzerland, Burhan worked with Pierre Favre, a national jazz celebrity. His works with Swiss jazz piano artist George Gruntz, world renowned Portuguese classical pianist Maria João Pires and Australian pianist Peter Waters followed.
Meeting the legendary Joe Zawinul, creator of Weather Report, radically changed Burhan's career plans. He performed as a soloist for 10 years as a part of Zawinul’s symphonic jazz project.
Öçal’s first solo album was the Butcher's Dance. During the same period, he made albums with his funk jazz band “Burhan Öçal Group”. Never losing touch with his roots, Öçal formed the “Istanbul Oriental Ensemble”. In the course of 16 years, the band gave concerts across the globe and became a world famous ensemble. The first two albums, Gypsy Rum and Sultan’s Secret Door, which Öçal recorded with the “Istanbul Oriental Ensemble” received the “Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik” award, the German equivalent of Grammy. During that time he met Sting with whom he has performed for many years. He gave concerts in several countries, including prominently the US, alongside the world famous Kronos Quartet. In the same year, Öçal met Eliot Fisk, the renowned classical guitarist. This duo gave concerts across the US and Europe for 10 years.
Öçal released the Groove Alla Turca album with American jazz bass guitar player Jamaaladeen Tacuma, an important jazz artist and also a close friend. His solo album Jardin Otoman received Le Monde de la Musique’s “Choc” award.
Having great interest in the Ottoman era, the artist started a 36 CD project called “Sultan” in remembrance of the 36 sultans which he intends to complete within the next 10 years. Burhan Öçal recorded two albums and gave various concerts alongside “Trakya All Stars band”, which he formed as a tribute to his home town Kirklareli.
He is a regular guest at the Jazz Festivals in Montreal (where he before an audience of 150 thousand) Montreux, Chicago, Paris, Rome, Istanbul, Vienna, Berlin as well as at the Womad World Music Festival.
Öçal also performs as a soloist with many symphony orchestras. With British conductor Howard Griffiths and the Zurich Chamber Orchestra he released the Concerto Alla Turca album in 2007. Öçal is currently working on two major pieces for himself and orchestra.
The Recôncavo is an almost invisible center-of-gravity. Circumscribing the Bay of All Saints, this region was landing for more enslaved human beings than any other such throughout all of human history. Not unrelated, it is also birthplace of some of the most physically & spiritually uplifting music ever made. —Sparrow
"Dear Sparrow: I am thrilled to receive your email! Thank you for including me in this wonderful matrix."
—Susan Rogers: Personal recording engineer for Prince, inc. "Purple Rain", "Sign o' the Times", "Around the World in a Day"... Director of the Berklee Music Perception and Cognition Laboratory
I'm Pardal here in Brazil (that's "Sparrow" in English). The deep roots of this project are in Manhattan, where Allen Klein (managed the Beatles and The Rolling Stones) called me about royalties for the estate of Sam Cooke... where Jerry Ragovoy (co-wrote Time is On My Side, sung by the Stones; Piece of My Heart, Janis Joplin of course; and Pata Pata, sung by the great Miriam Makeba) called me looking for unpaid royalties... where I did contract and licensing for Carlinhos Brown's participation on Bahia Black with Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock...
...where I rescued unpaid royalties for Aretha Franklin (from Atlantic Records), Barbra Streisand (from CBS Records), Led Zeppelin, Mongo Santamaria, Gilberto Gil, Astrud Gilberto, Airto Moreira, Jim Hall, Wah Wah Watson (Melvin Ragin), Ray Barretto, Philip Glass, Clement "Sir Coxsone" Dodd for his interest in Bob Marley compositions, Cat Stevens/Yusuf Islam and others...
...where I worked with Earl "Speedo" Carroll of the Cadillacs (who went from doo-wopping as a kid on Harlem streetcorners to top of the charts to working as a janitor at P.S. 87 in Manhattan without ever losing what it was that made him special in the first place), and with Jake and Zeke Carey of The Flamingos (I Only Have Eyes for You)... stuff like that.
Yeah this is Bob's first record contract, made with Clement "Sir Coxsone" Dodd of Studio One and co-signed by his aunt because he was under 21. I took it to Black Rock to argue with CBS' lawyers about the royalties they didn't want to pay. They paid.
MATRIX MUSICAL
The Matrix was built below among some of the world's most powerfully moving music, some of it made by people barely known beyond village borders. Or in the case of Sodré, his anthem A MASSA — a paean to Brazil's poor ("our pain is the pain of a timid boy, a calf stepped on...") — having blasted from every radio between the Amazon and Brazil's industrial south, before he was silenced. (that's me left, with David Dye & Kim Junod for U.S. National Public Radio) ... The Matrix started with Sodré, with João do Boi, with Roberto Mendes, with Bule Bule, with Roque Ferreira... music rooted in the sugarcane plantations of Bahia. Hence our logo (a cane cutter).