Career
At 20 and 22, he passed the Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT) auditions and become a resident bağlama player at the network for several months.
In 1966 he got an excellent grade in National Bağlama Contest with Arif Sağ and Cinucen Tanrikorur, two other contemporary masters of Turkish music.
In the late sixties he collaborated with a wide range of musicians in performances and film music. Between 1966 and 1968 he played bağlama with Arif Sağ in many records with singers such as Muzaffer Akgün, Yıldız Tezcan, Ahmet Sezgin, Şükran Ay, Sabahat Akkiraz, and Nuri Sesigüzel. Gencebay also took part as a music director in many Turkish films such as Ana, Kuyu, Kızılırmak-Karakoyun. He also collaborated with many musicians from different genres, such as Erkin Koray, Omar Faruk Tekbilek, Ismet Siral, Burhan Tonguc, Ozer Senay, Vedat Yildirimbora, Neşet Ertaş, Abdullah Nail Baysu. He appeared as a baglama performer and a well-known composer in musical societies, besides releasing several singles in genre of traditional Turkish Folk music. In 1968, he released his first "free-style" single "Sensiz Bahar Gecmiyor/Basa Gelen Cekilirmis", and was rewarded. During the 1970s he released many singles in a new genre that is a fusion of traditional Turkish Folk music, Turkish classical music, Western classical music, jazz, rock, country, progressive, psychedelic, Indian, Arabic, Spanish, and Greek music styles. Even though some musical societies such as TRT named that kind of World fusion music recordings Arabesque music, Orhan Gencebay refused the term arabesque, saying it was inadequate to define his style. In 1972, he founded the Kervan Record Company, which became very successful, attracting many other talented musicians such as Erkin Koray, Ajda Pekkan, Muazzez Abaci, Mustafa Sagyasar, Ahmet Ozhan, Kamuran Akkor, Semiha Yanki, Samime Sanay, Nese Karabocek, Bedia Akarturk, Nil Burak, Ziya Taskent, Semiramis Pekkan and Ferdi Ozbegen.
Throughout his career Orhan has performed leading roles in 36 movies, has been a composer almost in 90 movies, composed of about a thousand works, released almost 35 singles, 15 albums, and dozens of MC's. His albums sold out over 65 million legal copies.
As a composer, film musician, and as a person interested in other musical cultures, Orhan Gencebay is one of the major exponents of Turkish music in the 20th century.
In 2005, Gencebay was featured in the film Crossing the Bridge: The Sound of Istanbul by German Turkish director Fatih Akın, as well as on the film's soundtrack with the song "Hatasız Kul Olmaz."
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—Barbara Dale (b. 1940)
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