Mekân, marka, statü: Türkiye'de caz
Venue, brand, status: Jazz in Turkey
Yazar: MİNEN ÇALIŞ
Danışman: DOÇ. DR. ZEYNEP GONCA İNCEDERE
İstanbul Teknik Üniversitesi / Lisansüstü Eğitim Enstitüsü / Müzikoloji ve Müzik Teorisi Ana Bilim Dalı / Müzikoloji Bilim Dalı
Derece: Yüksek Lisans, 2024
Konu: Müzik = Music

Özet:
Bu çalışmanın amacı, cazın Türkiye'de mekânsallaşma ve markalaşma sürecini
incelemektir. Bu bağlamda çalışma, Lefebvre'nin mekân sınıflandırmalarında yer alan
hem soyut, hem de çelişkili mekân kavramları ile tartışılmış, geçmiş ve günümüz caz
dünyası ile örtüştürülmeye çalışılmıştır.
Çalışma, geçmişten günümüze Türkiye'de varlık gösteren "caz" kavramını ve caz
müziğini mekânsallaşma tarihi, pazarlama stratejileri, festivaller, caz kulüpler, itibar
ve prestij meseleleri içerisinde mekân, dinleyici kitle ve müzisyenler ekseninden
olacak şekilde üç ayaktan inceleyecektir.
Bu çalışma, "Caz müziğin Türkiye'ye ayak bastığı 1920'lerden itibaren
mekânsallaşması nasıl bir tarihsellik içerisinde gerçekleşmiştir ve günümüzde caz
nasıl popüler kültürle ilintili bir janr / meta haline gelmiştir?" temel sorusu üzerine
inşa edilirken, cazın dinleyici kitle ve büyük markalar / şirketler için ne ifade ettiği
gibi yan sorularla ilerletilmiştir.
Çalışma kapsamında yer alan mekân araştırmaları ağırlıklı olarak, İstanbul'da yer alan
üç caz mekânı olan "Nardis Jazz Club", "The Badau İstanbul" ve "Pera 77" olarak
şekillenirken, "Hilton Otel", "Kanyon AVM", "Bozcaada Caz Festivali" olmak üzere
altı mekân ağırlıklı olarak incelenerek ortaya konmuştur.
Caza sponsor olan şirketlerde ise ağırlıklı olarak "Akbank", "IKSV", "Garanti" olmak
üzere üç büyük marka tercih edilmiştir. Sözü edilen tüm konular ve meseleler, caz
müzisyenleri ve müzik yazarları ile birebir görüşmeler yapılarak derinlemesine
tartışılmıştır.
Müzik yazarları ve caz müzisyenleri ile toplamda kırk kişisel görüşme ve sözlü tarih
çalışması yapılmıştır. Kişisel görüşmeler, saha çalışmaları, katılımcı gözlemci notları,
sözlü tarih çalışmaları ve yazılı kaynaklarla beraber harmanlanarak elde edilen veriler,
öneriler ile birlikte tezin metin içeriğinde ve sonuç kısmında işlenmiştir.
xiv
Bu çalışma, caz müziğin 1920'lerden itibaren Türkiye'ye gelmesiyle birlikte geçirdiği
dönemleri, önemli olayları, cazın gelişimini sağlayan unsurları ve önemli caz
temsilcilerine yer vermektedir. Bununla birlikte, tezin asıl amacı, müzik yazarları ve
müzisyenler açısından caz dünyasının günümüz anlatısını ortaya koymaktır. Tez, 2000
sonrası dijital çağda caz müziğin deyim yerindeyse kabuğunun değiştiği gelişim
sürecine odaklanmaktadır.
Caz müziğin kurumsallaşması meselesi tarihsel bir metodoloji ile birlikte Halkevleri,
Bilgi Üniversitesi, İstanbul Üniversitesi ekseni ağırlı olacak biçimde aktarılmıştır.
Çalışmada, tarihsel süreç içerisinde örnekleri görülen müzik festivalleri sürecinin
yerini caz odaklı müzik festivallerine çevirmesinde yatan temel stratejiler incelenmiş
ve "Ormanada Yapı Konut Reklamı" üzerinden inşa edilen yeni caz algısı
örneklendirilmiştir.
Cazın ana merkezde olduğu afişler, reklam örnekleri ve "streaming" teknolojisi
içerisinde yer alan müzik dinleme platformlarının oluşturduğu algoritmalar ve yeni
çalma listeleri adlandırmaları örneklendirilerek tüm dinamikleriyle beraber
açıklanmaya çalışılmıştır.
Tüm bulgular son bölümde Henri Lefebvre'nin mekânsallaştırma teorileri ve
çalışmaları ışığında temellenen Çelişkili ve Soyut Mekân üzerinden caz dünyaları
eksenine uyumlandırılacaktır. Türkiye'de caz müziğin görünürlüğünü sağlayan
mekânlar, önemli olaylar, temsilciler, tartışma unsurları ve gelişim grafiği sergilediği
unsurlar ele alınarak, cazın Türkiye'deki güncel konumu ve caz dünyası incelenmeye
çalışılmıştır.

Abstract:
The aim of this study is to examine the spatialization and branding process of jazz in
Turkey. In this context, the study was discussed with both abstract and contradictory
space concepts in Lefebvre's space classifications, and tried to overlap with the past
and present jazz world.
The study will examine the concept of "jazz" and jazz music, which has existed in
Turkey from past to present, from three perspectives: the history of spatialization,
marketing strategies, festivals, jazz clubs, reputation and prestige issues, on the axis of
venue, audience and musicians.
This study asks, "In what historical context has the spatialization of jazz music taken
place since the 1920s, when it first set foot in Turkey, and how has jazz become a
genre/commodity related to popular culture today?" While it is built on the basic
question, it is advanced with side questions such as what jazz means to the audience
and big brands / companies.
The venue research within the scope of the study is mainly shaped as the three jazz
venues in Istanbul, "Nardis Jazz Club", "The Badau Istanbul" and "Pera 77", while
"Hilton Hotel", "Kanyon AVM", "Bozcaada Jazz Club". Six venues, including the
"Festival", were mainly examined and presented.
Among the companies sponsoring jazz, three major brands were preferred: "Akbank",
"IKSV" and "Garanti". All mentioned topics and issues were discussed in depth
through one-on-one interviews with jazz musicians and music writers.
A total of forty personal interviews and oral history studies were conducted with music
writers and jazz musicians. The data obtained by blending personal interviews, field
studies, participant observer notes, oral history studies and written sources were
processed in the text content and conclusion of the thesis, along with suggestions.
xvi
This study includes the periods that jazz music went through when it came to Turkey
since the 1920s, important events, the elements that enabled the development of jazz,
and important jazz representatives. However, the main purpose of the thesis is to reveal
the contemporary narrative of the jazz world from the perspective of music writers and
musicians. The thesis focuses on the development process in which the shell of jazz
music, so to speak, changed in the digital age after 2000.
The issue of institutionalization of jazz music has been conveyed with a historical
methodology, with emphasis on Community Centers, Bilgi University and Istanbul
University. In the study, the basic strategies underlying the transformation of the music
festival process, examples of which have been seen throughout the historical process,
into jazz-oriented music festivals were examined and the new jazz perception built on
the "Ormanada Yapı Konut Advertisement" was exemplified.
It has been tried to explain with all its dynamics by giving examples of posters,
advertisement examples, where jazz is at the center, and the algorithms created by
music listening platforms within the "streaming" technology and the naming of new
playlists.
In the last chapter, all findings will be adapted to the axis of jazz worlds through
Contradictory and Abstract Space, which is based in the light of Henri Lefebvre's
spatialization theories and studies. The current position of jazz in Turkey and the
world of jazz have been tried to be examined by considering the venues, important
events, representatives, discussion elements and development charts that provide the
visibility of jazz music in Turkey.
Jazz music, which we have heard of since the 20th century but whose origins date back
to the 18th century, is essentially an American music genre based in New Orleans.
However, it is a music genre that has been accepted as popular song and dance music
with all the resistance, power, struggle, rebellion and human emotions that it contains
and protects. After spreading to the northern regions after America, jazz music has
influenced Europe since the beginning of the 20th century. Jazz came to Turkey in the
last years of the Ottoman Empire and the early years of the Republic through the
performances of Armenian, Greek and Jewish musicians who had a great deal of
experience and knowledge in the field of music.
Most of the jazz literature in Turkey is written and analyzed from a historical
perspective and methodology. In this context, unfortunately, the literature sources that
examine jazz music in contemporary Turkey with all its dynamics and elements such
as instrumentalization, popular culture, etc., not only as a musical genre that has
progressed in a historical process, are quite few compared to historical sources. The
jazz sources written in Turkey mainly focus on a certain historicity and musicians.
However, the current outlook of jazz, its impact on daily life and its contributions to
the market world require the examination of more fields of study than just being a
music genre.
Today, jazz and jazz music have become a means of status that overlaps with "high
status", "elite", "exclusive" and "isolated" elements, whereas after the 1920s, when
jazz emerged, the words "jazz" and "jazzband" were used in Turkey to refer to all
popular music, dances and forms of Western origin, regardless of their origin. Rather
than being banned, jazz music performance in Turkey is now an indispensable part of
today's music festivals, audiences, music education, venues, advertisements, brands
and entertainment world. Jazz music is often associated with a corporate identity and
is generally well-established, attracting attention from various audience segments and
media outlets. This shows that jazz music has become increasingly popular in Turkey
and has been embraced by an audience. In this context, as a result of the scarcity of
written sources on the spatialization of jazz and the history of space, the methodology
of this study, as I mentioned earlier, is not restricted to written sources, but blended
with oral history, personal interviews and participant observer methods. In this way, a
much more holistic and scientific study has been produced.
While the issue of the institutionalization of jazz music will be explained through the
example of Halkevleri, the adventure of institutionalization, in which a historical break
was experienced in the academic field, will be explained in the center of Bilgi
University, a foundation school, and Istanbul University, a state institution, and the
issue of forbidden jazz music being included in curricula and educational institutions
will be discussed. While examining the basic strategies underlying the transformation
of the music festival process into jazz-oriented music festivals, the festival process and
the jazz music market are examined in both sociological, musicological and marketing
fields. While the polarizing discourses such as "saz" and "jazz" seen especially in the
pre-2000 period were replaced by "saz and jazz" with the age of digitalization, the
discourses of "fusion", "hybrid", "ethnic", "world", "Turkish/Turkish" jazz, in which
every element is intertwined, so to speak, have melted into a single pot and provided
an eclectic ground.
It is possible to say that jazz music in Turkey has gone through two periods in which
it has changed and transformed its identity in many areas (academia, jazz venues,
festivals, transformation from the vilified to the praised, brand and status acquisition,
etc.) with an acceleration that has become increasingly popular, visible and
instrumentalized.
When the basic structure and history of jazz is analyzed, it is seen that regardless of
geography, it has always been someone's "other". This visibly reflects the unfortunate
history of jazz. It is an obvious fact that jazz and jazz music are "artificially"
reproducing the values and lifestyles that can have a status in the society and presenting
them to the "developed" segments and masses by packaging them at affordable prices.
So much so that the new jazz perception constructed through the "Ormanada Yapı
Konut Advertisement", examples of which are given and discussed in the study, will
be exemplified, the given examples will be explained through the big companies that
sponsor jazz and why they sponsor jazz by preferring jazz, while exemplifying the
posters, advertisement examples where jazz is at the main center and the algorithms
and new playlists created by the music listening platforms within the "streaming"
technology; and becoming an instrumental, status-providing, prestige- and reputation-
building, branding "commodity". The thesis consists of six chapters in total. The most
important premise of the study is to rethink the perception of contemporary jazz in
Turkey as a commodity and a profit-making "thing" as much as it refers to a musical
genre by discussing it holistically through various examples in the historical process.
This study also focuses on how the jazz audience, the potential audience, the brands /
big companies that prefer to sponsor jazz, perceive jazz, their perspectives on jazz, and
what they expect and/or hope from jazz within the jazz world, which has developed
centered in Istanbul. The findings within the scope of the thesis study, all the
problematics mentioned, the scope of the research and all the data as a result, have
been tried to be answered not only with the sources of written literature, but also in the
light of personal interviews I conducted by limiting myself to jazz musicians and music
writers.