Muharrem Ertaş

Turkish Saz master and folk singer (1913-1984). Muharrem Ertaş was born in 1913, in Mid-Anatolia. His ancestors were from Ala Kilise (Aksaray), which was the home of the most known Adbal's (dervish) at the time. His first saz teachers were "Master Bulduk" and "Master Yusuf". As a young boy, he used to wander from one village to another; playing his saz (baglama) in circumstition ceremonies; or performed in conversations held in the chamber of the village. Although he got the recognition as a master of Bozlak*, he also had a rich repertoire of traditional folk songs from mid-Anatolia region. His materpieces though were the halay's which he intensely performed. He is considered as one of the greatest Bozlak performer due to the tone of his voice, ability of thoath chanting, trilling and his heroic posture (which is considered the sine qua non in Bozlak perfomance). For him, Bozlak was a scream hang to the welkin. He used to perform works from great dervishes like Karacaoglan, Asık Galip, Pir Sultan Abdal but each time with a different performance depending on the very present mood he was in. In 1971 he handed over his treasure to his son Neşet Ertaş, who proudly declares that the energy of his own performances is mainly based on this treasure he has inherited. Having a modest and down to earth life time of 71 years, Mr. Muharrem Ertas passed away on 3rd of December in 1984. His dying declaration was "the consignement of my saz.. " which remains as a un-finished sentence. * Bozlak: A traditional type of folk song from mid-anatolian reigon. Bozlak's are story-telling songs in which bravery and heroism are the main theme's. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.