Early Life and Musical Background
Gencebay was born in the coastal town of Samsun on August 4, 1944, to Crimean Tatar and Balkan Turkish parents.He started learning music at the age of six, taking violin and mandolin lessons from Emin Tarakçı who was an old Classical Musician from the Ukraine Conservatoire. At the age of seven, he started playing the bağlama (a traditional Turkish instrument), and continued taking traditional Turkish folk music lessons. At ten, he created his first composition. At thirteen, he started playing the tambur, an instrument often used in Turkish classical music to improve himself in the theoretical and practical details of Turkish classical music.
During his high school years, he performed in Classical and Traditional Turkish Folk Music groups playing the tambur and baglama, taught music lessons in his own music courses, and took part in organizing community music centers in Istanbul and Samsun.
When he was sixteen, he became interested in jazz and rock music, and started playing tenor saxophone in wind orchestras. He enrolled in the Turkish conservatory in Istanbul, and studied there for four years. During his military service, he played saxophone in the military brass band.
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