Female Cadence. Hommage an Tülay German (Türkei) mit Pina Berlin

In the organizer's words:

Sunday, December 7, 2025, 20h. Brotfabrik, Caligariplatz 1, 13086 Berlin, admission 18-12 euros. Box Office from 19.30h (cash only), advance sale via Eventbrite.

TÜLAY GERMAN (Turkey) presented by
PINA BERLIN'S TURKISH STANDARD QUARTET
Pinar Tatlikazan - vocals, sax, ukulele
Oğhuzan Altinay - guitar
Maik Kleer - bass
Alfred Mehnert - percussion

Introductory lecture: Regina Câmara
Tülay German (1935 in Istanbul) is one of the defining voices of the Turkish jazz scene of the 1960s. She began singing at the age of four and performed as a primary school pupil on Radio Ankara, accompanied by Tarık Bulut on the piano. After graduating from Üsküdar American Girls' College in 1956, she began her professional career as a singer. In 1957, she was the first Turkish singer to take part in the Melody Caravan program on Istanbul Radio and performed secretly on the stage of the Süreyya Theater in Ankara.
Between 1960 and 1962, Tülay German established herself as a jazz singer in Istanbul. She worked closely with the Salim Ağırbaş Quintet, with whom she performed regularly on a weekly radio program. Other important partners during this time were İlham Gencer and other musicians from the young jazz scene. The Hilton Hotel in Istanbul was a central venue for jazz culture, but private jam sessions also played an important role. Erdem Buri, Tülay Geman's partner, played an important role in this. Not only jam sessions took place in his house - members of the Turkish Workers' Party and left-wing intellectuals also met at his home in Moda. Erdem Buri was the nephew of Suat Derviş (Turkish writer and political activist) and Hamdullah Suphi Tanriöver (poet, politician and diplomat), members of the TIP, and was also friends with Yasar Kemal (writer), Aziz Nesin (writer) and Atif Yilmaz (director). In 1965, the TIP used the "Song of Tomorrow" sung by Tülay German and composed by Erdem Buri for its election campaign. Together with Selahattin Hilav, he also translated Plekhanov's work "Fundamental Questions of Marxist Thought" into Turkish. Tülay German and Erdem Buri were politically persecuted and went into exile together in Paris in 1966. For Erdem Buri, she recorded the pieces Senin Şarkını Söylüyorum, Mutlu Günler and Ninni, among others, in which Turkish musical tradition merged with Western jazz - early approaches that later led to so-called Anadolu Pop.
The political situation had a significant influence on the artistic output of the Istanbul jazz scene. During the Cold War, Turkey moved closer to the USA, which did not support progressive left-wing forces but preferred traditional, Muslim and folkloric groups. As a result, many musicians, including Tülay German and Erdem Buri, went into exile. In 1966, they moved to Paris, where Tülay recorded numerous singles under the name Toulaï, gave concerts and took part in festivals in Europe, Brazil and the USA.
Tülay German is regarded as a key figure in Turkish jazz, whose work in the 1960s had a lasting impact on the combination of jazz and Turkish musical tradition. She still lives in Paris today and was honored with the Lifetime Award for her life's work at the Istanbul International Jazz Festival in 2021.

PINA BERLIN (Pinar Tatlikazan)

Pinar Tatlikazan, who performs under the stage name Pina Berlin, is a singer and songwriter who was born in Bursa (Turkey), grew up in Istanbul and has lived in Berlin since around 2010. Combining influences from jazz, world music, soul and folk, she began singing and performing in bands in Istanbul and later in Berlin. Pina Berlin studied classical singing and took workshops with jazz artists, as well as playing in various bands before starting her solo project. She released her debut album in 2020 and then toured with her band. Website: pinaberlinmusic.com

ALFRED MEHNERT

Alfred Mehnert is a percussionist, author and lecturer with a strong commitment to the Berlin music and cultural scene. He studied philosophy, politics and education in Frankfurt and percussion with Tata Guiness and Dudu Tucci, among others. His first album Sprechzeit was released in 2001 and sold out within a year. Mehnert leads the Berlin Metropol Orchestra, a multicultural ensemble in which he plays percussion and moderates, and mixes jazz, Latin, soul and world music to create a new sound identity. In addition to his artistic activities, he is very active in music education projects, e.g. Kids on Drums, workshops and community projects in Berlin. Website: https://alfredmehnert.jimdofree.com

MAIK KLEER

Maik Kleer is a bassist (electric bass and double bass), active in the Berlin jazz, soul and funk scene. He is a member of the Jako Quartet, a band led by guitarist Iakovos "Jako" Symeonidis, with whom he plays original compositions as well as pieces from the funk, soul and jazz tradition. Kleer also plays in Pina Berlin's Turkish Standard Quartet, where he performs with Pinar Tatlikazan (vocals), Alfred Mehnert (percussion) and other musicians. Website information: about the Jako Quartet (e.g. https://jakosym.com

Background:

Female Cadence: Women in European Jazz around 1960 (October 2025 - January 2026) is dedicated to forgotten female musicians who had a decisive influence on jazz in Europe. The focus is on artists such as Lolita Garrido (Spain), Pia Beck (Netherlands), Colette Magny (France), German Tülay (Turkey), Kathy Stobart (Great Britain) and Ewa Wanat (Poland).

The project brings these artists back into the public consciousness by Berlin musicians such as Olga Reznichenko, Mathilde Vendramin, Lucia Boffo, Pinar Tatlikazan, Birgitta Flick and Ola Blachno and their ensembles reinterpreting and transcribing works by these women and combining them with their own artistic positions. The result is a dialog between past and present, between politically motivated music history and today's jazz avant-garde.

In addition to six concerts in venues such as the Brotfabrik and Kubiz Raoul Wallenberg, the series includes lectures and a program booklet. A podcast will be produced afterwards. This will make female jazz history visible in the long term and at the same time open up a discourse on the social conditions of those musicians - focusing on patriarchal structures and authoritarian regimes. The aim is also to take a look at today's conditions in jazz and to present current artistic positions of female jazz and improvisational musicians.

The concert series sees itself as a contribution to making forgotten female biographies visible and as a reflection on the extent to which artistic expression and social protest intertwine then and now.

Supported by Musikfonds e.V. with funds from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media.
Idea and realization: Regina Câmara