One of the most shocking and daring plays staged in Turkish theaters was banned by the Istanbul Governorship on February 7, 1970. The ban on the play, which was watched by 30,000 people in 60 days, did not last long.
—Turkish Press in 1970
The fourth chapter in the partnership between Turkish jazz percussionist Okay Temiz and Istanbul-based record label Caz Plak is a special release that is seeing light 54 years after its inception. Music For Turkish Theatre, the soundtrack composed by Don Cherry and Temiz and commissioned by the revered novelist and civil rights activist James Baldwin for his and renowned Turkish stage actor/director Engin Cezzar's adaptation of John Herbert's play Fortune And Men's Eyes, will be released by the forefronting jazz label on three different vinyl versions for the very first time in mid-November.
This album is Caz Plak's second effort showcasing Cherry and Temiz's longstanding collaboration dynamics. Recorded in 1969 in Istanbul, the soundtrack accompanied the play's successful run throughout the country the following year up until its eventual governmental ban due to its subject matter on gay relationships in a prison setting. Any recording of this venture between these three respected figures has never been released anywhere in the world before this undertaking and appropriately so in the centennial year of Baldwin's birthday. With the master tape entrusted to the label from Cezzar's autobiographer, Gökhan Akçura, Caz Plak took the utmost care in reproducing this work with the remastering handled by Shawn Joseph at Optimum Mastering in the UK and Optimal GmBH handling pressing.
Music For Turkish Theatre will be released worldwide in three hand-numbered LP versions with version-exclusive album cover photography licensed from the estate of filmmaker Sedat Pakay.
A limited number of signed copies by Okay Temiz or Zeynep Oral (journalist and James Baldwin's assistant) will also be exclusively available for order through Caz Plak's Bandcamp. Now available for pre-order through Caz Plak's Bandcamp, Music For Turkish Theatre will be released on November 15 and available in record stores worldwide.
This album is Caz Plak's second effort showcasing Cherry and Temiz's longstanding collaboration dynamics. Recorded in 1969 in Istanbul, the soundtrack accompanied the play's successful run throughout the country the following year up until its eventual governmental ban due to its subject matter on gay relationships in a prison setting. Any recording of this venture between these three respected figures has never been released anywhere in the world before this undertaking and appropriately so in the centennial year of Baldwin's birthday. With the master tape entrusted to the label from Cezzar's autobiographer, Gökhan Akçura, Caz Plak took the utmost care in reproducing this work with the remastering handled by Shawn Joseph at Optimum Mastering in the UK and Optimal GmBH handling pressing.
Music For Turkish Theatre will be released worldwide in three hand-numbered LP versions with version-exclusive album cover photography licensed from the estate of filmmaker Sedat Pakay.
A limited number of signed copies by Okay Temiz or Zeynep Oral (journalist and James Baldwin's assistant) will also be exclusively available for order through Caz Plak's Bandcamp. Now available for pre-order through Caz Plak's Bandcamp, Music For Turkish Theatre will be released on November 15 and available in record stores worldwide.
