JC1907
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Coskun Sabah's background
Famous Turkish oudi Coskun Sabah had an interesting background... Did you know:
After his application to the conservatory in Istanbul, he had to perform in front of a selection committee. And they do these selections by matching
two applicants.
It was Coskun Sabah vs. Mutlu Torun
They were both asked to perform the same peace. Mutlu Torun lost and Coskun Sabah entered the school after impressing the committe with his taksim
and transposed performance of a Ferahnak semai.
Coskun Sabah was the first oudi to play piece "Kosan Cocuk" by Muhiddin Targan. No one attempted it after Targan performed it himself until Sabah.
Ironically, Mutlu Torun wrote one of the best methods for oud which I followed during my education.
Source: My instructor in Turkey who admitted Sabah to the conservatory first, educated him later advised him to play Kosan Cocuk.
Regards,
JC1907
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Jay
Oud Lover
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Interesting facts, JC1907. My wife's brother tells me that Coskun builds his own ouds. Is that true? I see from your previous posts you're lucky
enough to be from Istanbul. What a Beautiful city! I had the chance to visit for the first time last summer and hope to go back soon.
Cheers,
Jay
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JC1907
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Jay, I don't think he builds his ouds. He owns many good ouds but since 1998 he is using couple Najarian electric ouds. More mobility on stage. He
used ouds from Hadi Usta earlier in the 1990s. I believe he had 2 original Manol ouds. One of them was burned in his car's trunk (arson). the other
one he still owns but I doubt that he uses them. I am kind of puzzled in a sense that he had an electric oud before Najarian featured his in 2000 or
so. Was it a special order or was he the early customer, I don't know. He is using a wireless guitar pick up which enables him to walk around freely
on stage. Very talented musician with deep knowledge makam and theory. He is also famous with his music in Turkey which more popular kind. He is
totally inspired by Yorgo Bacanos and Kadri Sencalar. Guitar piece Astorias drew attention to him in the 1980s when he played it on oud. Very good
entertainer in the gazino.. Doesn't take a break not even during a 3-4 hour performance.
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MrOud
Oud Maniac
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Coskun Sabah
I couldn't resist but add a few facts about Coskun.
Like myself, he grew up in the South Eastern city of Diyarbakir, Turkey. He and his violinist/oudi brother Bulent Sabah took some of their first
lessons from my father. I followed Coskun like a hawk during my childhood. I picked up the oud because of him. One slight correction on his Manol
ouds. The first one burned during a fire in Bebek Maksim Gazino in Istanbul  In
fact that was the first oud I ever touched.The second one was stolen from the trunk of his car.
His late father Mardiros Sabah had great knowledge of Turkish music and makam. As a teenager, I used to pick his brain about differences in makams.
One day he told me a little story about Coskun that I would like to share.
When Coskun was in sixth grade, he came home with his mid-term report card and his Music Education grade was marked 0 on a scale of 10. Every other
grade was fine except for Music. His father went to the school and found the music teacher. He pulled the guy into an empty classroom and started
writing the notes to Ussak pesrev by Tatyos on the black board. Then he asked the teacher to sound the notes of the pesrev. The horrified teacher
couldn't read the notes and asked him what his point was. He said, my point is I am Coskun's father and you gave him a zero. The teacher went and
checked his records. He came back apologizing. There was a 1 missing to the left of the 0. His grade should have been 10.
When Coskun was at the peak of his playing around mid 80s, no one played the oud like he did. I always thought he studied with guitar or piano
methods. I asked him that question at a family gathering 2 years ago here in New York. I have to admit, his answer made me very jealous. He said, look
when I played in the orchestras, I sat next to Yorgo and Kadri Sencalar night after night. I cut him off and said, ok. ok. say no more 
Unfortunately, Coskun paid less and less attention to his oud playing after he became a star showman. I know this is very selfish of me, but I wish he
stayed an oud player.
Udi Mike
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spyros mesogeia
Oud Junkie
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Dear friend Mike,I want to ask you some things,I was thinking to visit him in Istanbull and take some lessons from him,I like his style very much,and
my hodja,Nikos Saragoudas really appreciates him.Do you know if someone can take lessons by him,or is it very dificult to contact him.
Also personally prefer Ergin Kizilays style,do you have any informations to give me about Coskun ,or please send me an e-mail,I would to exchange some
informations eventually about this subject .
Regards from Greece
Spyros
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oudmaker
Oud Junkie
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Friends
I have a little story about Coskun. In 1973, I and John Merjanian went to Istanbul and stay there for three weeks. That was then our vacation. I knew
Hadi Usta and took some wood and tools to him as gifts. He made 3 ouds for me whitin 3 weeks with the material i brought to him. One of that oud
belongs to my dear friend John Berberian The other one belongs to Gregory Vosbikian and the last one was in the hands of late Raymond Mirijanian
One day John and I were visiting Hadi Usta. He was working on a Manol which he said belongs to a "little kid" Coskun Sabah who was working near by
casino with his brother and his father. I think Hadi usta said his father plays kanun and brothers play oud and violin.
Little later Coskun came to pick his oud. Hadi Usta said to him " play some thing for us" He start playing a taksim and I realize that he was some
talent and recorded him with my little cassette player rite there. Also I saw that he had only one dugah string on his oud and he was unable to get
strings for his oud He was just a kid of probably 16-17 years old. The people including myself in the shop start to compare him with Yorgo. He was
using his two fingers of his left hand and it was realy amazing to hear the sound he produces with amazing agility. I gave him a set of LaBella as our
appreciation.
Every year there of I send him one or two set of LaBella with my teacher's wife Tanburi Naime Batanay who was in the Orchestra of Classical Turkish
Music of Istanbul. He was the one replaced Yorgo after his retirement in that orchestra. That last at least 4 or 5 years until He became a Star. Later
I saw him on TV several times He was using his 4 fingers.
Dincer
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JC1907
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My piano instructor Suheyla Altmisdort has a lot of stories about him. She says, the turning point for Coskun was when he played Kosan Cocuk at the
San Tiyatrosu. Ustad Munir Nurettin Selcuk appreciated him and kept him in his orchestra. However, there were some classical turkish music instructors
who didn't want him to advance. That's the rumour. It's important to note that he still has a good technique but doesn't think that ordinary audience
will need that type of Coskun Sabah on stage. He is wrong.
He said he became a singer due to the stars' behaivors he was playing for. Who knows, if things were right, he would have stayed as an udi.
I am going to meet him this summer in Istanbul hopefully. He still has a lot of respect for the instructors.
Are there any rare recordings of him that you guys would like to share with me? I'd really appreciate it.
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mavrothis
Oud Junkie
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Wow,
What a great discussion. Are there any albums anyone would recommend that focus on his ud playing?
Thanks,
mavrothis
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JC1907
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Mavrothis,
There is not an album of him that is oud solo but in his albums there are taksims. I have them in cassette. I don't know how to convert them into
mp3s.
I appreciate any good oud playing. I have listened to your performance of Kapris. Very clean sounds. You're super.
I have played it on piano first time in Turkey (my instructor told me) in 1995, certainly a masterpiece that requires concentration and patience.
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mavrothis
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Hey,
Thanks JC. I really appreciate your words, and would love to hear your playing as well (along with more great stories).
Don't worry, I might be in Izmir this summer (for a day) and I'll try and get some Sabah albums.
Thanks again my friend!
Take care,
mavrothis
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davidg
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Hello Everyone,
It is a pleasure to meet you JC1907
I highly agree with you on how inspiring and talented Coskun Sabah is. He is a very technical and highly regarded udist. My ud teacher really really
thinks very highly of him. My ud teacher had a video of him practicing on an ud to go to the conservatory. He said that he had never heard anything
like it before. He had played really totally amazing taksims and some spanish type things that were total killers. He said that they were pretty old
recordings. Probably from the 80's.
My ud teacher used to play with kanuni Berj and Berj was a very close friend of Coskun's. So when Coskun came to the U.S. and in California too. My
oud teacher really wanted to meet up with him but he didn't get a chance too. Hopefully he will come again.
Going back to what I wanted to say was that Coskun is really of Armenian ancestry. If I remember correctly when Coskun's mother died he wanted his
mother to be buried in an Armenian funeral home and so he did. And Turkey noticed that Coskun Sabah was Armenian.
I am sorry to make it so long.
Thanks Everyone.
P.S. I have a really nice Yurdal Tokcan taksim that i had downloaded from Zeryab.com I thought it was totally amazing. I'll post it up soon.
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Jameel
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| Quote: | Originally posted by oudmaker
He made 3 ouds for me whitin 3 weeks with the material i brought to him. Dincer |
What a great story, Dincer. I can't imagine making 3 ouds in 3 weeks! Wow!
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spyros mesogeia
Oud Junkie
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absolutelly amazing,
wonderfull stories
thank you for sharing them with us
Regards
Spyros Koliavasilis
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davidg
Oud Addict
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Hey everyone,
I knw this is a little off topic but check this out.
I thought it was totally amazing. And it really is.
Yurdal Tokcan just is totally amazing. He is just
totally about technicality in this taksim!
Thank you for the nice stories. Everyone.
Thanks
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maran
Oud Junkie
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davidg, i sent you a u2u. thanks.
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MrOud
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Thanks David. Yurdal is truly amazing.
Udi Mike
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maran
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bacanos is everywhere in that taqsim. listen at 5:08-20. yurdal's playing is exquisite.
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