Mehmet Polat Trio in Acoustic Roots

 

The Mehmet Polat Trio was our guest in Acoustic Roots on Friday
18 September 2015. This trio is both a spiritual and musically adventurous meeting between three master musicians and their
magical instruments: the ney, kora and ud.

This newsletter has unfortunately been published too late for you to be able to
listen to the broadcast live, but you can always listen to the programme on demand
by going to the programme schedule on our website and clicking on the link in the programme guide.

The roots of the trio are in the Ottoman, Anatolian, Balkan and West-African music traditions and the trio is able to adapt these traditions to enhance the original compositions by Mehmet Polat and to create daring improvisations and grooves.
And they do this while retaining the warmth and intimacy of a chamber concert.
Their first CD Next Spring appeared last year on the Belgian Homerecords label.
The album was well received by the international music press and the trio has
been playing a lot of concerts as a result.

Mehmet Polat TrioAcoustic Roots is therefore very pleased that they were able to
find time to perform for us.

The trio are:

  • Mehmet Polat (Turkey),
    Ud
  • Zoumana Diarra (Mali), Kora
  • Sinan Arat (Turkey),
    Ney

Mehmet Polat who comes from Turkey is an accomplished ud player, composer, ensemble leader and soloist and has already made many international tours. He combines different musical styles. Although he appreciates the classical sound of the ud, he is also prepared to innovate. For example, he has added two extra bass strings to his instrument in order to change the sound that it produces.

Zoumana Diarra was born in Mali and has been making music since he was four
years old. He was a guitarist in the legendary Railband du Bamako, and has also
played with Super Biton de Segou, Super Djattta Band (with Zani Diabate), Super
Rail Band, Alpha Blondy and Salif Keita. He has extended the possibilities of the
kora
by increasing the number of strings and now plays an instrument with 44
strings. He also plays the ngoni and balafon in addition to the kora and guitar.

Sinan Arat is also from Turkey but now lives the the Netherlands. He studied at
the Ege Universiteit in Turkey. His primary instrument is the ney. The ney is a type
of flute that plays an important role in meditative Tasavvuf, Persian, Turkish and
Arabic music.

Broadcast: 18 September 2015, 21.00-22.00 CET

 

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