Hakan Başar (Jr.) ,who was born in 2004, began playing piano when he was 8. After some ephemeral private lessons he has continued his studies with his father, who is a guitarist.
He has done jazz piano studies with curriculums of jazz pianists such as Noah Baerman, Bill Cunliffe, Andy LaVerne, Andrew D. Gordon, Walter Norris, Bill Dobbins, Jeb Patton, David Berkman, Neil Olmstead, John Valerio, Clare Fisher respectively.
Thereafter he was 10 when he gave his first concert within 5th Pera Music Festival with transcriptions and repertoires of Michel Petrucciani, Oscar Peterson, Keith Jarrett, Kenny Barron, Hank Jones,Bill Evans,Tommy Flanagan, Sonny Clark, Art Tatum, Scott Joplin, Chick Corea, Thelonious Monk.
He has played gigs within various events with projects such as “Tribute to Michel Petrucciani”,”Tribute to Oscar Peterson & Keith Jarrett” etc.
Başar continues his musical studies at full steam besides his student life. His first records were fulfilled at İTÜ MİAM Studios at the end of 2015. He has taken part in written and visual media many times. He performed within Istanbul Jazz Festival when he was twelve years old.
The new season ,that started on 8th February 2017 with “Akbank Sanat Young Talent” concert, has continued with İzmir European Jazz Festival on 17th March 2017, İstanbul Jazz Festival Press Meeting on 28th March 2017, Remembrance Night of Ahmet Ertegün on 29th March 2017.
Read more
Başar's concerts in the ongoing process have consisted of International Jazz Day on 30th April 2017, Zorlu PSM Jazz Festival on 6th May 2017, 7th Pera Music Festival on 8th May 2017, Ankara Jazz Festival on 17th May 2017, Kenan Doğulu Harbiye Open Air Theatre concerts (guest artist) on 22nd June and 15th August 2017, İstanbul Jazz Festival (Sabancı Museum) on 8th July 2017. His concert within 27th Akbank Jazz Festival was at Saint Benoît stage on 9th November 2017.
Meanwhile, he has met with particularly and then Ron Carter, Russell Malone, Eddie Gómez, Donald Vega. He got a chance for a workshop with Chick Corea before Corea's concert in İstanbul. His album records ,that started in February 2018, have been made at Babajim İstanbul Studios & Mastering and were completed in November 2018. Ferit Odman, İmer Demirer, Halil Çağlar Serin and Kağan Yıldız have taken part in these recordings.
In January 2019, Hakan has been İstanbul Metropolitan Orchestra's guest at Cemal Reşit Rey Concert Hall and he took the stage with Hakan Aysev. In April 2019, this time he played a gig with TRT Jazz Orchestra at Cemal Reşit Rey Concert Hall.
On 22nd May 2019, Akbank Sanat played host to Hakan Başar again. Special guest of Hakan Başar Trio concert was Martin Hummel who is founder and director of Ubuntu Music. Mr. Martin Hummel is executive producer of Hakan's album debut album called “On Top of the Roof”. He came from UK for Hakan. Hummel referred Hakan and his album's release date in his addressing speech. Also he said that Hakan was definitely a member of Ubuntu family.
On 16th July 2019, Hakan took the stage within Istanbul Jazz Festival again at Uniq Istanbul. A wonderful development for Hakan between these two important concerts was becoming one of Ellora Management's artists. He became a member of Ellora Management whose president is Laura Hess-Hay Jamal upon approval of the jazz legend Ahmad Jamal.
Within that period, Hakan and his family have made a crucial decision and they determined Hakan's path as music. So Hakan studies at Pera Fine Arts High School henceforth.
On 18th October 2019, Hakan's debut album called “On Top Of The Roof” was released worldwide on London-based Ubuntu Music. Distribution of album in Turkey have been fulfilled by Equinox Music. On 15th November 2019, his first significant international concert was at Pizza Express Jazz Club Soho within EFG London Jazz Festival. This concert had press coverage in UK. Mike Collins from London Jazz News did an interview with Hakan. In addition, album tracks of Hakan have been broadcasted on Jazz FM ,which is one of the most outstanding jazz radio channels in the world, for weeks. Show less
