Kâmil Erdem

Bassist, composer, educator on mainstream jazz, fusion and cross-over disciplines. Kamil Erdem made his career mainly through his works and performances inspired by the scales and rhythms of the music of the Balkans, Anatolia and the Middle East. However, mainstream jazz has also been one of his primary interests, both as a player and teacher. Erdem founded the group Asiaminor in 1990, which has given him access to the international music scene for more than 10 years. As the leader of the band he toured several times in Europe (1990-2002) and the USA (1996,1998,2003) and released three albums, Along the Street (1991), Longa Nova (1996), and Cat's Dream (1997). In 2001 Kamil Erdem released his solo bass album, A Tale of Bass, where his own impressions of different traditional musics have been transformed into virtuosic techniques and compositions for solo bass guitar. Since 2002, he has been conducting workshops and master-classes on solo bass guitar performance techniques and playing solo bass recitals in Turkey and abroad. Kamil's versatility as a musician brought him to many international projects to play together with musicians from all over the world, coming from different musical genres. His collaboration with European musicians ended up in two albums, the "Kamil Erdem Quartet - Odd Tango" in 2008 and the "Kamil Erdem - René Sopa Quartet" in 2010. Through his international career as a performer, Kamil Erdem played concerts in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Holland, Italy, Spain, Greece, Sweden, Bulgaria, Bosnia Herzegovina, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, the United States, Egypt and South Africa. Kamil Erdem has an international career as a teacher and clinician and has conducted master classes, workshops and seminars in Poland, the Netherlands, Austria, South Africa and the US in prestigious institutions. He is a faculty member at Yıldız Technical University in İstanbul, Department of Music and Performing Arts.