Media Appearances
2015/05 – Turquaz TV interview with Zeynep Ozbilen (Turkish)
2015/03 – Jazz FM interview with Jaymz Bee
2015/03 – Interview on ThatChannel
2014/05 Lula World Concert coverage by Turkuaz TV (Turkish)
2014/05 Ozguven Blog & Interview video
Article in Turkish
Video in Turkish
Video in English
2014/11 – Jazz in Latino y Ladino – Lula Lounge – Turkuaz TV (Turkish, starting at 0:38)
Testimonials
“Zeynep has certainly made her mark in the Toronto music community quickly. When she’s not working with some of the city’s best musicians, you can find her in clubs supporting other artists. And they say cloning is illegal. Pity.”
“Zeynep’s music is an unusual blend of Turkish melodies and Latin rhythms. With pure talent, a great voice and a collection of gifted musicians she makes it all work.”
“Zeynep Ozbilen has lived in two very different places – Istanbul, in her native Turkey and here in our city (Toronto) and not surprisingly you can hear those influences in her music… Jazz with a Turkish flavor meshed with her Latin American style. This is Zeynep Ozbilen!”
“Audiences are mesmerized by Zeynep’s unique fusion of jazz with Latin and Mediterranean traditions.”
“Pienso que como persona es una mezcla de profecionalismo, respeto y exigencia, tambien la describiria como una persona talentosa y con una pasion unica por la musica y el arte en general.”
Reviews
“Just when I thought I’d heard every fusion imaginable, along comes Zeynep Ozbilen…”
“…I cannot remember when I last wanted to listen to a vocalist’s record over and over again. So much does this record bewitch and seduce the listener. [ zee ] is one of the most alluring albums of this year so far…”
“…There, I said it: Ms. Ozbilen is absolutely bewitching, a singer who ensnares her listening prey by the rhapsodic departure from anything conventional by leading you on like that mythical pied piper towards a land where Middle Eastern music collides with European and American music producing something that you have simply never heard before—not even in your wildest dreams…”
“…So that’s a happy story: Someone moving to Toronto, meeting a bunch of Cubans and making Turkish-Cuban Jazz of David Clayton-Thomas… That’s Toronto…” .
“…Her warm throaty alto is equally at home in jazz and musical standards as in Anatolian, Balkan and Latino songs…”
“It’s a highly interesting fusion of melody and harmony, context and abstraction, roots and exploration. It gives new meaning to the cliché term of “world music”, no matter what level you’re listening to it at.
The singing alternates between English, Spanish and Turkish, while the instrumentalism borrows on aspects from cultures all over the world.”
“Ozbilen doesn’t start singing until roughly the one-minute mark but once she does, she shows a voice that’s throaty yet silky smooth. It’s an instrument capable of rapid articulations in one passage before swiftly switching over into a sensuous glissando.”
“…The songs on Ozbilen’s “Zee” have been turning heads all over the world, even previous to the record’s official release on February 20th.
On hearing her rendition of “Spinning Wheel” and other songs, Blood, Sweat and Tears lead singer David Clayton-Thomas remarked, “Zeynep’s music is an unusual blend of Turkish melodies and Latin rhythms. With pure talent, a great voice and a collection of gifted musicians, she makes it all work…”
“She blew my mind with the marriage of Turkish and Balkan rhythms, jazz and Latin music…”
