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In the evening hours of May 9, 2014, Selim Sesler died at the age of 57 in a hospital in Istanbul, where he was treated for coronary heart disease.
In 2005, Sesler began suffering from coronary heart disease. He got first a coronary stent inserted in 2009, and got later implemented a ventricular assist device. He stood on the waiting list of heart transplantation.
He was laid to rest in his hometown in Keşan. Sesler is survived by his wife and three children.
Mavi Boncuk |
Selim Sesler was born at Yenimescit neighborhood in Keşan town of Edirne Province in 1957. His Romani parents originate from Drama, Greece, who moved to Turkey and settled at İbriktepe village of İpsala, Edirne as a result of population exchange between Greece and Turkey in 1923.
He initially learnt blowing the zurna, a popular simple woodwind instrument used to accompany the drum in Turkish folk music. However in the 1960s, he followed his youngster friends, who switched over to more fine instrument, the clarinet. At the age of 14, he began to play in village weddings and fairs. To read the musical notes he learned only when he served in the military for conscription.
In the 1980s, he moved to Istanbul, where he joined Romani music bands, and improved his skills. Sesler performed in restaurants, music halls, night clubs, and weddings. He took part at the musical theatre of Ferhan Şensoy, and recorded some small-budget albums.
In 1997, Brenna MacCrimmon met him while performing in a night club in Istanbul, and offered him to do an album together, which came out as Karşılama. The next year, Sesler joined her on a tour in Canada, and represented the music of Turkish Romani people and of Rumelia, where his roots are from. He drew the attention of foreigners before he rose to fame in his country. Fiachra Gibbons of The Guardian called him "the Coltrane of the clarinet". He held concerts at Barbican Centre in London, New York City, Boston,and Chicago. His albums were on sale also abroad, in the United States, in Europe, in Canada, and even in Japan.
Following his extensive experience, he developed a rich repertoire and a unique playing style, which gained him a quality of vivid archive. He became recognized as the head interpreter by Romani as well as by non-Romani people for his improvisations in wedding music and dance melodies. In general means, he was introduced to the Turkish audience when he featured in the Golden Bear-winning movie Head-On (2004) of the Turkish-German director Fatih Akın. Sesler's next Akın-movie was the musical documentary Crossing the Bridge: The Sound of Istanbul (2005).