Kani Karaca was born in Adana in 1930. He lost his vision when he was two months old. He had aiready committed the whole Qoran to memory before he completed primary education. In 1950 he came to Istanbul, where he met various masters of religious and secular music. First he began training with Sadettin Kaynak, a renowned performer and composer, the style and expression of religious music. Karaca later continued with Hafız Ali Üsküdarlı, by whose singing style he was greatiy impressed. From Sadettin Heper he learnt how to play the kudüm and a great number of compositions from liturgical and secular music repertoire. He toured the world as a performer of Ottoman religious music with mevlevi groups and other religious music ensembles. He made a great number of 45 and 33 r.p.m records, casscttes and CDs.
Kani Karaca is one of the best performers Ottoman-Turkish music who flourished in the last fîfty years. Aithough he performs both religious and secular music, he is commoniy known as a hafız, a reciter of the holy Qoran. In reciting the Qoran, mevlid (Nativity poem), kasides (eulogies), ezan (Muslim call to prayer) and in other forms of vocal improvisation he is considcied a great master. The most remarkable aspect of his music is that he adheres to authentic traditions of religious performance. Tracts 1-4 on this CD incilide (he Mevlid whose text is based on a eulogy written by Süleyman Çelebi (? -1422) around 1409/1410. Several sources relate that the original mevlid was a composed musical work. This composed mevlid has not survived. Today's mevlid is always based on improvisation. Track 5 indudes Itrî's naat which is a literary genre used to praise the muslim prophet, whose verse belongs to thegreat sufî poet Celaleddin Rumî. This performance is not a studio recording. The naat was performed by Kani Karaca when he was in Konya on the anniversary of Celaleddin Rumi's death (Şeb-i Arus) while he was in a mood for deeper spiritual concentration in Karatay Medresse (a mediaeval muslim theological school) in December 1972. Track 6. which is again a live recording from a concert given in 1994, combines a durak, another religious music genre composed on free rhythm, a kaside (eulogy) based on improvisation, an extract (fouith selam) from Dede Efendi's ayin-i şerif (liturgical choral composition peculiar to the mevlevi order) in makam hüzzam, and a popular ilahi (short hymn) conventionally sung immediately after the ayin-i şerif. Track 7 is also a popular religious hymn combined with Kani Karaca's kaside improvisation.
• Bülent Aksoy
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