Contestant

Mehmet Ali Şimayli

Turkey

Ink
05:24
Jester_s Herd
08:36
Singular Plural
04:55

Bio

Mehmet Ali Simayli was born in Istanbul, Turkey. He started exploring the sounds through playing his father's musical instruments at an early age. As a kid, watching big beats of big Turkish percussion instrument Kös, influenced him to find out his tendency towards membranophones.

He got fed by a lot of Classical Music, Jazz, and Turkish Music recordings during his middle-school years where he studied with great mentors, privately and in ensembles.

Later on, he got awarded for Arif Mardin Scholarship for going to Berklee College of Music to study drums for two summers.

Later on, he completed Bahcesehir University Jazz Certificate Program and attended workshops including Umbria Jazz Clinics. During these years, with his band Vibes Trio, they won IKSV Young Jazz Competition and performed in Istanbul Jazz Festival.

In 2018, he established the band Portrait and a Dream which his compositions are being played with musicians from the Istanbul scene with the influence of Jazz, Free Improvisation, Classical and Electronic music.

Mehmet A. Simayli pursues his education in FHNW Jazzcampus on drum set performance, studying with many acclaimed musicians.

His first album, Portrait and a Dream, a release from Unit Records, consisting 9 originals was recorded by coproduction of guitarist Kerem Can Dündar and Erman Dirikcan and featuring Anıl Bilgen, Apostolos Sideris, and Can Kuman.