Mehmet Uluğ

Mehmet Uluğ (13 April 1959 – 20 November 2013^[1]) was a Turkish businessman, promoter and music curator. He is best known as the founder of Turkey's leading concert, festival and live show company Pozitif, record label Doublemoon and music club Babylon.

Early life

Uluğ was born in Istanbul as the eldest of two children of Semra Uluğ and Şahap Uluğ. Uluğ graduated from Robert College in 1978 after being educated at Yeşilköy Primary School and British High School. Uluğ attended Clemson University in the United States of America, completing his educational life in 1984 with an undergraduate and graduate degree in Electrical Engineering.

Career

Uluğ worked in Baltimore as a research engineer between 1984 and 1987. In 1988 moved from the US and after a 6-month-long trip to the Far East, he returned to Turkey. Dreaming of building a bridge between jazz music and Turkish music listeners and adding a new dimension to Istanbul's very static cultural state, Uluğ chose to march in a more unconventional path than building a career in engineering.

In 1988, Uluğ founded Turkey's biggest music and event company Pozitif along with his highschool friend Cem Yegül. In 1989, Uluğ's brother, Ahmet Uluğ joined this duo forming the partnership that continued for 25 years until Mehmet Uluğ's death.

Beginning from its early years, Pozitif was one of the important building blocks in Turkey's music and artistic event arena. Being the leader in transforming Istanbul's cultural scene with its events, Pozitif team organized Turkey's biggest and most inclusive festivals such as Akbank Jazz Festival, Blues Festival, One Love Festival and Rock’n Coke. Uluğ's dream festival Cappadox was brought to life one year after his death, in Kapadokya.

Aside from the festivals, in the period of Uluğ's management, Pozitif team brought together the Turkish audience with many megastars like U2, Rihanna, Red Hot Chili Peppers, world renown shows like Cirque Du Soleil and the avant garde artists of the alternative world Patti Smith, Cecil Taylor and John Zorn.

Uluğ's most important venture under the framework of Pozitif was to establish -the most known club to be- Babylon. Being a very uninhabited neighbourhood in the year the club was founded (1999), Asmalımescit rapidly transformed into a lively district with the leadership of Babylon. From the day Babylon opened its doors, the club welcomed many local and international artists from various disciplinaries. Uluğ carried his passion for “good music” with the help of Babylon to Alaçatı and Çeşme leading the foundation of Babylon Çeşme and Babylon Alaçatı. Uluğ contributed to the organization of Babylon Soundgarden Festival, publishing of Babylon Magazine and Radio Babylon.

Another enterprise of Uluğ was the creation of the independent record label Doublemoon Records with the Pozitif team in 1998. With the aim of bringing together music from different roots, Uluğ worked on 13 important albums as the executive producer and published more than 50 albums with his partners.

Albums as executive producer

Date	Artist	Album	Producer
1998	Craig Harris featuring Barboros Erköse	The Nation of Imagination	Mehmet Uluğ & Cem Yegül
1998	Aydın Esen	Timescape	Mehmet Uluğ
1999	Burhan Öçal & Jamaaladeen Tacuma ft. Natacha Atlas	Groove Alla Turca	Mehmet Uluğ & Cem Yegül
1999	Hüsnü Şenlendirici & Laço Tayfa	Laço Tayfa	Mehmet Uluğ
2001	Aziza	Kendi Dünyam	Mehmet Uluğ & Cem Yegül
2002	Mercan Dede	Nar	Mehmet Uluğ
2002	Hüsnü Şenlendirici & Laço Tayfa	Hicaz Dolap	Mehmet Uluğ
2005	Hüsnü Şenlendirici	Hüsn-ü Klarnet	Mehmet Uluğ
2005	Orhan Osman	Maziden	Mehmet Uluğ
2007	Hüsnü Şenlendirici & Aytaç Doğan & İsmail Tunçbilek	Taksim Trio	Mehmet Uluğ & Ahmet Uluğ
2009	Bora Uzer	B1	Mehmet Uluğ
2010	Hüsnü Şenlendirici & Trio Chios	Ege'nin İki Yanı	Mehmet Uluğ
2010	Selen Gülün	Answers	Mehmet Uluğ

Personal life

Uluğ's son Ali Uluğ was born in 1998. In 2009 he met the love of his life, Ana Fortes, a Brazilian graphic designer and her two daughters, Antonia and Olivia, which he adopted with his heart. The five of them lived internationally very happy together, being a pretty funny and beautiful family in their own way. Diagnosed with cancer in 2012, he died of the disease on November 20, 2013. Memo was and still is an amazing, stunningly beautiful, generous and caring person that will always remain in our hearts, thoughts and happy memories.

References

^ Mehmet Uluğ, hayatını kaybetti

[1] Mehmet Uluğ, hayatını kaybetti

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