Sait began his musical career with “darbuka” in Ankara, Turkey. During his high school and early college years from 1998 to 2003, he was inspired by great percussion virtuosos Mısırlı Ahmet and Levent Yıldırım from whom he had the chance to take classes and follow their brilliant techniques. In the meantime, he performed professionally with “reggae”, “blues” and “latin” rock ensembles in rock-bars and university festivals.

In 2003, Sait moved to Istanbul, Turkey where his recognition as a percussionist has led him to work with nationally and world wide recognized musicians such as Mercan Dede, Kenan Dogulu, Serdar Ortac, Djenk Sarkus, DJ Can Hatipoglu, DJ Ozan Samiloglu, DJ Tekin, Tolga Unaldi and many others. There he was a well known oriental percussionist bringing innovation to “electronic dance music” by successfully combining his “darbuka” style with “house music”. He has performed in almost every location in Turkey and also toured many European countries including Italy, Germany, Switzerland and France.

Sait has always been open to new music styles and has enjoyed playing with musicians of various backgrounds. This was the motive for him to move to Kansas City, USA in 2008, there meeting with some of the prominent musicians in “jazz”, “tango” and “flamenco” music such as Beau Bledsoe, Rich Wheeler, Jeff Harshbarger, Brad Cox, Mark Southerland, and Mike Del Ferro. He participated in 16th Istanbul International Jazz Festival as a guest musician with Mike Del Ferro, Yildiz Ibrahimova, and Yahya Dai in 2009.

From 2009 to 2011, he was a member of the Turkish Jazz group Alaturka along with Beau, Rich, and Jeff. Alaturka’s first album was released in July 2010 that includes tunes from a wide range of Turkish music from “Kemani Sebuh” to “Sezen Aksu” in addition to Sait’s own composition “tamam abi” which gave its name to the album. The group was hosted by local media and caught the attention of other news media after their CD release.

In 2011, Sait moved to New York City, USA where he formed the “Sait Arat NYC Trio”along with oud virtuoso Mavrothi T Kontanis and kanun master Umut Yasmut.In addition to his several performances with other musicians in NYC, he has signed with Istanbul, Turkey based Mono Music Entertainment Solution Team MMEST as an artist and Minibus Records as a project manager. 

Sait currently resides in Mexico City is looking for musicians to work in new projects.

sait@saitarat.com