Asım Can Gündüz (August 15, 1955 – June 24, 2016) was a Turkish
rock
Rock most often refers to:
* Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids
* Rock music, a genre of popular music
Rock or Rocks may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...
and
blues
Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...
guitarist. He was also known as ''Awesome John'', especially outside
Turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...
, partly because his name is pronounced very much like Awesome (''Asım'') John (''Can'').
Career
Gündüz lived in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
until the early 1980s as ''John Gundez'', where he formed "Zacharia", a three-piece rock band playing his original material consisted of guitarist Harry Zaverdas who played bass, various drummers during its existence. ''John Gundez'' auditioned and was selected along with Harry Zaverdas to portray/perform as Jimi Hendrix, on drums was Robert Gottfried
http://robthedrummer.com/ they sold out four nights in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
at
The Bottom Line night club "Jimi and Janis Together Again" show which toured as far as Chicago's largest indoor amusement park. His career in the United States was cut short after family obligations forced him to return to Turkey at the height of his United States career. In Turkey, he formed rock bands including Ambulans, Delikanlı, Affetmez, Çapkınlar, Hard Rakı. He finished the sessions for his first album ''
Anasının Gözü Cin Gibi'' in 1989, released three years later in 1992. Gündüz released his second album ''
Bir Sevgi Eseri / "A Work Of Love"'' which consisted of
Turkish language
Turkish ( , ), also referred to as Turkish of Turkey (''Türkiye Türkçesi''), is the most widely spoken of the Turkic languages, with around 80 to 90 million speakers. It is the national language of Turkey and Northern Cyprus. Significant sma ...
versions of blues singles in 1998.
After the year 2000 Gündüz resumed touring and performing outside of Turkey.
Death
Gündüz died of a heart attack on June 24, 2016, at his home in
İçmeler
İçmeler is a popular Turkey, Turkish holiday resort situated 8 kilometres southwest of Marmaris. It is also a municipality of its own. İçmeler bay is located on the Datça peninsula. The town is surrounded on three sides by pine forests. H ...
, Marmaris.
See also
*
List of Turkish musicians
A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to:
People
* List (surname)
Organizations
* List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America
* SC Germania List, German rugby unio ...
*
Anatolian blues
References
External links
Sample video and audio files
*
*
Sample Video "AJ in Ortaca Full Length"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gunduz, Asim Can
1955 births
2016 deaths
Turkish rock guitarists
Turkish expatriates in the United States
Anatolian blues