Caglayan Yildiz was born in Aydin in 1966 and grew up in Izmir from 1970 on. He started his music studies by playing melodica before primary school and continued his interest in Music in primary school, playing and singing in School Choir.

He enrolled at Bornova Anatolian High School in 1977. He continued his music studies in the High School Choir and started playing guitar at the age of 17.

After graduating from Bornova Anatolian High School in 1984, he enrolled at Aegean University Faculty of Medicine and actively took part in the establishment of the University's music and theater clubs during his medical education, where he also acted and composed theater music. He played rock, blues and funk early, and then jazz and fusion with various bands he founded. In the summer of 1986, he went on a "Eastern Block" trip, covering Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Poland, and played with street musicians and gypsies from around the world.

After graduating from Ege University Faculty of Medicine in 1990, he decided to continue his career as a musician and received a full scholarship from Bilkent University MSSF Jazz Department, which was opening that year. During his studies in Ankara, he played with Turkey's leading jazz musicians, such as pianist & saxophonist Ötenel, guitarist Sarp Maden, saxophonist Yahya Dai, clarinetist Oguz Buyukberber, vocalist Sibel Köse, pianist / composer Alper Maral, bassists Mahmut Yalay, Kürşat And, Taylor Cemgil, Kamil Erdem, drummers Zafer Gerdanlı and Tamer Sağlam in many concerts and club performances.

After attending Bilkent University MSSF Jazz Department for 1.5 years and being unhappy with the education, he left the school.

After 1992 he continued his music studies by establishing a life between Kaş and Istanbul. He worked as a professional diver in Kaş with over 2000 dives.

During this period, he worked on Eastern Philosophy and made translations. In 1994 and 1996 he went to India for 6 months to learn his music and philosophy. He arranged and recorded the album "Golden Days" by Indian vocalist Ajnish Rai, in which he also played guitars and synthesizers.

In 1996, he settled in Istanbul and took part in the 6th Akbank Jazz Festival and 1st METU Jazz Festival with the clarinet-piano-guitar trio named Kaçan Keçi with Alper Maral and Oğuz Büyükberber. He recorded the duo album "AZ" with clarinetist Oğuz Büyükberber, the trio album "Trio Mrio" with guitarist Sarp Maden and drummer Volkan Öktem, and the ethnic album "Silk Road" published in Greece with the group "Durga". He went on a tour of Greece together and also played a concert in Istanbul AKM. He established an Acid-Jazz band with guitarist Sarp Maden, trumpeter Imer Demirer and drummer Ateş Tezer, and played dance clubs. n Sibel Köse Quartet, he performed with pianist Can Ayer and Baki Duyarlar drummers Volkan Öktem, Turgut Alp Bekoğlu and Cem Aksel in various clubs and festivals such as Istanbul Jazz Festival, 2nd METU Jazz Festival.

He worked as a composer and a guitarist in Şener Şen- Uğur Yücel 'musical stand-up comedy "Half Joke Half Serious". He also worked at the Cem Özer TV Show Band for a while.

In various jazz festivals, he has been a guide and translator for many musicians such as Wayne Shorter, John Scofield, Steve Coleman, Archie Shepp, David Sunborn, John Surman, Bobby Mc Ferrin, Wolfgang Muthspiel, Marc Johnson, Larry Goldings, Bill Stewart Ned Rothenberg.

He played duo concerts with Oğuz Büyükberber such as Borusan Cultural Center, II. Istanbul Music Festival. With guitarist Önder Focan, he played a duo concert at the II. Guitar Festival of Bilgi University and many other concerts with Focan Quartet. He took part in 8 concerts with his fretless guitar at Istanbul Ensemble of Butch Morris.

Between 1998-1999, he performed with Jorge Pardo (saxophonist / flutist of Paco De Lucia Band), Canadian guitarist Roy Patterson, American vocalist Melba Joyce, guitarist Önder Focan, vocalist Ajlan Büyükburç, drummer Deniz Dundar, pianist Selim Benba and many other jazz club work.

During the same period, he worked as a guitar and bass teacher in Academy Istanbul.

He wrote cd reviews for "JAZZ" magazine. (Journal articles are available on this site.)

With clarinetist Oğuz Büyükberber, saxophonist Mike Wilkens and drummer Turgut Alp Bekoğlu, he co-founded the band "Dirt", and played concerts Babylon's opening, Bilgi University etc. In 2000, he took part in the Bodrum Jazz Days and 9th Akbank Jazz Festival with vocalist Sibel Köse's Quartet. He played guitar and bass in Pianist Tolga Tuzun's first album "Nix" and Oğuz Büyükberber's album "Velvele".

He has also appeared in several ethnic / pop albums as an arranger and performer: "Mest of Sunrise" and "1999" albums of Grup Gündoğarken, "Fall" album of Ayşegül and "Mançology" album of Barış Manço.

He performed as a guitarist in famous Pop singer Tarkan's band and joined his world tour.

Between 2000-2003, while studying in the Jazz Guitar and Jazz Composition departments at the Amsterdam Conservatory, he also took complementary classes in Jazz Bass and Classical Composition.

In 2001, he played with his quintet "Big Bad Bug Band" in Amsterdam's leading New Music stages such as Bimhuis, Badcuyp, Trytone Festival, Zaal 100. He received the Original Group Award of the Amsterdam Conservatory.

He worked as a guitarist and a composer with Birol Yayla and Oğuz Büyükber in the theater play "Ferhat and Şirin" of Nazım Hikmet, a joint project of Theater De La Mar and Istanbul State Theater, and participated in the tour in Netherlands and Turkey.

In 2002, he co-founded the project Turqumstances with Oğuz Büyükberber and Şahin During and played many concerts with musicians Mola Sylla, Slobodan Trkulja, Arnold Dooyewerd, Hasan Esen, Sibel Gürsoy, Engin Arslan, Cengiz Baysal, Demirhan Baylan, Ruben van Rompaey, touring in the Netherlands, Belgium and Turkey.

He continued AZ duo with Oguz Büyüberber, for over 10 years. He played with the duo in the Netherlands and at the 2nd Eskişehir Jazz Festival. This project sometimes turned into a quartet with the participation of violinist and percussionist Oene van Geel and contrabassist Arnold Dooyewerd, sometimes performed as a fully electronic duo playing at Amsterdam STEIM.

He worked as a guitar and bass teacher at Amsterdam "Aslan Muziek School" for 3 years.

In 2003, he founded his octet titled "Çağlayan Yıldız Odd-Tett", made experiments in the field of designed free improvisation and played several concerts.

In 2004 he switched to Utrecht Conservatory and graduated from the Classical Composition department. During this period, he also took complementary Electronic Music lessons at the Rotterdam Conservatory, wrote many works and realized projects in the fields of Contemporary, Classical and Electronic Music. (For works of this period, please refer to the Music homepage.)

Again in this period, he developed a universal sign notation for improvisation and started to apply it in his own contemporary music and jazz projects.

He played several concerts with his quartet "Çağlayan Yıldız Dört-tetlüsü" with clarinetist Oğuz Büyükberber, bassist Demirhan Baylan and drummer Cengiz Baysal.

In 2005, he took part in the Netherlands tour of Gamelan Ensemble Gending as a composer, guitarist and live electronics musician along with Xu Feng Xia (zeng & voice), Haytham Safia (ud) in the project "Zijde, Staal en Brons".

He focused on Contemporary, Classical and Electronic Music fields between 2004-2006 and received a Composition Master from the Utrecht Conservatory and an Electronic Music Master at the Utrecht University KMT, earning the "EMMA" and "Composition in Contexts" Masters. He wrote many works and realized many projects during this period.

He held one-week jazz workshops at the Utrecht and Rotterdam Conservatories.

During this period, he worked as a copyist and editor at Molenaar Edition, one of the leading music publishers in the Netherlands.

He moved to Antalya, Turkey in 2006 and continued to take part in projects local and abroad.

He took part in Med-Cezir / Ebb & Flow Project in 2008 in Netherlands and the CD of the project was released from Karnatic Lab Records in September 2009.

On May 19, 2010, the premiere of the one-hour symphonic program arranged and orchestrated by Çağlayan Yıldız for the group "123" and Eskişehir Symphony Orchestra was performed in a sold out concert in Eskişehir.

He performed a guitarist in the West Side Story musical staged by Antalya State Opera and Ballet in the 2011 season.

From 2011 on, he started to write regular columns in "Guitar", "Drum & Bass" and "Jazz" magazines.

In 2011, he started teaching "Ensemble Workshop", "Modal Harmony" and "Advanced Improvisation" at Istanbul Bilgi University Music Department.

In 2011, he started playing jazz concerts in Istanbul. Trio Mrio, Sarp Maden Quartet, Çağlayan Yıldız "Akorsuz 4lü", Tamer Temel Quintet, Sarp Maden & Çağlayan Yıldız Gitar Duo are some of these projects. He recorded the second album of Trio Mrio together with Sarp Maden and Volkan Öktem. He arranged and recorded of the second album for Indian singer and songwriter Ajnish Rai.

In 2012, he started to produce weekly radio programs for TRT (Turkish National Radio & TV) “Çalgıç” and “Kulak İzleri”.

In 2012, he orchestrated four pieces for the project "Zij aan Zij", which brings together Nederlands Blazers Ensemble, one of the leading wind orchestras of the Netherlands, and singer Şevval Sam and Aynur.

He started his PhD in Composition in Bilkent MSSF in 2012, so he had to quit teaching at Bilgi University.

The Piano & Marimba Duo Composition which he wrote in 2012 premiered at the 22nd Akbank Jazz Festival.

In 2012, he wrote the music for an animation supported by the Ministry of Culture for the Golden Horn Brass Quintet.

In 2013, he performed in two different concerts with Trio Mrio and Akın Eldes Trio at the 16th Ankara Jazz Festival.

In 2013, he decided to continue his PhD in Composition at İTÜ MİAM and temporarily moved to Istanbul.

In 2013, Trio Mrio's second album was released.

He worked as a leader, performer and composer in various projects in Istanbul in 2013-2017. (“Trio Mrio 2”, “Çağlayan Yıldız Group Sax”, “Şevval Sam Tango”, “Sinatra and Friends” musical, Trip-odd, Centrifuge, Sarp Maden & Çağlayan Yıldız Guitar Duo, “The Threepenny Opera (Die Dreigroschenoper)” with Antalya Symphony, Weed , Birsen Tezer, Aklan Akdağ's second album, Çağan Irmak movie soundtrack, Oğuz Büyükberber Quintet album, Tolga Tuzun Trio album, Kwartludium Ensemble, Telvin, Tuluğ Tirpan projects, Genco Arı projects, Joytürk Akustik, "Focan, Yıldız, Tuncer Guitar Trio", " 6-F-Holes & Some Skins "," The Years of the Atlantic ", etc.) As a composer, performer and speaker at various festivals abroad, he also appeared in the second movie" The Swaying Waterlily" by the award -winning director Seren Yüce with the Amygdala group.

In 2015, she moved to Çukurbağ Village of Kaş with his family. In the following period, he worked as a Music Director at Dreams Academy; started to perform with his own project Groove Guru's Klan, Fetiblue and various jazz bands mainly in Kaş Echo Bar. He played several concerts at the Kaş Jazz Festival.

He opened his first personal photography exhibition in 2016.

In 2017, he moved back to Antalya with his family. In the period that followed, he started performing in Antalya with various jazz groups such as Akra Jazz Band, which he founded recently, Çağlayan Yıldız Trio and a Duo with singer Hale Ciğer.

In 2017, he took over renowned Karakedi Studio of Antalya and reformed it into Puja Studio & Musicafé. In the process, he setup the Puja Music Production Company.

In 2018, he played with Akra Jazz Band at the opening and closing concerts of the Akra Jazz Festival. He took part in the Akbank Jazz Festival and a series of concerts with the project "Eastern Standards feat Birsen Tezer", which he co-led. The Groove Guru's Clan project performed at Psy-Boutique Festival 2018.

In 2018, he became the Music Director of "The 251SOUL Club" within the Akra Hotel Antalya. In the following period, he had an opportunity of introducing leading jazz musicians of Turkey to music lovers of Antalya and playing regular concerts with various projects, especially in the "Akra Jazz Band feat Singers" series.

In 2019, he went on a Far East tour with Sibel Köse Trio. He performed in the opening act of the 2nd Akra Jazz Festival, Akra Jazz Band feat Şallıel Bro's, and later with Tin Pan Band.

For the closing concert of the 2nd Akra Jazz Festival, he set up and led the Akra Big Band consisting of prominent jazz musicians of Turkey and featured two Grammy winning Jazz Vocal Master, Dee Dee Bridgewater .