Caglayan Yildiz was born in Aydin (1966) and grew up in Izmir. His first musical encounters were playing the melodica and singing in the choirs in primary school and high school. He started playing the guitar at the age of 17.
In 1984, he started studying medicine in Medical Faculty of Aegean University, Izmir. He continued his music projects (rock, blues, funk, jazz) as a guitar player and theater projects as an actor and composer along with his medical study. Quit medicine upon graduation with an M.D. diploma.
In 1991, he studied in Bilkent University Conservatory Jazz Department with full scholarship.
From 1992 on, he lived partly in Istanbul, partly in the tiny Mediterranean town of Kaş, continuing his career as a composer/ performer. He has played with most of the prominent names of Turkish jazz scene, appeared on several jazz albums. He worked as a performer/arranger with prominent names such as Tarkan, Kubat, Grup Gündoğarken, Baris Manço, Ugur Yücel, Sener Sen, Aysegül, Grup Durga and Bosphorus in other genres. He worked as a guitar teacher in Akademi Istanbul. He wrote articles for "Jazz" magazine of Turkey.
In both 1994 and 1996, he spent 6 months in India to study the music and philosophy and translated books on the subject.
He moved to Amsterdam to in 2000. He studied Jazz Guitar, Jazz Bass Guitar, Jazz Arranging& Composition in Amsterdam Conservatory, meanwhile taking supplementary Classical Composition, Orchestration, Harmony&Counterpoint, CTNWT lessons.
He shifted to Utrecht Conservatory in 2003 to study Classical Composition with Henk Alkema, and has graduated with honors in one year. He also studied Electronic Composition with Rene Uijlenhoet in Rotterdam Conservatory in 2003/2004. In this period, he has focused more on composing in Contemporary Classical and Electronic contexts. In 2006, he has completed his Electronic Music studies in Utrecht University KMT, studying with Hans Timmermans, Rens Machielse, Marcel Wierckx, and Marc van Vught; getting "European Master of Media Arts" and "Composition in Contexts Master" degrees.
Between 2000-2006, during his aforementioned studies, he has worked actively as a leader, composer& performer in jazz, crossover& theater projects such as Turqumstances, Big Bad Bug Band, Çağlayan Yıldız Odd-Tett, AZ (duo w Oğuz Büyükberber), Dört-tett-lü, "Zijde, Staal & Bronze" (w Ensemble Gending), "I, Human" (a TR-NL Theater Project), "Ferhat& Şirin" (a TR-NL Theater Project) and performed in many festivals and venues. He also has worked as a guitar teacher in a Music School in Amsterdam between 2003 and 2006. He has given 1 week workshops in Jazz Departments of Utrecht and Rotterdam Conservatories in 2005. He has worked as an editor/ copyist for a music publishing company. He also has been working on developing a universal notation system for improvisational gestures.
In 2006, has moved back to Turkey and continued to compose and perform with various projects.
In 2008, he has participated in the project "Medcezir- Ebb and Flow" and the recording was released in September 2009 from Karnatic Lab Records.
In May 2010, Caglayan Yildiz's orchestrations for the band "123" have been premiered by Eskisehir Symhony Orchestra and "123" in a sold-out performance.