İmer Demirer at Bova, December 20
Bova Jazz Club (Bova Caz Klübü), Şehit Muhtar Mah., Mis Sok. No 17, Beyoğlu, 34435 Istanbul
Instagram: @bova_sahne bovasahne@gmail.com Website – https://bovasahne.com (permanently under construction) Tel: +90 212 243 44 61
The Bova Jazz Club is located in Mis Sokak, which leads off İstiklal Caddesi between Taksim Square and the Hüseyin Ağa Mosque at the entrance to Atıf Yılmaz Sokak (formerly ‘Sakız Ağacı Sokak’). This club regularly hosts some of Turkey’s finest jazz musicians, being especially strong on modern and improvised jazz. However, the performance space on the first floor is small, to say the least, and advance booking is definitely advised (sitting on a crowded staircase isn’t particularly comfortable). I have found the staff to be friendly and helpful, even in the face of unreasonable requests. The nearest metro station is Taksim, on the M2 line. From Taksim Square, enter İstiklal Caddesi. Once you have passed the French Consulate-General and Institut Français (the low building just past the entrance to this street, on the right), Mis Sokak will be the third side street on your right – the one after Zambak Sokak and Bekar Sokak. The Bova club is on the left-hand side of Mis Sokak, just before you get to the first crossroads.
Time: 21:30 (doors open 21:00) Tickets and prices: see Instagram account.
Wednesday December 3
Genco Arı Quartet feat. Sibel Köse
Genco Arı is a musician of outstanding quality who in addition to being an ace jazz pianist is now a successful arranger. A former member of guitarist Sarp Maden’s group ‘Quartet Muartet’, he now performs in public only rarely. It goes without saying that his performances are not to be missed. The last time I heard him play was at a ‘Quartet Muartet’ revival concert in Beykoz in 2021. In my blog on that event, I wrote the following:
‘One warm evening in September, four of Turkey’s most talented jazzmen – people who had not played together for over ten years – had a musical reunion that I was privileged to attend. … During the first number, as Sarp was entertaining us with smoky Scorpionic chords, a bearded figure entered the stage carrying what I at first took to be an accordion, but which turned out to be a kind of portable keyboard. This was the reclusive Genco Arı, a pianist and arranger of international quality whose public appearances are, regrettably, as rare as tarantellas at a trash metal concert. … The concert was inspirational: Genco’s sinful sense of rhythm and musical appropriateness (but most of all, his perfect phrasing) left me, as always, open-mouthed.’
The inimitable Sibel Köse, dubbed ‘the Queen of European Jazz’, is a vocalist of outstanding talent. She began singing jazz while studying Architecture at the Middle East Technical University (ODTÜ)in Ankara; during this time, she performed with the legendary Turkish jazz pianist, saxophonist, composer and pedagogue Tuna Ötenel. She says she learned a lot from him, though he never gave her formal lessons. The second influence on her artistic development was Janusz Szprot, a Polish musician who came to Ankara in the 1990s to head up the Jazz Department of Bilkent University. He invited her to attend a summer school for jazz vocalists in his native country, and she received tuition there from Deborah Brown and Rachel Gould, two singers from the USA. A third major influencer has been the French trumpet-player, composer and arranger Jean-Loup Longnon; last year she made recordings with his big band at the Studios Ferber in Paris.
The combination of Genco Arı and Sibel Köse is one that should produce an outstanding evening’s music.
Sunday December 14
Komos (Electro-Acoustic Ensemble): Ali Perret, Ayşe Özbekligil, Meriç Demirkol & Volkan Ergen
Pianist, composer, educator and arranger Ali Perret was responsible for training up a large number of the fine young Turkish jazz pianists we hear today while he was teaching in the Jazz Department of Bilgi University (İstanbul) – a department that he helped found. An expert both at laying down mainstream jazz and at providing musically appropriate accompaniment to free improvisations, he has a versatile aesthetic that is all his own. Mr Perret always has something interesting to say; as we heard in the ‘Clash of the Titans’ concert last year, when he conducted one of the two orchestras in a series of his own arrangements, he has a unique take on atonality.
Violinist Ayşe Özbekligil’s musical career began when she graduated from the İzmir State Conservatoire and became a member of the İzmir State Symphony Orchestra. In 1986, she went to the United States at the invitation of Michigan State University; there, she received tuition in violin from Walter Verder and attended master classes in chamber music performance with the Juilliard Quartet. On her return to Turkey in 1988, she played with the State Symphony Orchestras in İzmir and İstanbul. Returning to the USA in 1997, she carried out postgraduate studies at Brooklyn College with Masao Kawasaki, meanwhile attending Itzhak Perlman’s master classes. The following year, she transferred to the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College, where she received further tuition from Daniel Phillips (first violin with the Orion Quartet). After graduating, she returned to Turkey in 1999, and began teaching the violin and giving ear training in the Music Department of Bilgi University (İstanbul). Until 2019, Ayşe Özbekligil was first violin with the İstanbul State Symphony Orchestra.
Saxophonist Meriç Demirkol is an experienced musician who is also a gifted improviser. In my blog on a previous concert featuring both him and trumpeter İmer Demirer at the Bova Jazz Club, I said the following: ‘As the trumpet-saxophone dialogue progressed it was Meriç, rather than İmer, who let rip, and in doing so contributed a great deal towards the success of the evening in terms of musical satisfaction. It is precisely this lack of restraint that can give improvised music, at its best, a ‘straight-from-the-heart’ quality that is extremely difficult to replicate in a scripted performance.’
Rhythmic accompaniment to the above musicians will be provided by percussionist Volkan Ergen, another highly experienced performer. This combination of talents should make for a highly entertaining evening.
Thursday December 18
Ercüment Orkut Trio
Ercüment Orkut is a pianist, composer and arranger who is definitely worth listening to. Born in İstanbul in 1984, he received many years of training in piano, composition and conducting at the Mimar Sinan University State Conservatoire before graduating in 2005. In addition, he has in the past taken lessons in jazz piano from Aydın Esen (in 2004), and from Dan Zemelman and Peter Horvath (in San Francisco in 2007). At the Nomme Jazz Festival in Tallinn, Estonia in 2009, he represented Turkey as a pianist, and was placed second by the jury and first by popular acclaim. In addition, he has played at major events such as the İstanbul and Akbank Jazz Festivals, and has undertaken projects with many of Turkey’s leading jazz musicians. Ercüment Orkut’s first solo album, ‘Low Profile’, was released by Kalan Müzik in 2015; his second album, ‘Persona’, has recently been released by Lin Records.
Friday December 19
Cenk Esen: ‘Endlessly’
This concert showcases Cenk Esen’s recent album ‘Endlessly’, in which his fellow musicians are Josh McKenzie (aka ‘MckNasty’) on drums and Tom Driessler on bass guitar. The publicity on the ‘Bandcamp’ website describes the album in the following words: ‘It soundtracks the turbulence and uncertainty of a young musician in an unfamiliar city, and the trials and tribulations of finding one’s path through life. Cenk explains: “Endlessly was inspired by personal struggles, relationships and my habit of endlessly expecting people and situations to be the way I think/want, and constantly being disappointed. The compositions were born through the reflections on these frustrations and every song tackles different issues and relationships.”’
The liner notes go on to acknowledge the contribution made by Cenk’s brother Aykan (who ‘played a pivotal role in the album’s creation’) – and, of course, to record his debt to his father Aydın and his mother Randy, both of whom are names to conjure with.
Saturday December 20
İmer Demirer Quartet
İmer Demirer is a trumpet-player of such outstanding originality that the remark made by singer Randy Esen while describing how she had chosen him to play on her latest album is entirely justified: “İmer …” she said, “Man, I mean, what can I say … he was the only choice.” In my blog on a previous concert at the Bova Jazz Club, I said that ‘İmer, whose playing is invariably tasteful, was nothing less than magnificent.’
Having heard him play earlier this year at the Cemal Reşit Rey Concert Hall in a gig celebrating the songs of Ayten Alpman (who was in fact his mother-in-law), I can vouch for the fact that İmer Demirer’s soaring creativity is undiminished.
Monday December 22
Kind of Six
This gig features a highly appetising lineup of talents: trumpeter Barış Doğukan Yazıcı, tenor saxophonist Engin Recepoğulları, trombonist Bulut Gülen, pianist Kürşad Deniz, double-bass player Barış Öztürk and drummer Berkay Sümbül. I’ve heard many of these musicians play individually, but never together as a group. Should be a good one provided they can all fit on Bova’s miniscule stage.
Monday December 29
Tamer Temel 5
Saxophonist Tamer Temel, a native of İstanbul, began playing in jazz concerts while a student in İzmir. In 2005 he attended a master class in Siena, Italy; later, he took part in workshops given by the famous saxophonist Mark Turner, from whom he also received private lessons. His first album, *Barcelona*, was released in 2010. This was followed by *Bir Kedi Kara* (‘A Cat Black’) in 2013. His most recent album is *Serbest Düşüş* (‘Free Fall’), which appeared at the end of 2016. He performs with a number of leading Turkish musicians, as well as with ‘Flapper Swing’, a group that keeps alive the musical atmosphere of the roaring 1920s. Tamer Temel currently teaches jazz at Bahçeşehir University, İstanbul.
İmer Demirer at Bova, December 20
