Cenk Esen launches his new album, Endlessly, at Bova on May 10
At Beyoğlu’s Bova Jazz Club all performances start at 21:30 (doors open 21:00) @bova_sahne, +212 243 44 61
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.
Wednesday May 14
Çağrı Sertel & Berke Köymen ‘Duolimbo’
Pianist and composer Çağrı Sertel, who learnt his art from Tuna Ötenel and Ali Perret, two of Turkey’s most distinguished jazz pianists and pedagogues, is definitely a voice worth hearing. After a concert by him and his group at the İKSV building in Şişhane, I wrote the following: ‘Listening to Çağrı Sertel for the first time gave me, primarily, a feeling of relief – that Turkey is still capable of producing musicians of this calibre. … His most outstanding feature – apart from the technical aspects of his pianism and his inventiveness as a composer, both of which are outstanding – is his impeccable taste.’ On this occasion he is to be accompanied by drummer Berke Köymen.
Monday May 19
Jam Session with Tamer Temel
Saxophonist Tamer Temel is one of Turkey’s oldest-established jazz clarinettists and saxophonists. Serbest Düşüş (‘Free Fall’), his most recent album, appeared at the end of 2016. He performs with a number of Turkish musicians, as well as with ‘Flapper Swing’, a group that keeps alive the musical atmosphere of the roaring 1920s.
Tuesday May 20
Tamer Temel Quintet
Saxophonist Tamer Temel is one of Turkey’s oldest-established jazz clarinettists and saxophonists. Serbest Düşüş (‘Free Fall’), his most recent album, appeared at the end of 2016. He performs with a number of Turkish musicians, as well as with ‘Flapper Swing’, a group that keeps alive the musical atmosphere of the roaring 1920s.
Wednesday May 21
Ferit Odman Quintet
Drummer Ferit Odman, born in Bursa in 1982, is one of the best-known names in Turkish jazz. Having begun his musical training in Sweden in 1999, he graduated from the Music Department of Bilgi University, Istanbul, in 2001. In 2004 he participated in workshops at the School for Improvisational Music in Brooklyn, New York, and from 2006 to 2008 attended William Paterson University in Wayne, New Jersey, as a Fulbright Scholar.
The albums he has recorded so far are ‘Nommo’ (2010), ‘Autumn in New York’ (2011), ‘Dameronia With Strings’ (2015) and ‘The Vinyl Collection’ (2017). ‘Autumn in New York’ and ‘Dameronia With Strings’ were each awarded four stars by DownBeat magazine, while ‘Nommo’ was awarded three and a half stars.
Saturday May 31
Ece Göksu Sings the Beatles
Ece Göksu is one of Turkey’s up-and-coming jazz vocalists. A native of Ankara, she sang in the Ankara State Opera and Ballet Children’s Chorus. After training as a pianist at the Hacettepe University State Conservatoire, in 2002 she moved to Istanbul, where she received further instruction in piano playing at the Mimar Sinan University State Conservatoire. It was while at university in Ankara that she began to take an interest in jazz, and formed her first group. In 2007 she won a Fulbright Scholarship, which allowed her to receive lessons in jazz vocal at William Paterson University in New Jersey; there, she was taught by Nancy Marano, Cecil Bridgewater, Mulgrew Miller and others, meanwhile taking private lessons from Roberta Gambarini and Jay Clayton.
Currently residing partly in New York and partly in Istanbul, she has taken part in festivals in the United States, Budapest and Dubai as well as in Turkey. In 2014 ‘Slow, Hot Wind’, an album of jazz classics featuring her along with Neşet Ruacan and Volkan Hürsever, was released. ‘Live in Assos’, meanwhile, appeared on March 1 last year; accompanying her on this latter album are trumpeter İmer Demirer and guitarist Eylül Biçer.
John Shakespeare Dyson
Cenk Esen launches his new album, Endlessly, at Bova on May 10
Issue 67, December 2024
Beauty in the Wilderness
