Flapper Swing's Nevin Hetmanek. The band comes to Nardis on December 18
Jazz concerts are held every night except Sunday. The music starts at 21:30. Seating is is on a first-come-first-served basis, starting at 20:30. Reservations are kept until 21:15 (i.e., 15 minutes before the music starts). Tables for two are limited. All other tables are shared. Bookings by email (focan@nardisjazz.com) or telephone: +90 (212) 244 63 27,or WhatsApp +90 532 244 5778
Price: 800TL
John Shakespeare Dyson, Cornucopia's music critic, picks his highlights this month.
Wednesday December 3
Özge Pınar Quintet
Vocalist Özge Pınar, a performer with over 20 years’ experience, was trained in her art first at Yıldız Technical and Bilgi Universities, then at the Rotterdam Conservatoire. In 2007, she won the Nardis Young Jazz Vocalists Competition, subsequently appearing at festivals in Turkey and Estonia. Her repertoire – a mixture of the aesthetic of the ‘swing’ era of the 1930s, that of the ‘cool’ jazz of the late 1940s and early 1950s, and bossa nova – combines all three in a pared-down modern style. Noted for the directness of feeling she conveys and the depth of her musicianship, she is joined by Tamer Temel (clarinet, tenor saxophone), Eylül Biçer (guitar), Barış Öztürk (double bass) and Burak Cihangirli (drums).
Saturday December 6
Brenda Berin Band
Vocalist Brenda Berin, trained in the USA, is known for having founded the ‘Authentic Anatolian Project’ together with some of Turkey’s finest jazz musicians, with whom she produced an archive album. In 2013 she released an album entitled *Sakın Ağlama* (‘Please Don’t Cry’) together with world-famous drummer Dave Weckl; it featured contributions from Grammy Award-winning composer, producer, audio engineer and pedagogue George Whitty. Her single Midnite, released by Simplastique Records, was selected for inclusion in Ibiza Chillout Session Vol. 7. She has taken part in projects with many famous musicians in Turkey and elsewhere, among these being Erik Truffaz, Talvin Singh and Jean-Pierre Smadj; meanwhile, she has made a large number of recordings for films, TV series and jingles in Turkey. On December 6 she is to perform a selection of soul-funk numbers and jazz standards together with Baturay Yarkın (piano), Şenova Ülker (trumpet), Umut Oymak (bass guitar) and Derin Bayhan (drums).
Wednesday December 10
Batu Şallıel & the Istanbul Swing Cats
Batu Şallıel, the saxophonist of the ‘Flapper Swing’ group, has now formed an ensemble of his own – the ‘Istanbul Swing Cats’, whose style is a mixture of cool jazz, hard bop and the modal jazz of the mid-1950s. Their repertoire enriches jazz classics by compors such as David Pell, Oliver Nelson and Marty Paich with the sophisticated harmonies of modern jazz and energetic street rhythms, the result being a re-creation of the atmosphere of 1950s New York. Tenor saxophonist Batu Şallıel will be joined on December 10 by Çağdaş Oruç (alto and tenor saxophones), Kaan Karadavut (trumpet), Yusuf Cebe (piano), Umut İçigen (guitar), Barış Öztürk (double bass) and Ömer Ardos (drums).
Saturday December 13
Ece Göksu Quintet
Ece Göksu is one of Turkey’s up-and-coming jazz vocalists. A native of Ankara, she once sang in the Ankara State Opera and Ballet Children’s Chorus. After receiving training as a pianist at the Hacettepe University State Conservatoire, in 2002 she moved to Istanbul, where she received further tuition in piano 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 to receive instruction as a jazz vocalist at William Paterson University in New Jersey, where she was taught by Nancy Marano, Cecil Bridgewater, Mulgrew Miller and others, meanwhile taking private lessons from Roberta Gambarini and Jay Clayton.
Göksu, who currently resides partly in New York and partly in Istanbul, 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. Her album Live in Assos, meanwhile, appeared in March 2024.
Tonight she is accompanied by Barış Doğukan Yazıcı (trumpet), Serkan Özyılmaz (piano), Kağan Yıldız (double bass) and Derin Bayhan (drums).
Thursday December 18
Flapper Swing
Flapper Swing is a ‘manouche’ (i.e., gypsy jazz) group in the tradition of the Belgian-Romani jazz guitarist Jean ‘Django’ Reinhardt (1910-1953) and the American saxophonist, clarinettist and composer Sidney Bechet (1897-1959). It keeps alive the musical atmosphere of the roaring 1920s – ‘the times when jazz was still fun’. The group has five members: Nevin Hetmanek on vocals, Batu Şallıel on saxophone, Erhan Erbelger and Tomas Hetmanek on guitars, and Volkan Topakoğlu on double bass. (I believe Tomas Hetmanek hails from the Czech Republic.) They appear on stage in 1920s costume, but the audience is at liberty to dress as they will. I have fond memories of the times when Flapper Swing played in the street – at the Tünel end of İstiklal Caddesi. I always admired their blend of musical professionalism and good humour.
Friday December 19
Sibel Köse Quintet
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), Ankara; during this time, she performed with the legendary Turkish jazz pianist, saxophonist and composer 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, meanwhile, was the French trumpet-player, composer and arranger Jean-Loup Longnon; she has recently made recordings with his big band at the Studios Ferber in Paris.
Last time I saw Sibel perform at Nardis, I wrote: ‘Over the three-and-a-bit years since I last had the privilege of hearing her, nothing of her energy has been lost: if anything, her singing is more powerful than ever. She hits the high notes with tremendous force and faultless intonation; she improvises creatively with nonsense words even more frequently than before, fashioning them into meaningful episodes within the song as a whole; and her emotional range remains unrivalled within my experience of jazz singers. All this is mixed in with both a searing sincerity and a wry sense of humour. How could anyone fail to enjoy and appreciate her artistry?’
Her fellow-musicians on December 19 are Engin Recepoğulları (tenor saxophone), Kürşad Deniz (piano), Kağan Yıldız (double bass) and Berke Özgümüş (drums).
Saturday December 20
İpek Dinç Band
Vocalist İpek Dinç, a graduate of the Istanbul University Faculty of Chemical Engineering, began her musical career in 2005, when she met the late jazz pianist and singer İlham Gencer. In 2006, she was a finalist in . She first came to prominence when she won this competition in 2009, and was subsequently invited to sing at the Nömme Jazz Festival in Tallinn, Estonia. On December 20 she will be accompanied by Koray Üsgülen (Hammond organ and piano), Alper Yılmaz (bass guitar) and Erhan Seçkin (drums) in a programme of Latin and funk numbers as well as jazz standards.
Thursday December 25
Yahya Dai Quartet
Yahya Dai, a saxophonist born in Ankara in 1963, is a performer of over 40 years’ experience. He learned his art while playing with the legendary pianist, saxophonist, composer and pedagogue Tuna Ötenel, and from Tomasz Szukalski, his teacher at the Jazz Department of Bilkent University in Ankara. He formed his own funk/fusion group after moving to Istanbul in 1998. In the past, Yahya Dai has participated in a three-month workshop with Mike McMullen (in the USA in 2000), in the 2000 World Music Festival at UC Davis (University of California), in the Joshua Redman Remix Competition in 2002, in festivals in New York, Prague and London, and in Cahit Berkay’s ‘Film Music’ project. In 2005, he played the saxophone on Ayşe Tütüncü’s highly-regarded *Panayır* album. In 2011, his quartet recorded an album entitled *Ümitvar Mavi*. Musicians with whom he has played in the past include John Scofield, Marcus Miller, Russell Malone, Kazimierz Jonkisz, Bugge Wesseltoft, Joshua Redman and Lawrence ‘Butch’ Morris. Accompanying him on December 25 will be Uraz Kıvaner (piano), Baran Say (double bass) and Ekin Cengizkan (drums).
Saturday December 27
Evrim Özşuca Band
Evrim Özşuca, who has been active as a performer since 1993, studied the cello at Bilkent University, Ankara, before graduating from Bilgi University, Istanbul, as a jazz vocalist. In 2005, she won the Nardis Jazz Club’s Young Jazz Vocalists Competition and the International Young Jazz Vocalists Competition at the Nömme Jazz Festival in Estonia. As a result of this success, she was invited to sing at international jazz festivals in Finland, Estonia and Lithuania. Following this, she gave concerts with jazz trumpeter Ted Curson (1935-2012) in New York and Paris, and featured on his album *In Paris – Live at the Sunside*. In 2008, she took part in Turkish pianist, composer and pedagogue Ali Perret’s ‘Atonal Standards’ project. Evrim Özşuca, who has been coaching jazz vocalists since 2003, has a style that includes elements of blues, R&B, soul and funk. She frequently performs with ‘Effective’, the group she formed at the end of 2009. On this occasion, she will be joined by Barış Ertürk (tenor saxophone), Önder Focan (guitar), Barış Öztürk (double bass) and Berkay Sümbül (drums).
Wednesday December 31
New Year’s Eve Concert: Meltem Ege Band
Singer Meltem Ege, born in New York, began her musical career as a pianist. After relocating to Turkey with her family in 1991, she studied the piano at Bilkent University, Ankara. It was during her student years that she began singing jazz, as well as rock, funk and R&B. Having taken part in the ‘Dom Chemika’ summer school in Poland in 2006, in 2007 she was awarded first prize at the 12th ‘Lady Summertime’ Jazz Vocal Competition in Hämeenlinna, Finland. The following year, she came first in the ‘Jazz Voices’ competition in Lithuania.
In 2007, she began studying Jazz Vocal Performance at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. During this time, she worked together with Rhiannon Giddens, Joey Blake, Bob Stoloff, Lisa Thorson and Steven Santoro; in addition, she was awarded the title ‘Peer Advisor’ and represented Berklee as Student Ambassador in Canada. After graduating in 2010, she carried out postgraduate studies in performance and composition at the California Institute of Arts in Los Angeles, eventually obtaining a doctorate, and it is at this institution that she has been working since 2018.
Ege will be accompanied in this New Year’s Eve concert by Önder Focan (guitar), Bulut Gülen (trombone), Barış Öztürk (double bass) and Ayhan Öztoplu (drums).
Flapper Swing's Nevin Hetmanek. The band comes to Nardis on December 18
