Brenda Berin performs at Asai Khai, April 15
Saturday, April 11
Sibel Köse & Ece Göksu
The inimitable Sibel Köse, dubbed ‘the Queen of European Jazz’, is a vocalist of consummate professionalism and outstanding talent. Last time I saw Sibel perform at the Nardis Jazz Club, I said the following in my blog: ‘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?’
Ece Göksu is one of Turkey’s up-and-coming jazz vocalists. After receiving training as a pianist at the Hacettepe University State Conservatoire (Ankara), in 2002 she moved to Istanbul, where she studied the 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 train as a jazz vocalist 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. Ece Göksu currently resides partly in New York and partly in Istanbul. 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 in 2024; it featured trumpet-player İmer Demirer and guitarist Eylül Biçer.
At the concert on April 11 (subtitled Türkiye’nin İki Sesi, Tek Sahne – ‘Two of Turkey’s Voices, One Stage’), the lady singers will be accompanied by Kürşad Deniz (piano), Kağan Yıldız (double bass) and Berkay Sümbül (drums).
21:30
Tickets from biletinial or from Biletix Prices: 1000 TL (upper floor), 1200 TL (lower floor)
Wednesday April 15
Bora Çeliker’s Mixed Bag with Blueseum & Barış Ertürk
Guitarist Bora Çeliker, who is also a singer, is not just a highly experienced performer of mainstream jazz and blues but also a gifted improviser. At university in Ankara, he founded blues groups by the name of ‘The Crawling Snakes’, ‘The Jukes’ and ‘The King Bees’. Having played mainly blues up to that time, in 1999 he launched out into jazz, participating in a group that was headed by Janusz Szprot, a Polish musician who had come to Ankara to head up the Jazz Department of Bilkent University. Two years later, he started playing in the Alan Ginter Quartet with the legendary Turkish pianist, saxophonist and composer Tuna Ötenel. Bora Çeliker has in the past played with a number of leading Turkish jazz musicians, as well as with former Bilgi University jazz teacher Ricky Ford.
At the concert on April 15, he and tenor saxophonist Barış Ertürk, trained in Jazz Performance at the Music Department of Bilgi University (Istanbul), will be playing a mixture of rock n’roll, blues, swing and funk numbers along with bass guitarist Vefa Karatay and Ergin Özler – members of Çeliker’s blues trio ‘Blueseum’.
21:30
Tickets from biletinial or from Biletix Prices: 1000 TL (upper floor), 1200 TL (lower floor)
Wednesday, April 15
Brenda Berin Quartet
Subtitled Bahar’ın Enerjisi ile Kıpır Kıpır Bir Gece (‘An All-Go Evening with the Energy of Spring’), this concert features Brenda Berin, a vocalist trained in the USA. In Turkey, she is best known for having prepared an ‘archive album’ with the Authentic Anatolian Project – an ensemble, made up of some of the country’s finest jazz musicians, that she herself had founded. Her album Sakın Ağlama (‘Make Sure You Don’t Cry’), on which there were contributions from world-famous drummer Dave Weckl and Grammy Award-winning producer George Whitty, appeared in 2013. Brenda Berin, who has also taken part in projects with trumpeter Erik Truffaz and tabla-player Talvin Singh, has appeared in a number of films in Turkey. On April 15 she is to be accompanied by Can Çankaya (piano), Eylem Pelit (bass guitar) and Erkan Sönmez (drums).
21:30
Tickets from biletinial or from Biletix Prices: 1000 TL (upper floor), 1200 TL (lower floor)
ABOUT ASAI KHAI JAZZ CLUB
ASA KHAI JAZZ CLUB Asa Khai Jazz Club (Asa Khai Caz Klübü) Khai Karaköy Hotel, Bereketzade Mah., Bankalar Cad. No 2/1, Karaköy, Beyoğlu, 34420 İstanbul Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/asakhai.ist/ Tel: +90 539 934 77 05
Brenda Berin performs at Asai Khai, April 15
