Bova Jazz Club September Highlights

August 31, 2026 – September 30, 2026

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The Bova Jazz Club, towards the Taksim end of İstiklal Caddesi, regularly hosts some of Turkey’s finest jazz musicians. They organise events every day of the month, and are especially strong on modern and improvised jazz. The performance space is small, to say the least, and advance booking is advised (sitting on a crowded staircase isn’t particularly comfortable). The staff are friendly and helpful, even in the face of unreasonable requests. Here are 8 events not to miss.

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 06

21:30 Jam Session hosted by İmer Demirer

İmer Demirer is a first-class 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 İmer Demirer play more recently in a gig celebrating the songs of Ayten Alpman (who was in fact his mother-in-law), I can vouch for the fact that his soaring creativity is undiminished.

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 11

20:00 Berna Çiçeksever Quartet
22:30 İmer Demirer Quintet

Berna Çiçeksever’s musical career began at the age of 9, when she sang in the Turkish Classical Music Children’s Chorus. Having studied Landscape Architecture for her first degree, she left off graduate studies in Architecture to launch her singing career. Her first steps in this direction involved playing the leading role in a musical and sharing the stage with the singer Zülfü Livaneli on his concert tours. She then took a course in Vocal Performance and Production at the London College of Contemporary Music, following which she gave solo performances, made recordings in Britain and Turkey, and released an album consisting of her own compositions and arrangements. In 2010 she was awarded the title ‘Best Female Singer’ at the ‘Rock’n Dark’ Music Competition, an event held in Turkey. As well as taking on roles in films and TV series, Berna Çiçeksever is currently continuing to write songs in Turkish and English; at the same time, she is performing as soloist with the Kent Orchestra in Istanbul.

İmer Demirer is a first-class 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 İmer Demirer play more recently in a gig celebrating the songs of Ayten Alpman (who was in fact his mother-in-law), I can vouch for the fact that his soaring creativity is undiminished.

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 13

21.30 Cenk Erdoğan & Adem Gülşen & Fırtına Kıral

Cenk Erdoğan, who plays the fretless guitar, has developed a technique influenced by traditional Turkish stringed instruments such as the bağlama and the tanbur. His playing style and his compositions, in which he combines jazz harmonies with traditional Turkish melodies, have attracted international attention: in 2004 he was invited to demonstrate his skills at the Berklee College of Music and the Queens College of Music. The recordings he has so far produced are İle (2008), Kavis (2011), Kara Kutu (2014), Fermata (2018) and Lahza II (2019).

Pianist, composer and arranger Adem Gülşen, a native of İzmir, graduated from Kocaeli University as a classical pianist, subsequently taking private lessons in jazz piano from the late Elvan Aracı (a trombone-player of note) and in modern harmony and improvisation from the genius jazz pianist and composer Aydın Esen. Since 2011 he has worked with a huge number of Turkish jazz musicians, and has played on 12 albums and 7 singles. His style is modern, with a strong element of improvisation.

Umut Fırtına Kıral is a Turkish composer based in Holland who ‘merges minimalist and contemplative elements’ in his works; these, which mostly consist of solo, chamber and orchestral music, focus on ‘building worlds and telling a story’. In addition to composing for various ensembles, he also composes and produces for media and multidisciplinary projects.

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 14

21.30 Jam Session with Serkan Özyılmaz

Pianist Serkan Özyılmaz, born in Istanbul in 1976, began his musical career as a classical pianist, studying with Metin Ülkü, Lale Önge and Hülya Ardıç at the Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University in Istanbul; at the same time, he received lessons in composition from İlhan Usmanbaş, Ahmet Yürür and Hasan Uçarsu, graduating from the Composition Department in 2002. Among his compositions are works for two violas, piano, orchestra, and piano and string quartet. In the past, he has performed with a number of Turkey’s leading jazz musicians, some of these being Cengiz Baysal, Volkan Öktem, Volkan Hürsever, Eylem Pelit and Önder Focan. In 2003 he played with the Euradio Jazz Orchestra; more recently, he has conducted the TRT Jazz Orchestra. Serkan Özyılmaz currently works as a pianist with the TRT Light Music and Jazz Orchestra.

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16

21.30 Emin Fındıkoğlu + 12

This concert features the multi-talented and highly experienced arranger, composer, pianist, conductor and pedagogue Emin Fındıkoğlu (1940-), a highly important figure in the development of Turkish jazz. Fındıkoğlu began playing jazz while at the Lycée Saint-Joseph in Istanbul, where he played the mellophone (a cross between a French horn and a trumpet) and several wind instruments in the school orchestra. He then attended the Istanbul Municipality Conservatoire, where he studied the trumpet, meanwhile receiving input from jazz critic Cüneyt Sermet. Throughout 1959, he took lessons in musical arrangement from the legendary producer Arif Mardin (1932-2006). A piece he had written as a result of this tuition was performed by the Berklee International Sextet, and thanks to this achievement he was awarded a scholarship to study at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, where from 1962 to 1966 he received instruction in musical arrangement, piano, improvisation, orchestration and counterpoint.

Returning to Istanbul in 1967, he began playing the piano in a quartet led by the Swedish saxophonist Lennart Jansson. The following year, he founded the Big Soul Band – his first large ensemble, which played his arrangements of soul pieces. In 1970, he opened a jazz club by the name of ‘The Rhythm Section’ in Istanbul’s Elmadağ quarter. In the succeeding years, he served as musical director for a number of musicals; one of these, ‘Brecht Cabaret’ (1979), resulted in the release of an album of the same name.

From 1972 to 1975, he played dance music in several bands in Scandinavia and Europe. Having opened a music school entitled ‘Polifon’ in Taksim together with the celebrated singer, bass guitarist, librettist, composer, arranger and producer Onno Tunç in 1978, in 1985 he co-founded the Bilsak Jazz Festival, which specialised in modern jazz; this festival, of which he was musical director, ran until 1989. Also during the 1980s, he began a cooperation with the pianist, saxophonist and composer Tuna Ötenel – another key figure in Turkish jazz who became a legendary pedagogue – as a result of which they co-founded octets entitled ‘Euphony’ (1986) and ‘Detant’ (1999).

In 1996, Emin Fındıkoğlu recorded an album entitled Sinir Standard & Dog Songs that included several of his own compositions. This was followed in 2000 by I’m New, an album featuring the jazz singer Feyza Eren and several musicians from the ‘Detant’ group – including the late ace trombonist and pianist Elvan Aracı (1952-2018). For 11 years, he taught jazz harmony and song-writing at MİAM, the Dr. Erol Üçer Centre for Advanced Studies in Music at Istanbul Technical University, meanwhile giving concerts with his group ‘Stringsville’. In 2015, he founded a large jazz ensemble entitled ‘EF+12’ with which he recorded an album entitled Concision (2020); also in 2015, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Istanbul Jazz Festival.

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23

21.30 Sarp Maden 4

Sarp Maden is one of Turkey’s finest jazz guitarists and composers. He has his own unique style that combines outlandish chords, atonal sweetness, sudden swoops and agonised gut wrenching. In my review of a concert involving him that I attended at the Touché Club in the Zorlu Centre, I wrote: ‘Even when Sarp is playing a slow, floating melody in a high register, his liquid, light-filled tone always has a wistful edge to it – a tortured timbre if ever there was one. And, of course, the atonal arpeggio outbursts are ineffably Scorpionic in their asperity (guess what sign he is?) – hunks of screaming metal hurtle towards you like out-of-control motorbikes cartwheeling through the air as they spin off the race track; indeed, you almost have to duck.’

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 28

21.30 Tamer Temel 3

Saxophonist and composer Tamer Temel, born in Istanbul in 1975, began playing jazz while reading Economics at Dokuz Eylül University in Izmir. Having been awarded a scholarship during the 2005 European Jazz Festival, he attended the Siena Master Class summer course in Italy, receiving further tuition from the distinguished saxophonist Mark Turner. He released his first album, Barcelona, in 2010, and this was followed in 2013 by Bir Kedi Kara (‘A Cat Black’). Serbest Düşüş (‘Free Fall’), his most recent album, was released at the end of 2016. Other musicians who have appeared on his albums include guitarists Dave Allen and Eylül Biçer, bassists Masa Kamaguchi and Volkan Topakoğlu, double-bass player Matt Hall, drummers Marc Miralta, Cem Aksel and Volkan Öktem, pianist Serkan Özyılmaz and vibraphonist Kenny Wollesen. Tamer Temel performs with a number of leadingTurkish musicians, as well as with ‘Flapper Swing’, a group that keeps alive the musical atmosphere of the roaring 1920s. He currently teaches jazz at Bahçeşehir University (Istanbul). His style is modern, and in my opinion musically very satisfying.

WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 30

21.30 Cenk Erdoğan Trio

Cenk Erdoğan, who plays the fretless guitar, has developed a technique influenced by traditional Turkish stringed instruments such as the bağlama and the tanbur. His playing style and his compositions, in which he combines jazz harmonies with traditional Turkish melodies, have attracted international attention: in 2004 he was invited to demonstrate his skills at the Berklee College of Music and the Queens College of Music. The recordings he has so far produced are İle (2008), Kavis (2011), Kara Kutu (2014), Fermata (2018) and Lahza II (2019).