Dilek Sert Erdoğan at Nardis, June 20
Image: Nardis Jazz Club
The Nardis Jazz Club, situated in an old Genoese building in a side street close to the Galata Tower, is Istanbul’s oldest venue of its kind. It has a maximum seating capacity of 120. Customers can have meals served at their tables. Here are some June highlights.
FRIDAY, JUNE 5
Ceren Temel Quintet
Vocalist, songwriter and pedagogue Ceren Temel has a repertoire that encompasses a wide range of styles from bebop to modern jazz. She is noted for her improvisations, her own compositions and her original takes on jazz standards. In Berlin in 2022 she created a project entitled ‘I’m the Voice and I Can’t Be Silenced!’ together with spoken word, performance and visual artist Lady Gaby; making use of loops and vocal improvisations, it focussed on women’s rights and feminism. That year also saw the appearance of The Rewind – her first EP album, consisting of five of her own compositions. From 2019 to 2022, she taught jazz vocal at the Hacettepe University State Conservatoire in Ankara. Since 2023, she has been teaching ear training and basic musicianship at Kadir Has University, Istanbul. On 5th June, Ceren Temel is accompanied by Kaan Karadavut (trumpet), Onat Murat (piano), Anıl Deniz (double bass) and Burak Bulut (drums).
21:30
Price: 1000TL
SATURDAY, JUNE 6
Ece Göksu Quintet
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 Fine Arts 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.
Ms Göksu, who currently resides partly in New York and partly in Istanbul, has sung at 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. Her repertoire includes bossa nova numbers and songs by Bob Dylan, the Beatles, Billy Joel and other prominent musicians. Taking the stage with her on June 6 are Barış Doğukan Yazıcı (trumpet), Serkan Özyılmaz (piano), Kağan Yıldız (double bass) and Berke Özgümüş (drums).
21:30
Price: 998TL
THURSDAY, JUNE 11
İpek Göztepe Quartet
İpek Göztepe, who began her musical education in the Piano Department of the Istanbul University State Conservatoire, subsequently sang Turkish classical and Western music in various choirs. Her interest in jazz and soul dates from 2013, when she began appearing at local venues as a lead singer. In 2017 she won the 13th Nardis Young Jazz Vocalists Competition and the İKSV’s ‘Young Jazz’ Competition, which entitled her to attend the Pulawy Jazz Workshop in Poland. Then, in 2024, she completed a course in jazz vocal at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Graz, Austria. Her teachers in Turkey have included Güç Başar Gülle (for jazz theory) and Randy Esen (the wife of Aydın Esen) for jazz singing. She is currently continuing her education at the Yıldız University Communication Design Department. During the İKSV Jazz Festival in July 2023, I heard İpek Göztepe perform with her quintet at the Cemal Reşit Rey Concert Hall, and was very favourably impressed, especially when she let rip with some urgent, powerful singing. Accompanying her on June 11 are Onat Murat (piano), Ulaş Özdemir (vocals) and Mehmet Hecebil (drums).
21:30
Price: 998TL
SATURDAY, JUNE 20
Dilek Sert Erdoğan Band
Dilek Sert Erdoğan, known as Turkey’s most powerful soul vocalist, has a voice that is described as ‘black satin’, her style being a mixture of jazz, soul, funk, blues and improvisation. Born in 1976, she graduated in English Language and Literature from Istanbul University. During her student years she read the English news on the BBC Forex radio station, worked as Foreign News Coordinator for the ‘Kanal D’ TV channel, and prepared radio programmes for ‘Atlas’ magazine. She is also an actress. Moments, her first album (on which all the songs were written by the lady herself), was also the first original soul album in English to appear in Turkey. Released in 2013, it soon became the best-selling jazz album in the country. Accompanying her on this occasion are Onat Murat (piano), Sıtkı Sırtanadolu (guitar), Burak Atlı (bass guitar) and Derin Bayhan (drums).
21:30
Price: 1000TL
TUESDAY, JUNE 23
Flapper Swing
Flapper Swing is a ‘manouche’ (i.e., gypsy jazz) group in the tradition of the Belgian-Romani jazz guitarist Jean ‘Django’ Reinhardt (1910-53) 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.
21:30
Price: 999TL
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 24
Jef Giansily Trio
Pianist and composer Jef Giansily, whose style is described as ‘a combination of lyricism and rhythms that vary according to changing moods’, was born in Paris in 1980, and is now resident in Istanbul. His album Sketches appeared in 2009; in May this year, meanwhile, he released an album entitled Insight in Paris. (He says this album is ‘an invitation to look inside ourselves’.) At the concert on 24 June, he is accompanied by Kağan Yıldız (double bass).
21:30
Price: 1000TL
FRIDAY, JUNE 26
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, İstanbul, 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 is joined by Anıl Şallıel (saxophone), Önder Focan (guitar), Barış Öztürk (double bass) and Erhan Seçkin (drums).
21:30
Price: 1000TL
SATURDAY, JUNE 27
Sibel Köse Quintet
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?’
The other members of her quintet are Engin Recepoğulları (tenor saxophone), Kürşad Deniz (piano), Kağan Yıldız (double bass) and Berke Özgümüş (drums).
21:30
Price: 1000TL
Dilek Sert Erdoğan at Nardis, June 20
Image: Nardis Jazz Club
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