Battle of the big bands
By John Shakespeare Dyson | December 21, 2024
On November 01 I went to the Cemal Reşit Rey Concert Hall in Harbiye to witness an unusual event – a jazz concert involving two orchestras playing simultaneously on the same stage. Although the event was advertised as a ‘clash’, it was in reality a friendly cooperation, an experiment whose...
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Music & Performing Arts, - Jazz, - Musical Shares
Jazz pianists Aydın and Cenk Esen mesmerise at the opening of the new Rahşan Düren exhibition, ‘Verwegenheit’
By John Shakespeare Dyson | November 10, 2024
On October 15 I made my way to Beyoğlu for the opening of an exhibition of paintings by the artist Rahşan Düren entitled
Verwegenheit, which I believe means ‘audacity’ or ‘boldness’ in German. I had been told that Aydın Esen, described as the best jazz pianist in the world by...
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Exhibitions, Music & Performing Arts, - Jazz
Raci Pişmişoğlu and group at the Nardis Jazz Club
By John Shakespeare Dyson | July 7, 2024
On Monday May 27 I made my way along Büyük Hendek Caddesi towards the Nardis Jazz Club, picking my through the throng of selfie-taking tourists taking advantage of the unique backdrop of a round, stone-built watchtower, built by the Genoese in the mid-14th century, that has become rather famous. On...
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Music & Performing Arts, - Jazz, - Musical Shares
By John Shakespeare Dyson | February 25, 2024
The last time I heard Randy Esen sing was in July 2019, when she was performing at Uniq Istanbul with three other musicians: her husband Aydın Esen on piano and keyboards, Tommy Campbell on drums and Greg Jones on bass guitar. In my blog on this mega-memorable gig I wrote...
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Music & Performing Arts, - Jazz, - Musical Shares
By John Shakespeare Dyson | October 19, 2023
On October 13 I attended a jazz concert by the Ozan Musluoğlu Quintet, a mixed group of Turkish and American musicians, at the Cemal Reşit Rey Concert Hall. It was, of course, Friday the 13th, so I took great care to avoid accidents, chivvying my companion so as not to...
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Music & Performing Arts, - Jazz, - Musical Shares
The Elif Göztepe Quintet, Selen Gülün Blue Band and İmer Demirer Trio put the ‘jazz’ into the Istanbul Jazz Festival
By John Shakespeare Dyson | August 29, 2023
Percussionist Can Kozlu, recipient of this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award, joined the İmer Demirer Trio in the last concert of the Jazz Festival (photo: Salih Üstundağ) Looking back on the summer that was, on July 19 I attended a concert at the Cemal Reşit Rey Concert Hall, the last event...
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Music & Performing Arts, - Jazz, - Musical Shares
The Istanbul Jazz Festival in a nutshell...
By John Shakespeare Dyson | July 5, 2023
Summer is upon us, and the 30th İKSV Istanbul Jazz Festival, like some celestial charabanc, is about to rev up and whisk us off to some interesting musical destinations. I need to make it clear at the outset that I have not found much jazz on the programme for this...
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Music & Performing Arts, - Jazz, - Musical Shares
The sheer artistry of Sibel Köse and friends throws doom-and-gloom to the winds
By John Shakespeare Dyson | January 30, 2023
Last Saturday I went to the Nardis Jazz Club in Galata to listen to the Turkish jazz singer Sibel Köse and her quartet. Having fortified ourselves with scrumptuous cakes at Şirin Fırın, a highly-recommended patisserie in nearby Büyük Hendek Caddesi, my companion and I wended our way through the crowds...
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Music & Performing Arts, - Jazz, - Musical Shares
This month, the famous Istanbul jazz club comes to London to celebrate in style. Join the party…
By Tony Barrell | October 26, 2022
When I covered the Istanbul Jazz Festival for Cornucopia back in 2004, I paid a visit to a small jazz club called Nardis. I was immediately impressed by the place, and found myself heading back there on a couple of occasions, following a road heading downhill from the Galata Tower....
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Music & Performing Arts, - Jazz
Notes on ‘Secret Wildflower’ and Ayna Veer, the new album from Aydın Esen and friends
By John Shakespeare Dyson | April 22, 2021
It is too long since I heard USA-based Turkish jazz pianist Aydın Esen play live. I can still recall the chromatic crunchiness of his chords. At that concert in Istanbul in July 2019 (described in my blog), I watched and listened in awe as spherical baubles of meaningful melody crystallised...
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Music & Performing Arts, - Classical Music, - Jazz
By John Shakespeare Dyson | October 29, 2020
The online streaming of the İKSV Jazz Festival concerts is due to finish on November 3. You have been warned! The tap is about to run dry, so now is the time to catch up on what you have been missing at online.iksv.org.https://online.iksv.org/caz Selecting a concert at random from the...
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Music & Performing Arts, - Jazz, - Musical Shares, Shopping
By John Shakespeare Dyson | February 29, 2020
February 20: I made my second foray into the Touché jazz club, located in the bowels of the Zorlu Center in Zincirlikuyu. The occasion was that of another concert by Gilad Atzmon, the Israeli saxophonist I'd seen in January 2019 – when he was accompanied by Sarp Maden on guitar,...
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Music & Performing Arts, - Jazz, - Musical Shares
The Istanbul Jazz Fest
By John Shakespeare Dyson | July 21, 2019
The New York-based band Snarky Puppy gave a concert at the UNIQ Open-Air Stage on Tuesday July 9. The supporting group was Shake Stew, an Austrian outfit. Whether the music was jazz-rock, or funk, or groove, is immaterial: in any case, I would not be able to tell you, for...
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Music & Performing Arts, - Jazz, - Musical Shares
Musical Shares: Gilad Atzmon, Sarp Maden and Friends play Istanbul’s newest jazz venue
By John Shakespeare Dyson | February 3, 2019
The Gilad Atzmon / Sarp Maden Quartet – with Gilad Atzmon (above) on saxophone, Sarp Maden on guitar, Ercüment Orkut on piano, Eylem Pelit on bass guitar and Derin Bayhan on drums – performed in a curtain-raising event at Istanbul's new jazz club Touché, located beside the PSM (Performance Arts...
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Music & Performing Arts, - Jazz, - Musical Shares
Avishai Cohen's not-quite-jazz concert at the Swissôtel in Maçka
By John Shakespeare Dyson | July 7, 2018
The fourth concert I attended during the İKSV Jazz Festival took place at the Sultan Park in the grounds of the Swissôtel in Maçka, above Dolmabahçe Palace, on Tuesday July 3. The performers on this occasion were the double-bassist Avishai Cohen and his group. The concert started well: Mr Cohen...
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Music & Performing Arts, - Jazz, - Musical Shares
Night in an Italian garden – the 25th Istanbul Jazz fest (cont.)
By John Shakespeare Dyson | July 3, 2018
The venue for the third concert I attended during the 25th İKSV İstanbul Jazz Festival was the grounds of the Palazzo di Venezia in Beyoğlu – a building that now does service as the residence of the Italian Ambassador and the Italian Consul-General. (It is not the Consulate itself, as...
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Music & Performing Arts, - Jazz
Çağrı Sertel and his group crack the sky open with their screaming thunderchords
By John Shakespeare Dyson | July 2, 2018
The second concert I attended during the İKSV İstanbul Jazz Festival took place at Salon İKSV (the İKSV HQ performance space) in Şişhane, Beyoğlu, on June 27. The group responsible for the music – but not for the weather outside, which was spectacularly stormy – consisted of pianist Çağrı Sertel...
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Music & Performing Arts, - Jazz
The 25th Istanbul Jazz Festival pays tribute to the fine musicians who put Turkish jazz on the map, plus some high notes ahead
By John Shakespeare Dyson | June 28, 2018
The Opening Concert of the İKSV İstanbul Jazz Festival – sponsored by Garanti Bank – took place at the Zorlu Center on Tuesday (June 26). The theme was ‘Turkish Jazz through the Generations on the 25th Anniversary of the Festival’, and the occasion provided your reviewer – who knew very...
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Music & Performing Arts, - Jazz
