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 and 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 and 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 and 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 and 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 and 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 and Performing Arts, Jazz
The women changing Turkey’s music scene
By Ezgi Üstündağ | March 24, 2017
Few Turkish words conjure up a scene as swiftly and uniformly as
ozan. The noun is seemingly inseparable from the image of an elderly minstrel,
bağlama in hand, singing of his travels before an audience of Anatolian villagers. Significant, too, is that this widespread understanding of the
ozan, the lone...
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Music and Performing Arts, Jazz, Protest Music
By Tony Barrell | November 15, 2016
An exciting new piece of music receives its world premiere this Thursday, November 17. A lucky audience in London will be the first to hear
The Snowman Rhapsody, composed by Howard Blake. The rhapsody is a major elaboration on the composer’s much-loved music for
The Snowman – now a widely...
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Fundraiser, Music and Performing Arts, Jazz
Rhythmic loops, repetition, piano, drums… Mammal Hands at Salon IKSV on Thursday had Emma Harper experiencing déjà vu
By Emma Harper | October 31, 2016
Two years ago the Mancunian trio GoGo Penguin hypnotised the audience at Salon IKSV with a mix of jazz and trance. Replace the bass with a saxophone, and you’ve got another group from England, Mammal Hands. The comparisons go beyond sound. Both bands let the music do the talking, keeping...
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Music and Performing Arts, Jazz
Tickets are still available for the Akbank Jazz Festival
By Emma Harper | October 17, 2016
The 26th Akbank Jazz Festival is underway, with events ranging from concerts by big name jazz performers, like the Grammy award-winning bassist Ron Carter, to talks about jazz in all its forms, and even jazz-fuelled brunches. Jazz truly is all around. With only one week left to soak up all...
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Music and Performing Arts, Jazz
As natural as breathing – Ibeyi and Kamasi Washington at the Istanbul Jazz Festival
By Emma Harper | July 15, 2016
All sorts of sounds filled the garden of the old Beykoz shoe factory last night – the crack of batá drums, the deep notes of a double bass drawn out with a bow, the deafening reverberations of a horn section going full tilt. Yet the highlight of the performances by...
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Music and Performing Arts, Jazz
The 13th International Gümüşlük Classical Music Festival runs from July 3 until August 11
By Emma Harper | July 13, 2016
Bodrum may not be the most isolated holiday spot in Turkey, but the peninsula boasts some quiet retreats, like the small fishing village of Gümüşlük. Far away from the hustle and bustle of Bodrum Marina, the sleepy town is brought to life each summer by the Gümüşlük Classical Music Festival,...
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Music and Performing Arts, Classical Music, Jazz, Travel
Tickets go on sale for the 23rd Istanbul Jazz Festival
By Emma Harper | April 15, 2016
Each year the Istanbul Jazz Festival, sponsored by the Istanbul Arts and Culture Foundation (IKSV), manages to push the envelope in terms of either artists or venues. In 2016, they are doing both. The highlight of this year’s packed programme features two rapidly rising jazz acts performing at a very...
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Music and Performing Arts, Jazz
Thundercat at Salon IKSV
By Emma Harper | December 10, 2015
My favourite bassline is, without a doubt, from Jackson 5’s hit song ‘I Want You Back’. It’s a playful, melodic and funky beat that does more than just ground the song – it makes it memorable. Listening to ‘I Want You Back’ on repeat as a kid, I learned for...
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Music and Performing Arts, Jazz
Highlights of the Akbank Jazz Festival 2015
By Emma Harper | October 13, 2015
The 25th Akbank Jazz Festival is kicking off next week, and with it comes a flurry of concerts, workshops, seminars and children’s events. Unlike the annual IKSV Istanbul Jazz Festival, which sets up shop in the city during the quiet month of July, the Jazz Festival organised by Akbank is...
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Music and Performing Arts, Jazz
Highlights of the Akbank Jazz Festival
By Victoria Khroundina | October 23, 2014
A lot more accessible (and in some ways interesting) than the major IKSV-run Istanbul Jazz Festival that takes place during the summer, the Akbank Jazz Festival – with the moniker ‘the city in a state of jazz’ – starts today. Now in its 24th year, this popular jazz festival brings...
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Music and Performing Arts, Jazz
Önder Foçan and Meltem Ege Group ‘Songbook’
By Victoria Khroundina | May 1, 2014
Yesterday was International Jazz Day and to celebrate we have a new jazz CD available from the Cornucopia store. The renowned guitarist Önder Foçan has been playing jazz since 1975 and has been the artistic director of Nardis Jazz Club since 2002. In 2012, he recorded his latest album,
Songbook,...
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Music and Performing Arts, Jazz
