Çağıl Kaya at Bova, July 11
Image: Bizimcaz
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 seven events not to miss.
WEDNESDAY, JULY 1
Sarp Maden 4
Sarp Maden is one of Turkey’s finest jazz guitarists and composers, with his own unique style that combines outlandish chords, atonal sweetness and sudden swoops with a good deal of agonised gut wrenching thrown in (his name translates as ‘precipitous metal’). In my review of a concert involving him and the Israeli saxophonist Gilad Atzmon, 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.’
THURSDAY, JULY 2
İmer Demirer Quartet
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, JULY 5
E2 Phase: Ercüment Orkut & Engin Kaan Günaydın
Ercüment Orkut is a pianist, composer and arranger who is definitely worth listening to. He received many years of training in piano, composition and conducting at the Mimar Sinan University State Conservatoire before graduating in 2005. In addition, he has in the past taken lessons in jazz piano from Aydın Esen (in 2004), as well as from Dan Zemelman and Peter Horvath (in San Francisco in 2007). Ercüment Orkut has created the music for a number of films and TV programmes. His first solo album, Low Profile, was released by Kalan Müzik in 2015; his second album, Persona, has recently been released by Lin Records.
Percussionist Engin Kaan Günaydın, born in Australia and brought up in Turkey, received his training at the Music and Performing Arts Faculty of Bilkent University (Ankara) and at the Berklee College of Music in the USA, graduating in 2008. He has in the past shared a stage with Al Di Meola, Ibrahim Maalouf and Arooj Aftab. A versatile musician, he is at home in classical music, Latin, world music and traditional Turkish music as well as jazz. He now resides in New York, where he is a member of the NY Gypsy All Stars, a Balkan ethnic group.
TUESDAY, JULY 7
Can Çankaya Trio feat. Eric O’Donnell
Pianist Can Çankaya’s musical career began when he joined the Atatürk Cultural Centre’s Children’s Chorus at the age of 8. Having studied the trumpet at the Istanbul University State Conservatoire, he carried out graduate studies in jazz piano at William Paterson University in New Jersey. In the past, he has worked with famous musicians such as Mulgrew Miller, James Weidman and Harold Mabern, and has performed with Black Eyed Peas and The Cardigans. In a concert last year, I was most impressed by his tasteful playing, especially his ‘delicious up-and-down sweeps’ on the piano. Can Çankaya is also a composer and producer.
Eric O’Donnell is a trumpet-player from Ohio, trained at the University of Akron and William Paterson University, who has in the past studied extensively with Jack Schantz, Scott Johnston and Bill Mobley; he has also taken lessons from Ingrid Jensen, and has worked closely with Mulgrew Miller.
SATURDAY, JULY 11
Çağıl Kaya
Vocalist Çağıl Kaya studied Musicology at Dokuz Eylül University, Izmir, subsequently carrying out postgraduate studies in the Music Department of Istanbul University. It was during this time that she launched her professional career, performing pop, rock and funk numbers at various jazz festivals and founding ‘Logos’, her first group, in Izmir. Her first album, entitled Bir Parça Ay Biraz Kuş (‘A Bit of Moon and Some Bird’), appeared in 2014. Three years later, she produced Şimdilik Her Şey Yolunda (‘For the Moment, Everything’s Going OK’), her second album. A performer of considerable theatrical gifts (she believes in using her whole body while singing), Çağıl Kaya has a unique style of vocal improvisation.
WEDNESDAY, JULY 15
Eggmann & Friends
Guitarist Egemen Tosunbaş, a native of Izmir who was trained in his art at the Jazz Academy of Bahçeşehir University (Istanbul), is currently studying ‘Global Jazz’ at the Berklee College of Music in the USA. The majority of the compositions and arrangements played by the ‘Eggmann Quartet’, a group he founded, are his work; many of these are in the hard-bop and post-bop genres. Crowded Windows, their first single, appeared in 2023.
FRIDAY, JULY 17 @ 22:30
Tamer Temel 5
Saxophonist and composer Tamer Temel 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. Tamer Temel performs with a number of leading Turkish musicians, and currently teaches jazz at Bahçeşehir University (Istanbul). His style is modern, and in my opinion musically very satisfying.
Çağıl Kaya at Bova, July 11
Image: Bizimcaz
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