Jazz lovers can pig out at this overstuffed buffet: 41 events in 11 days guarantees a full belly with high nutritional content. Alexandra Ivanoff gives you a whiff of what's cookin'.

 

Akbank Sanat's 19th annual Jazz Festival is cooking up a dizzying array of delicious choices from A to Z, from 15 October through 25 October. Forty-one events are crammed into eleven days. The venues this year include a couple of new ones: The Seed, and Asitane, in addition to the more familiar houses—Akbank Sanat, CRR, Babylon, Aya Irini, Roxy, and Ghetto.

It's a tight fit—a few are scheduled simultaneously but most evenings are programmed like a tricky jigsaw puzzle, so you'll need to line up your transportation to zoom yourself to the next event. For example, one day (24 October) has seven events held in three venues, and five of them are in the evening. Opening night, 15 October, lists three biggies that overlap: Greek pianist Vassilis Tsabropoulos in Aya Irini (20.30), Fahir Atakoğlu, the award-winning composer of film scores and symphonic works, and his Trio at The Seed (21.00), and Dutch big band Bik Bent Braam at Babylon (21.30).

This year's festival offers a wide spectrum of international artists, from the older generation's paradigm to the outer limits of quirky experimentation, and includes some delicious concoctions of world music too. Trio 3, of Oliver Lake, Reggie Workman, and Andrew Cyrille, some of the most established names in the business, will mix up the classics, modern styles, blues and be-bop at Babylon (21 October); and earlier, Carl Ludwig Hübsch's 'Longrun Development of the Universe' splits a few atoms at Akbank Sanat with his tuba (16 October). Niyaz, incorporating a sultry blend of Persian, Turkish, and Indian music with Western electronics, will lend a decidedly Eastern flavor to the mix at Ghetto (22 October).

To spice up the stew, a couple of non-musical things are thrown in: a T-shirt design workshop sponsored by Mavi Jeans (17 October, Akbank), and a jazz photography discussion (22 October, Akbank). Also, two panel discussions, led by experts in the field—one American Ph.D candidate at New York University, and Turkish radio personality Feridun Ertaşkan—will discuss topics tangential to the ever-expanding force-field of jazz on two separate occasions (20 and 21 October, Akbank).

This month, the buffet table is bending from the sheer weight of the content, so to give you an overview before you make your culinary choices, here are my personally selected items from the musical menu.

Hors d'oeuvres | Since there's so much to choose from at the buffet, let's start with some tasty openers...

Norwegians Terje Rypdal & Ketil Bjørnstad will cross the fjords to make their debut for Akbank at Aya Irini on 16 October with their special blend of cool Nordic sounds on guitar and piano. AllAboutJazz.com describes their "strangely paradoxical combination of textures" as "moments of stark beauty coexist[ing] with dramatic dissonance", so step up to the smørgasbord.

Then, to wake up your palate with Gallic zest, young French female alto saxophonist Géraldine Laurent and her Time Out Trio will blast your taste buds with some high-flying, high-risk, and high octane riffs reminiscent of Parker, Coleman, Adderley and others on 23 October at Akbank Sanat, accompanied by Yoni Zelnik on bass and Laurent Bataille on drums.

Entrées | Some revered masters from the West grace the table

Strangely enough, the oldest artist here is the most radical. While younger jazzers play with appropriately good manners and follow the decades-long prescription, American pianist/composer Cecil Taylor is still actively shocking the public with his own flavor of musical composition—and I'm guessing you'll either love it or hate it. You'll definitely not be indifferent when you witness his totally individual and uninhibited persona at the keyboard, and you'll see why he's credited as being the father of the "free jazz" movement. Jazz biographer Scott Yanow describes Taylor best: "Soon after he first emerged in the mid-'50s, pianist Cecil Taylor was the most advanced improviser in jazz; five decades later he is still the most radical...To simplify describing his style, one could say that Taylor's intense atonal percussive approach involves playing the piano as if it were a set of drums. He generally emphasizes dense clusters of sound played with remarkable technique and endurance, often during marathon performances...Taylor started incorporating some of his eccentric poetry into his performances and, unlike most musicians, he has not mellowed with age...Cecil Taylor has remained quite active up until the present day, never compromising his musical vision. His forbidding music is still decades ahead of its time." As a protein source, he might just be more of an acquired taste—like steak tartare rather than T-bone. (22 October, CRR)

American saxophonist Joe Lovano will provide the meat and potatoes of the continental cuisine. Yes, comfort food with lots of B-vitamins. B as in Brecker, Michael Brecker, the late sax legend who matched Lovano's status as one of most highly influential tenor saxophonists in the last decade. Before his death, Brecker was interviewed about hearing Lovano's playing: "because of his dark and arpeggiated sound, which I heard in the mid-70s, I began to be aware of him, and I loved it. His playing has morphed a lot since then, but he was swinging in a very imaginative way. It was fabulous." According to San Francisco saxophonist/composer Steve Heckman, "Lovano developed a way of improvising that sounds totally free of clichés, totally spontaneous...and has really redefined the way saxophonists and (perhaps other musicians also) approach harmony". Lovano and his group won a coveted Grammy award in 2000 for 'Best Large Ensemble'. Joe brings his 'Us Five' quintet to Istanbul on 23 October at CRR. This concert promises to be a warm and intimate pure jazz experience. Easy on the ear and easy on the waistline.

Salades | Too wild to miss, even if you can't imagine what it will be like

"Violators of the English Language" is what VOTEL stands for and using his "mash up" technique, British DJ and producer Andy Votel (Lamb, Badly Drawn Boy, Death in Vegas) will mash some psychedelic potatoes at Babylon on 17 October.

KonstruKt, an improv trio of drums, percussion and guitar, that has published the underground hits "Rehearsals, Pt. 2 & 3", will reKonstruKt itself on 17 October at Akbank Sanat with six members of Bik Bent Braam for an evening of unKonstruKted fun.

Bells, wooden drums, gongs, bamboo, bowed vibraphone, waterphone—sounds like something totally new, right? No, percussionist Marilyn Mazur has been around for a while; she's an alumna of the Gil Evans, Miles Davis and Wayne Shorter bands and she formed her own band in Denmark 20 years ago. Her unique, surprising, almost telepathic sound textures create a percussion paradise where you are more enticed by a dreamy soundscape than a predictable pulse. (24 October, CRR)

Desserts | Especially sweet rewards for the palate

What could be more fun than Fats Waller—his jolly barroom style of stride piano licks, playing his famous "Ain't Misbehavin'" and "Honeysuckle Rose"? Maybe Aki Takase's spin on Fats' tunes. Her album "Plays Fats Waller" was voted the best jazz album in Germany in 2004. This Japanese pianist also recorded albums based on the music of others of the same ilk: W.C. Handy and Duke Ellington. She'll bring her quintet to Babylon on 22 October to dole out the desserts. Uh huh, sweeter than my grandma's baklava.

What child doesn't like sweet stuff and sweet music? Akbank is organizing a special children's workshop for ages 7-12, to engage them in active listening and participation in basic jazz, actually basic musical principles. A simple stairway becomes the 7 notes on a Western scale; the bass guitar, clarinet, trombone, and percussion instruments will get tooted, plucked, beaten, and honked to the great amusement of everyone. Hülya Tunçağ will direct the jam session, which will also integrate a group from the Children With Leukemia Foundation. (24 October, Akbank)

So hold onto your hats and chow down!



Apéritifs | Grab a glass of rosé and feast your eyes on how some prize players from the past and present have been captured on celluloid

Turkish photographer and music writer, Merih Akoğul, will start your jazz evening off at 19.00 on 22 October at Akbank with a personal exhibit and panel discussion with two other photographers and jazz aficionados who will discuss the genre and history of photographing jazz artists. The visual archives of jazz will come alive in the hands of Akoğul, who has authored 13 books on various subjects and has been writing about art and music for 25 years.

 

 

VENUES

Roxy (212) 245 65 39

Sıraselviler Caddesi Arslanyatağı Sok, Beyoğlu

www.roxy.com.tr

Asitane (212) 635 79 97

Kariye Oteli, Kariye Camii Sokak No:18 Edirnekapı / Fatih

www.asitanerestaurant.com

The Seed (212) 323 60 50

Sabancı Universitesi Sakıp Sabancı Müzesi, Sakıp Sabancı Cad. No: 42 Emirgan

www.theseed.gen.tr

CRR: Cemal Reşit Rey Konser Salonu (212) 231 54 97

Darülbedayi Caddesi, Harbiye

www.crrks.org

Aya Irini Topkapı Saray grounds, Sultanahmet

Babylon (212) 292 73 67

Şeybender Sokak, No. 3, Tünel, Beyoğlu

www.babylon.com.tr

Ghetto (212) 251 7501

Kalyoncu Kulluk Caddesi 10, Beyoğlu

www.ghettoist.com

Akbank Sanat (212) 252 3500

Zambak Sokak 1, Beyoğlu

www.akbanksanat.com

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Ticket prices range from 10 lira to 40 lira
Biletix / www.biletix.com (216) 556 9800

** To spice up the stew, a couple of non-musical things are thrown in a T-shirt design workshop sponsored by Mavi Jeans, a jazz photography discussion and 2 panel discussions, led by experts in the field will discuss topics tangential to the ever-expanding force-field of jazz on two separate occasions.