Francesco Martinelli
August 2002

Jazzin' Around Europe
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By Francesco Martinelli

The Ninth Edition of the International Istanbul Jazz Festival was a complex and rich affair, presenting a wide range of musics in several locations in one of the world’s most beautiful cities.

To give an idea of the scope of the program it’s enough to say that it included “acid” jazz groups like US3, contemporary rhythm’n’blues like Morcheeba, DJ Logic’s special brand of hip-hop and “straight” jazz from the groups led by Herbie Hancock and Roy Haynes as well as many varieties of latin-inflected music, from salsa bands to the cuban-inspired jazz of Gonzalo Rubalcaba. Born as a “spin-off” of the Music festival and still organized by the Foundation for Culture and Arts of the Bosphorous town, it tends to cater to the big audience of the town (now Istanbul is one of the world’s metropolis, counting roughly 15 millions of inhabitants) including rock-oriented concerts: after successfully inviting Sting last year, the 2002 edition boasted the presence of Marianne Faithfull.

Any given evening can have as many as three concert in different locations, and given the maddening traffic of the town it’s almost impossible to catch them all, so any visitor has to decide his own priorities, that also have to include visits to the many fantastic sightseeing and eating spots. Not to mention that along the Jazz festival many other musical activities take place: as an example, during a visit-long week there was a concert of the strongly politically oriented Grup Yorum, several Turkish pop singers also presented their latest songs, and in the incomparable setting of the Yerebatan, or Basilica Cistern, a loving concert of Jewish-Ladino music was presented by local group Los Pasaros Sefardis. But the amount of music presented by the Festival is more than enough for any visitor: here’s a brief summary of what this particular listener choose to follow...

At Babylon, one of the city’s hippest clubs, I found Sarah Jane Morris to be a Janis Joplin imitation, and since I never did care even for the original, I much less enjoyed a copy. These are the concerts that give “blues” a bad name. On the contrary, Mari Boine’s concert confirmed her as a magnetic performer; her music is based on the folk tradition of the Norwegian Sami ethnic identity, and the unique band featured the talent of young Norwegian musicians with a black saxophone player and a Chilean flutist/percussionist. The arcane melodies were twisted in a contemporary form, and the shamanic intensity of the performance wasn’t diminished by the extreme conditions of humidity and temperature.

At the comfortable International Congress Hall, or Lutfi Kirdar both evenings dedicated to Gonzalo Rubalcaba were exciting. The pianist’s Cuban-inflected jazz represents the most successful fusion of african-american and latin music, and the support from the drums by the unique Ignacio Berroa, was a show in itself, the veteran cuban drummer effortlessy alternating swing and clavÚ rhythms. The duo meeting with Chick Corea included some spirited conversation, and some solo pieces, with renditions by Corea of some of his pieces that went into the jazz canon, including some of his Children Pieces ­ interestingly enough, one of them is included in the repertoire of one of the best Turkish pianist, Ayse Tutuncu, whose group was performing in the same days at North Sea Jazz Festival. The two Turkish piano virtuosos confirmed their strengths and weaknesses. Fazil Say’s performed a four-hands transcription of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring with the second part digitally recorded by himself and played back by some contemporary version of a player piano. Technically extremely difficult, and perfectly successful, but of little musical interest. His “jazz” rendition of classical pieces like Mozart’s Alla Turca, or his interpretation of Brubeck’s Blue Rondo A La Turk, were sometimes very witty, always faultlessy played with truly amazing technical feats, but again at the end emotionally uninvolving. Extraordinary technique doesn’t automatically make interesting improvisations. Kerem Gorsev’s meeting with Classical cellist Reyent Bolukbasi was a lukewarm collection of vaguely pleasant themes, interspersed with improvisations so mainstream to be generic. The guy can surely play piano, and loves jazz, but still has to find a way to leave his mark on the international scene.

In the Open Air Theatre, all things considered, the shows were most exciting. Eric Truffaz’s Mantis group is a tight unit, where the melodic sense of Michel Benita on bass shines against the nervous, relentless drumming by Philippe Garcia. The French trumpeter pays hommage not only to the ubiquitous Miles, but also to less known inspirations like Don Cherry or Enrico Rava, and this latest adventure showed how much he has matured as an improvisor. Billy Cobham with his Art of Five definitely detached himself from the jazz-rock drumming, and showed great restraint and musicality in a refined acoustic jazz setting. Laço Tayfa , lead by clarinetist HÃŒsnÃŒ Şenlendirici, is a band well rooted in their town, Bergama, and originally played their traditional “doğaçlama” style; the inclusion of a funky rhythm section and a big “oriental” string ensemble was not successful, obfuscating the rhythmic subtleties and details that are the foundation of this music. Les Taraf de Hajdouks gave one of the craziest concerts I’ve seen them perform, winning over completely the audience, and having great fun in the proceedings; flutist Falkaru’s solos as always one of the high points of the evening.

If the level of today’s top rock composers is the three-chords predictable melodies with bad teenage poetry that Marianne Faithfull performed, I am not surprised that the music’s in trouble. Her show was probably based on the charisma of her personality on stage, but didn’t work for me. I can be star-struck as the next guy, and surely am in the presence of masters like Roy Haynes or Cecil Taylor, but an early association with Rolling Stones is just not enough interesting.

Okay Temiz is the Turkish percussion master who played in dance bands all over Europe before creating the seminal Oriental Wind and collaborating with Don Cherry, transcribing traditional tunes to be played by his various bands, making a true World Music before it became a commercial label. Temiz moved to North Europe, but recently has been working more and more in Turkey. He is his own man, and his approach to music making knows no limits: early on he added to the various Turkish traditional instruments the Brazilian berimbau and the African Sanza; after that he created his own electronic percussion instrument in the shape of a multicolored pyramid that he plays like a tridimensional keyboard. Carrying on and enlarging the tradition has always been one of his main concerns, and to this end he's now teaching to young musicians in Turkey: they are eager to learn from his traditional skills and to share the experiences he gained all over the world. This year he put together a show with two hundreds of his pupils, and it was delightful: communal music making of the first order, enlightened by the added soloists, Yamar Thiam from Senegal and Ramazan drummer RÃŒstem Cembeli. Jazz? Global Jazz? Non-jazz? Go to Istanbul in July and make up your own mind...