A native of Turkey,born in Istanbul, Fahir Atakoğlu is an international award winning composer and pianist, in the fields of large symphonic works and film music. His works have also been performed in various music festivals in Europe and across The United States to much acclaim. He is now finding a growing audience in Europe, Japan and in North America as well. His sensitivity as a composer deeply moves the audience by his unique rhythmic, melodic and harmonic sense. His music reflects his extraordinary talent in blending different musical cultures which make his compositions speak with striking originality, and always wonderfully connected to the culture of his motherland. Fahir Atakoğlu, since 1986, composed jingles, documentary and film music for many national and international productions. Following his first album in 1994 he released 14 albums in 17 countries including USA and sold over nearly 2 million copies since. Amongst his many awards, he won First prize for Documentary at the Milano Film Festival 2000 for “Exile in Buyukada” and the best Song Award of Mega Channel, Greece, 2002, with Telos Dios Telos, sold over 400.000 copies. Ahmet Ertegun, of Atlantic Records, referred to Fahir Atakoğlu as” .. one of the outstanding pianists and composers in Europe today ... at the cutting edge of the world music
Review by Michael G. Nastos
For his sixth recording, Turkish born pianist Fahir Atakoglu has gone retro, recalling the '80s contemporary New York City/Seventh Avenue South neo-bop, skunk funk, and fusion of the Brecker Brothers and Steps/Steps Ahead. Playing exclusively acoustic and not electric piano, he also employs the quite different sounding electric guitarists Mike Stern or Wayne Krantz on alternating tracks, adding Michael Brecker disciple Bob Franceschini, electric bass guitar pioneer Anthony Jackson, and the dynamic drummer Horacio “El Negro” Hernandez. Atakoglu attains the sound he seeks quite easily, a bit derivative, but exciting and refreshingly done some 25 years after the fact. Of course the twist is the folkloric Turkish nuances, rhythm and elements he incorporates, and that he has added on from his 2005 breakthrough CD “If,” which concentrated on his trio with Jackson and Hernandez. The result is more jaw dropping music from this most awesome, brilliant, death-defying pianist who deserves a ton of wider recognition and admiration. On the more electrified side, urged on by Stern's characteristic high-pitched guitar, “Fuse On” kicks off the CD with an unmistakable Brecker/Steps Big Apple Broadway swagger and strut, while a staggered choppy staccato accent identifies, but does not update “Sync-Op.” In the pocket American style, the hip and contemporary “Aheste” has Stern at his most resonant, a ringing endorsement of Atakoglu's attempt to drag this music into the now. Krantz is a more subdued, but still substantial player, and he stokes a distinct Turkish fire with embers instead of flames as on the 7/8 beat of “Black Sea” a heavy Mid-Eastern dialect paced by Atakoglu's cascading piano lines, and on the dervish like 10/8 measures of “Trapped” with an industrial guitar woven through the pianists probing inventions. Combining the different influences, the outstanding “ESS” is a minimalist tune fronted by Franceschini's lurid tenor lines, a more balanced timbre between all the instruments, and an out and out rock and roll bridge. It cannot be overemphasized that Jackson and Hernandez together are killin', and are about as unstoppable a tandem as there can be going in modern jazz or fusion musics -- period! If you go back to the first recordings of Steps when Michael Brecker was with them, the similarities are quite clear, but they didn't have a pianist as formidable as Atakoglu. There's a lot to enjoy on this recording from a contemporary and historical standpoint, and as listeners should definitely own a copy of “If,” this one shows a willingness to expand, employ different styles, and bodes well for Atakoglu's next adventurous excursion.
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