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Burak Bedikyan: Introspection
by Hrayr Attarian
Pianist Burak Bedikyan's sixth release on Steeplechase, the absorbing Introspection, took shape around a short, commissioned piece. The organizers of Turkey's oldest jazz festival, the Akbank, asked for the composition for its thirtieth anniversary in 2021. As Bedikyan started work on this, he improvised extensively on his home piano and recorded these experiments. The result is moving and contemplative music which is melancholic yet hopeful, simultaneously ethereal and earthy. The angular “Call for Peace" opens with sparse chimes ...
read moreBurak Bedikyan: Istanbul Junction
by Hrayr Attarian
Istanbul-born and New York-based pianist Burak Bedikyan is an inventive composer and intelligent improviser with a subtle touch. His fifth release, the intimate and cinematic Istanbul Junction, showcases his talents fully as he leads a new band through nine of his captivating originals. The album's overall ambience is dramatic and darkly-hued, and the various tracks expand within it with vibrant poetry. The main theme of “Moods," for example, consists of expectant and simmering refrains. These progress into an ...
read moreBurak Bedikyan: New Beginning
by Hrayr Attarian
On his fourth release as a leader, the thoughtful and captivating New Beginning, pianist Burak Bedikyan has matured both as a composer and improviser. The album is Bedikyan's first with a trio and consists mostly, although not entirely, of original material. The cadence and the melody within each piece transform in delightfully surprising ways while maintaining thematic consistency both within individual tracks and among them. For instance, “Rue Dauphin" starts off with Bedikyan's contemplative, unaccompanied refrains. Bassist Jay ...
read moreBurak Bedikyan: Awakening
by Hrayr Attarian
On his third release as a leader, Istanbul based pianist, Burak Bedikyan seamlessly blends his dual education in western classical and jazz and his national/ethnic heritage into an intriguing and cohesive album. Awakening comprises of nine Bedikyan originals that are elegantly crafted balancing intricate harmonies with deceptively effortless fluidity. The gently rolling refrains on the lilting ballad “Mother Earth," for instance, have a warm, Near Eastern lyricism. Saxophonist Loren Stillman embellishes the melancholic theme with yearning spontaneous phrases ...
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