Jazz Articles about Berke Can Özcan

About Berke Can Özcan

Album Review

Berke Can Özcan & Jonah Parzen-Johnson: It Was Always Time

Read "It Was Always Time" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
October 15, 2024

In 2023, baritone saxophonist and electronics artist Jonah Parzen-Johnson performed at a benefit concert in Istanbul following a devastating earthquake that took tens of thousands of lives in Turkey and Syria. Parzen-Johnson had worked with diverse colleagues ranging from John Zorn to Pearl Jam, but each of his recordings had been a solo project. Minutes before taking to the stage in Istanbul, he met Turkish drummer Berke Can Özcan, and the two performed that evening as a duo. Inspired by ...

Album Review

Berke Can Özcan, Jonah Parzen-Johnson: Friendship Music for Turkey

Read "Friendship Music for Turkey" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
March 30, 2023

The Brooklyn-based Chicagoan Jonah Parzen-Johnson has created clever, thought-provoking lo-fi music across all six of his previous releases. Each is a solo performance with Parzen-Johnson on baritone saxophone and a customized analog synthesizer. His work is entirely unique, but with a passing nod to the birthright of great Chicago saxophonists. Istanbul's Berke Can Özcan is a drummer, multi-instrumentalist, and composer, who describes himself as something of a continual work-in-progress. Across his previous seven genre-less recordings, he has worked with a ...