Wednesday 20 January 2016

Stefano Bollani, Ankara Piyano Festivali, 19 Ocak 2016



Olağanüstü ve sıradışı... Dün gece Ankara'da gerçekleşen Stefano Bollani solo piyano konserini iki kelime ile niteleyecek olsam bunları seçerdim sanırım. Her ne kadar kendisini ECM albümleri ile takip etmiş olsam da, dün geceki performans benim ilk canlı Stefano Bollani deneyimimdi ve bu durum tahminimce Ankara'daki bir çok dinleyici için geçerlidir. Tüm ilk dinleyenler de benim gibi bu deneyimi bu kadar geciktirmenin ne kadar büyük bir kayıp olduğunu farketmişlerdir diye düşünüyorum.


Stefano Bollani tuşların üzerinde olanca rahatlığıyla gezinirken sizde de piyano çalma isteği uyandıran coşkulu piyanistlerden. Piyanosunun başında - bu konserde aynı zamanda rhodes'ta da- onu aynı anda hem bu kadar konsantre hem de bu kadar rahat görmek insanda gerçek bir güven duygusu oluşturuyor.

Her ne kadar konser tümüyle doğaçlama ve playlistsiz gibi görünse ve Stefano Bollani nadiren parçaları tanıtsa da, konserde popüler parçaların düzenlemeleri ile birlikte maestro'nun kendi bestelerini de çaldığını söyleyebiliriz. David Bowie'ye ithafen çalınan Life on Mars özellikle groovy bağlantıları ve tansiyon değişiklikleri ile sanırım bu parça için dinlediğim en iyi cover'dı. Genel manada performans hem kolay yakalanabilir melodilerin peşinde olan dinleyicileri hem de daha kompleks yapıların ve enerjik riflerin peşinde olan beklentisi yüksek caz dinleyicisini tatmin edecek düzeyde iyiydi. Bazı icralarda güçlü bir Brezilya müziği etkisi gördüm ki bir Brezilya bestesi de çalındı konserde. Piyanonun içini ve dışını bir perküsyon aleti gibi kullandığı anlar oldukça etkileyiciydi.

İlk bis adeta bir ilüzyon gösterisi gibiydi: Stefano Bollani türden ve tarihten bağımsız bir şekilde dinleyicilere ne dinlemek istediklerini sordu. Billy Jean, My Favourite Things, Hotel California, Hit The Road Jack ve Summertime kalabalıktan yükselen parça isimlerinin arasından kulağıma çalınanlardı. On adet parçayı bir kağıda yazıp koydu önüne Bollani ve "şimdi bunların hepsini içeren bir potpori çalacağım sizlere" dedi. Bu müthiş performans içerisinde sol elde Billy Jean'in, sağ elde ise Summertime'ın swing ettiği unutulmaz anlar da vardı; parçadan parçaya geçişlerde nefes kesici düzenlemelerle bizi yakalayan Hotel California da. Bazen tanıdık reggae partisyonları bile dinledik - hem de vokal destekle. Kesinlikle doğaçlamanın ötesinde bir tür ve icraydı. Stefano Bollani sanki bize her besteyi her formda, stilde ve tempoda istediği gibi doğaçlayabileceğini söyler gibiydi. 


Rahatlıkla söyleyebilirim ki dün gece Stefano Bollani'nin üniversitem ODTÜ'nün KKM'sinde yaptıkları Ankara dinleyicisinin uzun süre unutamayacağı cinstendi. Ankara'da uluslararası caz sahnesinin giderek görünmez hale geldiği şu günlerde hayat öpücüğü desek yeridir bu konser için. Bu da tabii ki Ankara Piyano Festivali'ni düzenleyen Fırat Dadaş sayesinde gerçekleşti. 


Stefano Bollani, Ankara Piano Festival, January 19th 2016



Remarkable and extraordinary... These are two words I can use to describe the solo piano performance of Stefano Bollani last night in Ankara. Even though I have been following him through some ECM albums, last night was the first time I have seen him live - most probably same applies to many jazz listeners in Ankara. Frankly, we -the first timers- saw very well what a great loss it is to let this experience hit us this much late.

Stefano Bollani is among those enthusiastic pianists who encourage you to jump and play next to him, while he is easily travelling on the keys. It may be confidence what you feel when you see his comfortable and concentrated state of mind on the piano - and on rhodes also in this concert.


Although the whole concert seemed to be improvisational and playlist-less and he barely introduced the pieces, we can say that there are many arrangements of some popular pieces as well as maestro's own compositions. Having played as a tribute to David Bowie, the performance of "Life on Mars" was among the best covers I have listened to with its groovy links and tensional changes. The overall performance was satisfactory both for listeners looking for catchy melodies and more demanding jazz followers running after complicated parts as well as energetic riffs. I felt a strong Brazilian music influence on some of the performances - and he actually played a Brazilian composition too in the concert. The moments when he used the outside and inside parts of the piano as a percussion instrument were also impressive.

The first encore was like an illusion show: Stefano Bollani wanted to hear what the audience wants to listen to, regardless of the genre or chronological order. Billy Jean, My Favourite Things, Hotel California, Hit The Road Jack and Summertime were among those I have heard from the crowd. He wrote ten of them on a paper and challenged to play them as a medley. What a medley it was! There were many magic moments during the performance such as we suddenly started to listen to some reggae partitions from Stefano Bollani -also as vocals- or Billy Jean was on his left hand while Summertime was swinging on the right. The moments when Hotel California emerges above others were so groovy and breathtaking. It was beyond improvisation. He was like telling us that he can play every composition improvisationally in every form, in every style and tempo.


Evidently, what Stefano Bollani did last night at the performance hall of my university METU is something that Ankara audience will not forget for a long time. Considering that international jazz scene is getting less visible each day in Ankara, this concert was like a life kiss - thanks to Ankara Piano Festival run by Fırat Dadaş.

Sunday 3 January 2016

İstanbul Caz Etkinlikleri - 2016'nın İlk Yarısı için Duyurulanlar






























İstanbul Türkiye'nin caz başkenti. Az olduğunu bilsem de Türkiye'den ve İstanbul'dan da yazılarımı takip edenler var. Takip edebildiğim kadarıyla 2016'nın ilk yarısı için öne çıkan performanslar şu şekilde. Zaman içerisinde duyurulanlarla birlikte liste güncellenebilir.:

28.01 - Vijay Iyer Solo Piano - İKSV 

10.02 - Mehmet İkiz - İKSV

17.02 - Sky Dive Trio - Akbank Sanat 


11.03 - Bugge 'N' Friends - Babylon


15.03 - Cecile McLorin Salvant - İş Sanat 

24.03 - Mark Guiliana Quartet - İKSV

30.03 - Go Go Penguin - Babylon 


31.03 - Tonbruket - İKSV


16-17.04 - Dena De Rose Trio - Nardis 


21.04 - Stacey Kent - Zorlu Center

23.04 - İbrahim Maalouf - Volkswagen Arena


28.04 - Jack DeJohnette - İş Sanat 


13.05 - Charles Lloyd & Jason Moran - İş Sanat 


22.05 - Avishai Cohen - İş Sanat

İstanbul Jazz Events - Announced So Far For The First Half of 2016











İstanbul is the jazziest city of Turkey. I tried to make a list of jazz events in İstanbul for the first half of 2016 that I am interested in. I know that some of my readers are thinking about a visit to İstanbul including some jazz concerts. For your information, for the second half we have İstanbul Jazz Festival on July and Akbank Jazz Festival on October. For now, this is what you have. You can see some edits to this as more concerts announced:

28.01 - Vijay Iyer Solo Piano - İKSV 

10.02 - Mehmet İkiz - İKSV

17.02 - Sky Dive Trio - Akbank Sanat 


11.03 - Bugge 'N' Friends - Babylon


15.03 - Cecile McLorin Salvant - İş Sanat 

24.03 - Mark Guiliana Quartet - İKSV

30.03 - Go Go Penguin - Babylon 


31.03 - Tonbruket - İKSV


16-17.04 - Dena De Rose Trio - Nardis 


21.04 - Stacey Kent - Zorlu Center

23.04 - İbrahim Maalouf - Volkswagen Arena


28.04 - Jack DeJohnette - İş Sanat 


13.05 - Charles Lloyd & Jason Moran - İş Sanat 


22.05 - Avishai Cohen - İş Sanat

Please Be An Official Follower For The Blog

Dear friends and followers,
It's been more than 3 years now since I started to write about music & jazz in my personal blog. Even the frequency decreased a little bit after my little baby, I still follow what's going on physically or online and try to share it with concerned readers. There is no financial reason for me to open this blog - for sure this blog opened a new path for me as a promoter but I still expect no money within these activities. All I want is to write and share what I listen to. Although I have been taken messages all around the world encouraging me to write more, I have never been able to see who is actually reading and following. That's why I opened a facebook page and tried to reach people individually in a dedicated manner. However facebook pages are almost useless without booster thing - which means it is produced for users to use booster and pay money. It seems that I need followers in my blog as well as in Google+. There was a problem to add followers to my blog for about a year but now I solved it. So if you are a reader of my blog and have a Google account please be an official follower from the upper part of left lane in my page.

Sincerely yours
Fatih

Saturday 2 January 2016

Spark Of Life, Marcin Wasilewski Trio with Joakim Milder, 2014

My first review of 2016 belongs to one of the best albums of 2014. It is a pity for me to miss listening to it in 2014 and adding to my best list at that time. Fortunately, I could catch the opportunity in the first quarter of 2015 after getting the album during Jazzahead in Bremen. As the title reminds at first sight, the album is like a spark. Frankly, an ECM album from long time Polish band Marcin Wasilewski Trio is a sufficient definition for any experienced listeners to have an idea; but adding Swedish Joakim Milder to many numbers in the album -as a tenor saxophone performer as well as a composer in one of them- seems to have created a very important temptation for European Jazz followers to listen the result of this collaboration. For me, a top notch woodwind collaboration of Joakim Milder with Marcin Wasilewski Trio in Spark of Life, creates an opportunity for listeners to make a sightseeing over a very well designed and standing still medieval city with a transparent flying carpet. We look at the trio's performance from different perspectives thanks to this carpet without adding any observer bias.

We see four compositions from Marcin Wasilewski one of which - the title track - is performed twice in different versions. One number is composed by Joakim Milder. Sting's Message in a BottleHey's Do rycerzy, do szlachty, do mieszczan, Herbie Hancock's Actual Proof and Komeda's Sleep Safe and Warm are covers which are performed in interesting arrangements. There is also a Slawomir Kurkiewicz’s arrangement for a composition by Grazyna Bacewicz.





Marcin Wasilewski waits for drum and bass to join him before passing from his solo part to the main theme in the introduction part of the first piece Austin. Then, a very familiar Wasilewski Trio style spreads to our ears and promises us an album deserving a dedicated listening session from beginning to end. This is a style which is aware that silence is as important as sounds. The low level crashes coming from Michał Miśkiewicz's drum set are just amazing. While the main theme is being carried out by the piano, the whole sound feels like spring promised by snows melting next to a river.

Ladies and Gentlemen, we can be listening to one of the most amazing entrances made for a jazz piece in Sudovian Dance. A very catchy melody is very successfully presented by a sublime piano tone and a very minimal, touchy rhythm section. Above all, there flies a very dignified and confident saxophone which creates a magic ambiance. The main theme seems to carry some reflections from Eastern Europe roots considering also the title and the rhythm. The first cool sentences of Joakim Milder is answered by a short piano response and then the saxophone starts to talk with a more lyrical wording. The first part is ended with some saxophone partitions which signals a change. This change is also dominated by Joakim Milder. A ballad-like performance of him proves once again that he added another important album to his guest-musician-discography. His very controlled and lyrical sound seems to be a very organic part of Marcin Wasilewski Trio and this very well defined sound is like the 4th dimension to trio's 3D world. 




We are at that very first time when an electrical -maybe divine maybe not- touch is about to initialize life on earth. First percussive particles of Spark of Life seems to symbolize some inorganic ancestors who waits for some woodwinds to hit in order to turn them into living beings. The title track is really strong and impressive not only with its touchy saxophone partitions but also with the trio's improvisational collaboration while responding to Joakim Milder. 

Do rycerzy, do szlachty, do mieszczan... The knights, nobles, burghers... A cover from famous Polish band Hey... As reflected in the title, we have some kind of caste system attached to individual parts of the music: I think the piano belongs to nobles with its imperious style, whereas the saxophone acts as a spokesman for the public - can we say burghers - with a very naive and grievous sound. Drum and bass creates a reliance for the listener and shows the way both for piano and saxophone - just as knights... 

Message in a Bottle is covered many times by jazz musicians. According to the documentary "Musical Brain", it is not coincidence that there are so many hits belonging to Sting. In this documentary, a software running on a database created by all popular hits found out that almost all Sting's pieces carry all the necessary components to be a hit. For sure, the main component is simplicity which makes a piece catchy for a massive number of audience. So we can say that Message in a Bottle is a simple piece, at least considering my above very scientific explanation, which can be unnecessary for an album review. Although it is easy to cover that piece and there are so many around, only some can be complex and delicate enough for the listeners who desire much more. Marcin Wasilewski Trio manages to play this hit in a very jazzy manner and turns it into a very different thing. Especially Marcin Wasilewski works hard to fill all the dots specified by Sting and he also adds a great solo part. The double bass solo of Sławomir Kurkiewicz needs a closer attention too.

Sleep Safe and Warm is another very well known piece especially in European Jazz albums made by Polish musicians. Being a legendary composition and a part of a famous soundtrack and movie, it deserves to be played over and over. Komeda has a very special meaning for Marcin Wasilewski Trio since it gave an inspiration and title to one of their first albums. This arrangement and cover is unique mostly thanks to Joakim Milder's beautiful performance.

We find the opportunity to listen to the trio in their basic format in the middle of the album with Three Reflections. The minimal brush rhythms and low frequency and level double bass accompaniment to soft piano touches create what we very well know as simple acoustic trio. This type of music may not even need a composition to impress the listener. It's like a river flowing on its bed from a high level source to a sea. By its own potential energy the sound turns into music. I really liked the tensional rise through the end of the performance, resembling to the rage of waters.

Joakim Milder's catchy composition Still has an obvious Scandinavian soul - melancholic but energetic too. Although it is initially and mainly driven by Joakim Milder's amazing tone, in my humble opinion, the piano dominated trio performance in the middle, needs a closer attention too. The last part where the quartet rises the tension in a very harmonious manner and Michał Miśkiewicz uses the whole dynamic range of his set, is another attractive performance of the piece.

Herbie Hancock's electrical masterpiece Actual Proof finds a very acoustical place in the album. Even it is surely played with pure acoustical instruments of the trio, the arrangement and the styles sounds to carry some electrified soul. The drum solo encouraged by the piano is impressive.

Largo -arranged by Slawomir Kurkiewicz’s for the composition of Grazyna Bacewiczis like a calm and a little bit cold sea port through the end of the album with its dark ambiance parts. We listen to nice and hopeful bass solo in the beginning and the end is also another hopeful trio performance. Between them, the trio travels around classical music part of jazz. 

The trio version of Spark of Life says a very soft goodbye to the audience in the end of the album. 

The album was recorded in Lugano in March 2014 and produced by Manfred EicherStefano Amerio, Morten Dalbaek and Gildas Bocle are names behind the desk in the studio. There is not much to say about recording or sound quality of an ECM album. It's one of the references that you can show people how detailed and sharp a jazz album can be recorded, mixed and mastered.

I am adding here a sample from the album - my favourite one:  


Marcin Wasilewski Trio seems to be still on tours for this album including Belgium and Netherlands. You can see the details from their website: http://marcinwasilewskitrio.com/tour/