Istanbul Jazz Festival announces program
ISTANBUL
The 25th Istanbul Jazz Festival, organized by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (IKSV), will offer a festival experience full of discoveries between June 26 and July 17. The festival will feature over 50 concerts with veterans and new discoveries of jazz, well-known ensembles, and new horizons of contemporary music across 27 different venues.
The program of the festival was announced at a press meeting held on April 10 at the Zorlu PSM Sky Lounge with the participation of IKSV General Director Görgün Taner, Garanti Bank Corporate Brand Management and Marketing Communications Director Elif Güvenen, festival director Pelin Opcin, and assistant director Harun İzer.
Perhaps the biggest name to feature at this year’s festival is Australian singer, lyricist, composer, scriptwriter, poet and actor Nick Cave, who has inspired countless artists throughout his 45-year career, and his band The Bad Seeds. They will perform in Istanbul on July 10 at Küçükçiftlik Park.
Other surprises of the festival this year include one of the undisputedly magnificent voices in rock history, Robert Plant and his band The Sensational Space Shifters; Benjamin Clementine, a unique voice behind marvelous ballads of love, melancholy and rebellion; Melody Gardot, with her category-defying music and expressive vocals; Caro Emerald, who brings the golden age of jazz and swing closer to popular genres with her high energy and voice; BADBADNOTGOOD, a quartet composed of saxophone, drums, keyboards, and bass guitar from Toronto; piano virtuoso Robert Glasper and his new band R + R = Now; and Avishai Cohen, with his tunes blending modern jazz with Middle Eastern, Eastern European and Afro-American influences.
The festival will also see performances by genre-bending bass guitarist Derrick Hodge; jazz trumpeter Christian Scott; multi-instrumentalist Taylor McFerrin; composer Omar Sosa; Cuban-born Swiss jazz artist Yiliañ Canizares; and the man behind Kendrick Lamar’s chart-topping hits, Terrace Martin.
Following the success of the first edition in 2017, the festival will once again organize “Vitrin: Showcase for Contemporary Music from Turkey,” which supports successful musicians and ensembles of the local scene in their global outreach on June 27 and 30.
During the first four days of the festival, a group of international delegates composed of leading representatives of international music industry and journalists will explore contemporary music from Turkey together with festival audiences at a series of events.
One of the hallmarks of the festival, an over-night music marathon “Night Out,” will hand over nine different venues on the Asian side of the city to some of the most promising independent artists of the local scene.
Also the free open-air event, “Jazz in the Parks,” will this year spread beyond its traditional venues - Fenerbahçe Khalkedon and the Fenerbahçe Park - and bring jazz music to a newer park on the outskirts of Istanbul: Beylikdüzü Life Valley Park on the European side of the city. The festival program will also feature “A Childlike Day,” which will include performances and workshops penned for children.
Tickets for the 24th Istanbul Jazz Festival will go on sale on April 18.