Jazz festival to hosts stars

ISTANBUL

The 22nd Istanbul Jazz Festival, organized by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (IKSV), will begin on June 27, promising more than 35 concerts at 15 venues with some of the world’s biggest names in jazz and folk.

The festival will host over 250 local and international acts in Istanbul, including masters of folk, blues and jazz like Joan Baez, Jools Holland, Marcus Miller, Melody Gardot and Tigran Hamasyan. 

The festival will also bring the magic of jazz to the city’s Asian part with “Jazz in the Parks” and “Kadıköy Night Out.”

The festival will open with Emin Fındıkoğlu’s new project Emin Fındıkoğlu+12 in the garden of the Austrian Cultural Office in Yeniköy on June 27 at 9 p.m. 

A well-respected jazz musician, pianist and composer, Fındıkoğlu will also receive the festival’s Lifetime Achievement Award this year. The opening night will also present the much acclaimed R&B vocalist Bora Uzer with his project specially tailored for the festival. 

The festival will host jazz prodigy Hamasyan with two special projects. On June 30, Hamasyan will render traditional Armenian music at the Hagia Eirene Museum, where he will be joined by the Yerevan State Chamber Music Choir, directed by Harutyun Topikyan for his chamber choir project Luys i Luso. 

This project will be performed at 100 different churches around the world before an album of the recordings are released in September. 

Hamasyan will meet jazz-lovers for the second time on July 1 at the Cemal Reşit Rey (CRR) Concert Hall for a lilting and melodic concert with his trio. 

Resembling indie-rock musicians with his stage energy, Hamasyan will be joined by Sam Minaie on the bass and Arthur Hnatek on the drums. 

Baez, a legendary folk musician, will be in Istanbul once again after 11 years at the Cemil Topuzlu Open Air Theater on July 1, singing her unforgettable ballads like “Diamonds and Rust,” “Donna Donna” and “Queen of Hearts,” along with other classics like “House of the Rising Sun,” “Let it Be,” and “Forever Young.”

A pioneering symbol in folk music, Baez was awarded with the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007 and celebrated the 55th year of her career in 2013. 

Musical excursion with Marcus Miller

A regular guest at the Istanbul Jazz Festival, bass genius Marcus Miller, well-known for his impressive technique and brilliant albums, is back at the festival with his latest project, Afrodeezia, on July 2 at the Cemil Topuzlu Open Air Theater.

At the concert, Miller will return to the roots of his legacy and, together with his new band, take his audience on a musical excursion from jazz to Latin music, afro-beat and reggae.

Miller will be joined by the percussionist prodigy and multi-instrumentalist Mino Cinelu, saxophonist Alex Han, guitarist Adam Agati, pianist Brett Williams, and drummer Louis Cato. Before the concert, the TRT Istanbul Jazz Orchestra will perform. 

European Jazz Club nights at Salon İKSV 

The European Jazz Club series that brings accomplished figures of the Turkish jazz scene together with European virtuosos, will continue to present new projects at Salon İKSV in its ninth edition. The series will spread through the course of the Istanbul Jazz Festival.

At the first concert of the series to be held on June 30, Şenol Küçükyıldırım’s band WeeD, with Çağlayan Yıldız and Şevket Akıncı on the guitar and Murat Çopur on the bass guitar, strolls on the borders of sounds in search of the still-undiscovered. In the concert, the WeeD will feature Dutch cellist Ernst Reijseger.

On July 3, Ediz Hafızoğlu will perform with his Nazdrave, a project from late 2014 that has drawn attention for the collaborations he pursued with diverse musicians. 

The Istanbul Jazz Festival will also release a festival CD, featuring a selection of works by this year’s guest artists in cooperation with the EMI Turkey. The program of the festival can be checked out on caz.iksv.org/en as well as through the İKSV Mobile app. In addition to İKSV Mobile app, the festival program is also available through the İKSV Kitaplık app, which may be downloaded for free from the AppStore.