01.11.2017
One of Turkey's longest-running festivals, Akbank Jazz Festival celebrated its 27th anniversary this year between November 3 - 19, 2017. Bringing together the respected names of the jazz world such as Cecil Taylor, Archie Shep, McCoy Tyner, Pharoah Sanders, Jimmy Smith, Enrico Rava, John Scofield & Joe Lovano, Manu Katché and David Sanborn as well as up-and-coming young musicians, the festival painted the city in all the colors of jazz once more with its rich program and its platform for music-enthusiasts to lose themselves in jazz.
Throughout the 27th Akbank Jazz Festival organized and created in cooperation with “Pozitif”, 53 concerts, 3 talks and 15 workshops were held in 36 separate venues including the Cemal Reşit Rey Concert Hall, Akbank Sanat, Babylon, Volkswagen Arena, The Seed, Caddebostan Culture Center, Moda Stage, Summart Art Center, Nardis ve Zorlu Performing Arts Center. The 17-day-long festival hosted a total of 180 artists.
Highlights from the 27th Akbank Jazz Festival
•The 27th Akbank Jazz Festival began on Thursday, November 2, 2017 with a special event at The Seed where the famous singer Vanessa Rubin took the stage.
•As it has always been each year, jazz-enthusiasts showed great interest in the 27th Akbank Jazz Festival. Tickets for many shows including Daniel Herskedal & Marius Neset Duo, Kenan Doğulu “ihtimaller”, Benedikt Jahnel Trio, Vanessa Rubin Trio and Ala.Ni were sold out days in advance.
•Among the most anticipated concerts of the festival was Bonobo’s show which took place at the Volkswagen Arena on Saturday, November 11 with 5,000 people in the audience.
•For the “Jazz Masters” part, the 27th Akbank Jazz Festival hosted Chucho Valdés and Gonzalo Rubalcaba, leading exponents of two generations in the great Cuban piano tradition, whose friendship, mutual admiration, and respect go back decades. Two of the most well-known artists of the jazz world performed their duo piano project at the Cemal Reşit Rey Concert Hall, playing popular pieces, the classic Cuban repertoire and pieces by Thelonious Monk at an unforgettable concert. The 27th Akbank Jazz Festival hosted a Turkish jazz veteran Emin Fıkdıkoğlu who, through the years, wore many hats as pianist, arranger, festival director, educator, and who now proudly leads his new big band Emin Fındıkoğlu + 12, consisting of a total of 15 jazz players. Among these players there are some next-gen jazz talents alongside jazz masters such as Şenova Ülker and İmer Demirer. Emin Fındıkoğlu + 12 took the stage in Babylon on Wednesday, November 8, in memory of Mehmet Uluğ.
•Some of the most popular concerts of the 27th Akbank Jazz Festival were performed by Ala.Ni, who was born in London and now has songs streamed over 2.5 million times on digital platforms, by an Ecuadorian producer and musician Nicola Cruz, by an English producer and musician Bonobo, by an American drummer and producer Mark Guiliana and by Mop Mop which fuses Afrobeats with an exotic soundscape.
•Hosting Kenan Doğulu and Sattas as part of its innovative projects, the 27th Akbank Jazz Festival witnessed the performances of many Turkish jazz artists such as İlhan Erşahin, Baki Duyarlar, Çağıl Kaya, Çağrı Sertel and Şenay Lambaoğlu alongside next-gen talents such as Evrencan Gündüz and Hakan Başar.
•The Akbank Jazz Blog, which went live in the middle of August and was updated throughout the festival, became a comprehensive jazz guide for the audience. The blog provided its subscribers with a rich world full of articles about cities and venues of jazz, albums that changed the history of jazz, unknown artists who contributed to the development of jazz and a jazz dictionary full of surprises. The content of the blog which was available both in Turkish and English was created by Bant Mag.
•As part of the festival, which was home to different social media projects also for its 27th anniversary, the followers of Akbank Sanat’s Instagram exhibition Images From Jazz, Sound From The City won surprise gifts. Inspired by 21 artists who exhibited their aesthetic conception through different forms of expression such as illustrations, collages, videos, stained glass designs, designs and photographs for the “Images from Jazz, Sound from the City” exhibition from July 12 – August 27, the followers who interpreted Istanbul using the images from jazz and gave their own perspective on the concept of City in a State of Jazz claimed their surprise gifts.
•For the 27th Akbank Jazz Festival, in cooperation with Akbank Sanat, Netherlands HKU University of the Arts Conservatory and Onedio, a never-before-seen application was created to provide the users with the opportunity to compose their own jazz pieces and share them via a web page: https://onedio.com/sehrincazhali
•At the 27th Akbank Jazz Festival, Akbank continued its Good State of the City volunteer project, which had been carried out with its employees for many years as part of its corporate social responsibility projects, to introduce volunteer projects to young people. 1,000 young people, who volunteered for public benefit initiatives as part of this very popular project, had the opportunity to watch Bonobo’s concert at the Volkswagen Arena on Saturday, November 11.
•The highly popular Jazz at Tea Time, Jazzy Brunch and Jazz in the Evening at Akbank Sanat Café events, which appeal not only to the ear but also to the palate, continued at the 27th Akbank Jazz Festival. This year’s events were hosted by MSA’s Restaurant, BizimTepe, Tamirane, Pera Palace Hotel Jumeirah, Mr. CAS and Akbank Sabat Café.
•The 27th Akbank Jazz Festival’s workshops and talks, drawing considerable attention, were held at different venues such as Stüdyo Harlem, Stüdyo Savoy, Akbank Sanat, Soho House and Pera Palace Hotel Jumeirah.
•Organized to reach out young people at high school age and introduce jazz music to them, the 6th “Jazz in High Schools” workshops attracted huge attention again at this year’s festival. As part of the “Jazz in High Schools” workshops giving students the opportunity to witness the artists’ creation process, students from Saint Benoit French High School, Galatasaray High School, Enka Schools, Istanbul American Robert’s College, Istanbul German School, Austria High School, SEV American College and Şişli Terakki High School got to meet Ercüment Orkut, Volkan Hürsever and Ediz Hafızoğlu and take a closer look at jazz music and instruments.
•Jazz on Campus concerts continue at the 27th Akbank Jazz Festival, too. From November 20 to December 1, Jazz on Campus, one of the most important events of the festival, will bring the colors of jazz to college students in Muğla, İzmir, Eskişehir, Bolu, Adana, Mersin, Kayseri and Ankara. As part of Jazz on Campus, singer, songwriter and poet Jehan Barbur will go on an unforgettable tour in Turkey with songs from her latest album “Evim Neresi”.