Akbank Jazz Festival,which is one of the longest running festivals of Turkey, brought worldwide renowned jazz artists together with music lovers. During the festival, which covered the city with different colors of jazz for three weeks between the 3rd and 21st of October 2012, 63 concerts were performed in 10 cities with the participation of 300 artists. The festival was full of workshops, panels, competitions, jazz brunches, Jazz at the Campus and Jazz at the High Schools Workshops in addition to the rich concert program.
The festival hosted worldwide renowned jazz artists in our country in its 22nd year, as it does every year, and it provided young musicians with the opportunity to showcase their performances and share the same stage with the masters of jazz. The 22nd Akbank Jazz Festival took place in 38 different venues including Lütfi Kırdar International Congress and Exhibition Center, Akbank Sanat, Babylon, Nardis, The Seed and Caddebostan Culture Center.
Notes from the 22nd Akbank Jazz Festival
The 22nd Akbank Jazz Festival started with the opening concerts of The Three Ladies of Bluesin Babylon and the Snow Owl Quartet in Akbank Sanat on the 3rd of October 2012, Wednesday.
Some of the most prominent names in the Festival were Anthony Braxton, who is musician, composer, philosopher and teacher, Greek pianist and composer Eleni Karaindrou,who is one of the most important film and theater music composers of our day; Ibrahim Maalouf, who added a new dimension to the jazz trumpet; Rudresh Mahanthappa, who is widely appreciated for his peculiar tone; Gregory Porter, who defined as "the next biggest male jazz vocal" by music critics;German jazz pianist Jens Thomas, who adapted songs of the rock group AC/DC to jazz and Norwegian writer, composer and pianist Ketil Bjørnstad.
Swedish trombone virtuoso and vocalist; Nils Landgren, German pianist Michael Wollny ,who received the ECHO Jazz Award, Johan Norberg, who is most respectable guitarists of the Scandinavian music scene; Swedish musician Lars Danielsson, who redrew the limits of his instrument contrabass; German drummer Wolfgang Haffner, who has contributed to more than 250 albums; Cæcilie Norby, who is jazz diva of Denmark; Céline Bonacina, who is one of the important names of baritone saxophone and Finnish trumpet player Verneri Pohjola, shared the same stage for The ACT Jubilee Nightconcert, which was another special project of the Festival.
The Akbank Jazz Festival, which brings together musicians from different parts of the world, also hosted masters of jazz and young talents from Turkey during the festival.Such as Erkan Oğur Anatolian Blues, Baki Duyarlar’s “Time of Spring”, Önder Focan & Meltem Ege Group-Songbook, Islak Köpek & Serra Yılmaz, Barıştık mı and Yakaza Ensemble.
Stars and Young Talents of the Turkish Jazz came together at JAmZZ
“JAmZZ Akbank Jazz Festival Young Talents Competition”, which was organized for the second time this year, within the context of; 22nd Akbank Jazz Festival, drew great interest from all over Turkey, again. 12 candidates, who were in the finals of the competition, took the stage before the final night on the 14th of October 2012. As a result of the jury, Olgun Acar (drums) - The Best Performance, Gürtuğ Gök (alto saxophone) - The Best Improvisation and Melisa Kıral (vocal) - The Best Interpretation were rewarded as the winners. In addition to these categories, the jury granted the honorable mention award to Paşa Çelik (electro guitar), Sanat Deliorman (vocal) and Fulya Akça (vocal) for their successful performance. Winners of the competition took the stage in the Jam Session, organized at Babylon with a star group of Aydın Esen, Cengiz Baysal, İmer Demirer, Ayşe Gencer and Volkan Hürsever on 15th of October 2012, Monday. These young talents, who ranked as the top three in the competition will also attend the workshops, which will be held at Venice Jazz Festival and they will receive education from the instructors of the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music Academy in New York in subjects such as musical theory, ear training and rhythm.
Jazz at the Campus met the Students in the Universities
Jazz at the Campus, which was organized for the fourth time this year, as a part of the Akbank Jazz Festival, carried the excitement and thrill of jazz to university students at 14 universities in 9 different cities in addition to Istanbul on 8th and 18th of October. At the Jazz at the Campus concerts, Elif Çağlar, Çağrı Sertel, Barana and Ceylan Ertem met together with the university students.