And October means the start of the new arts season. For a music lover in İstanbul, however, October is usually synonymous with jazz because the annual Akbank Jazz Festival has been taking place during this month for almost two decades now.The program for this year's festival, which has adopted the slogan “The city in the state of jazz,” was announced this week. The 19th edition, scheduled for Oct. 15-25, will offer a lineup that is quite likely to satisfy jazz buffs, especially considering the difficulty of maintaining a festival's standards in times of economic crisis such as the one we are currently experiencing.
Terje Rypdal and Ketil Bjørnstad, Cecil Taylor, Joe Lovano, Marilyn Mazur, Richard Bona, Vassilis Tsabropoulos, Aki Takase, Jose James and Fahir Atakoğlu are the greatest surprises at this year's festival. As usual, the festival will also introduce a number of promising young talents to festivalgoers as part of its mission to encourage and promote emerging jazz musicians.
At this year's festival, the venues are more diverse with the addition of The Seed and Roxy clubs and the historic Asitane Restaurant. Venues such as the Akbank Art Center, the Hagia Eirene Museum, the Cemal Reşit Rey (CRR) Concert Hall and the Babylon and Ghetto clubs will continue hosting the festival as in previous years.
Dates that should be noted include Oct. 22, when pianist Taylor, one of the pioneers of free jazz, will perform a gig at the CRR, and Oct. 23, when Lovano, a Grammy award-winning acclaimed saxophonist, will grace the same venue. An onstage collaboration between Norwegian guitarist Rypdal and pianist Bjørnstad is scheduled for Oct. 16 at the Hagia Eirene. Trio 3, formed by Oliver Lake, Reggie Workman and Andrew Cyrille, will perform on Oct. 21 at the Babylon. World-famous percussionist and multi-instrumentalist Mazur will delight audiences on Oct. 24 at the CRR.
The festival has something to offer for jazz enthusiasts of all kinds, particularly in its Contemporary Voices program, which will feature acts such as the Burçin Büke Quartet, the Fahir Atakoğlu Trio, İlhan Erşahin's İstanbul Sessions, the EVO Trio, the Cenk Erdoğan Trio and the İmer Demirer Quartet. Atakoğlu will be onstage Oct. 15 at The Seed, while the other names in the lineup will perform at either the Akbank Art Center or the Babylon club.
One of the biggest novelties the festival offers this year is the Brunch With Jazz sessions, featuring the EVO Trio and scheduled for Oct. 18 and 25 at the Asitane Restaurant in Edirnekapı. Jazz Evenings at Akbank Art Café will be another refreshing alternative on Oct. 17 and 24, offering a chance to discover up-and-coming jazz talents in Turkey. For the full program, visit www.akbanksanat.com/jazz_festival. Tickets can be purchased at Biletix sales points.
