19th Akbank Jazz Festival 15.-29.10.2009

Organized by Pozitif, The Akbank Jazz Festival will host the most important and respected jazz musicians of the world between October 15th and 25th and give a chance to young and successful jazz musicians to perform.

Akbank Jazz Festival, an important occasion for jazz lovers this year offers a wide range of activities. The most exciting names of the festival are Terje Rypdal & Ketil Bj¸rnstad, Cecil Taylor, Joe Lovano Us Five, Marilyn Mazur, Richard Bona, Vassilis Tsabropoulos, Aki Takase, Jose James and Fahir Atakoğlu. This year's concert venues are Akbank Art Centre, St. Irene Church, Cemal Reşit Rey Concert Hall, Ghetto, The Seed, Roxy and Asitane. During the festival there will also be concerts to be performed at four different universities together with the motto "Jazz in Campus".

Selections from Akbank 19th Jazz Festival...

Jazz from masters...

Akbank 19th Jazz Festival is hosting Terje Rypdal & Ketil Bj¸rnstad, Cecil Taylor, Joe Lovano Us Five, Marilyn Mazur in the category of "Jazz from Masters". One of the most exciting names of the festival Cecil Taylor will perform at Cemal Reşit Rey Concert Hall on Thursday, October 22. American pianist Cecil Taylor is considered to be a pioneering figure of avant-garde jazz with his unique approach to sound and music gives audiences a truly magical experience.

Lovano who has been awarded a Grammy award for "Best Large Ensemble" will a show dynamic, energetic and freely flowing performance at Cemal Reşit Rey on the 23rd of October.

Also, a concert worth noting will be by one of the most productive musicians of Norway, guitarist Terje Rypdal and arranger, composer and pianist Ketil Bj¸rnstad will perform at St. Irene's Church on Friday, October 16. At this concert, you will witness the collaboration between the pure and melodic world of acoustic piano and raw, rigid and uncompromising character of electric guitar.

Trio 3, consisting of Oliver Lake, Reggie Workman and Andrew Cyrille, has become one of the most sought after groups of modern jazz history, breaking the traditional boundaries with their energetic and improvised styles will perform in Babylon on 21st of October, Wednesday.

Another guest of the Akbank 19th Jazz Festival, world famous percussionist Marilyn Mazur will offer you a selection of her musical adventures with bells, cymbals, wooden percussions and drums in Cemal Reşit Rey Concert Hall on the 24th of October, Saturday.

World jazz in the same city for 10 days...

Akbank 19th Jazz Festival is bringing important jazz musicians from Africa, Greece, Japan and Iran together in the category of "World jazz". Vassilis Tsabropoulos, who is considered to be one of the greatest pianists of our time, will be the first performer of the festival starting on Thursday, October 15. Get ready to witness his humble, warm, mystical and lyrical performance at St. Irene's church. We advise jazz lovers who enjoy Tsabropoulos's performance to definitely watch Aki Takase's concert as well. Aki Takase started her music career when she was three years old and has received many awards during her career, will perform at Babylon at 22nd of October, Thursday.

The festival will become more colorful with the concert of Cameroonian bass musician Richard Bona which will take place at Cemal Reşit Rey Concert Hall on Saturday, October 24. Justin Adams and Juldeh Camara whose first album as a duo "Soul Science" awarded a BBC World Music Award will perform on Tuesday, October 20. Mixing African sound with Western sounds, referring to their unique sound as "Afrobilly", they have succeeded to create their own, individual brand of music. You can watch and enjoy this concert at Babylon. Akbank 19th Jazz Festival achieves to create a common language in music with Niyaz who is bringing a great mix of traditional Iranian melodies with electronic sounds will definitely enchant audiences in Ghetto on Thursday, October 22.

Nu-Jazz Comes; the Rhythm of the Festival Accelerates...

Akbank 19th Jazz Festival is also hosting the leading names of nu-jazz. Hypnotic Brass Ensemble which consists of Phil Cohran, who played trumpet in the legendary Sun Ra Arkestra, and his seven sons, blend different styles such as jazz, funk, soul and hip hop. They will perform at Babylon on Friday, October 16. Being referred to as the "hip hop generation's excellent jazz musician", master American vocalist Jose James will perform at Babylon on Friday, October 23. As one of the most exciting surprises of the festival, CocoRosie's great talent Celena Glenn aka Black Cracker will be accompanying Grand Pianoramax's interesting and amazing performance at Babylon on Wednesday, October 21.

And the others...

Akbank 19th Jazz Festival, which covers all aspects of jazz music has an appeal for all kinds of jazz lovers. The festival hosts Burçin Büke Quartet, Fahir Atakoğlu Trio, İlhan Erşahin's İstanbul Sessions, EVO Trio, Cenk Erdoğan Trio, Geraldine Laurent "Time Out Trio", Carl Ludwig Hübsch's Longrun Development of the Universe, Trio BraamDeJoodeVatcher Quartet Featuring Peter van Bergen and İmer Demirer Quartet in the category of "Contemporary Voices". Fahir Atakoğlu, one of the most famous musicians in Turkey, will perform at The Seed on Thursday, October 15. The other jazz musicians will be hosted at Akbank Art Center and Babylon. Bik Bent Braam "Extremen" and "konstruKt & Guests" will be the favorite names of the festival for "Big Band Jazz" lovers. This year, Andy Votel and Yakuza will be performing as the DJs during Akbank 19th Jazz Festival.

İlhan Erşahin's Istanbul Sessions, the guest of 'Jazz at Campus'

Young jazz lovers will have the chance to enjoy İlhan Erşahin's Istanbul Sessions Project within the frame of 'Jazz at Campus' category of Akbank Jazz Festival. The session will start with a short conversation of music, life and art, and will end with a mini concert. As the final event, a concert will be performed by surprising guests at Babylon on the 24th of October. World renowned musician "İlhan Erşahin" with his style created by saxophone and Rhodes, will be accompanied by groovy bass of Alp Ersönmez and mighty drums of Turgut Alp and agile rhythms of İzzet Kızıl.

All the things about Jazz...

There will also be workshops and panels as well as concerts during the festival. A music workshop will be directed by Hülya Tunçağ for children. A workshop called "Jazz in Movies"; will be moderated by Sevin Okyay; "Jazz photography" by Merih Akoğul, and "Generations of Jazz" by Feridun Ertaksan.

There will also be some new additions and venues to the festival, such as "Brunch with Jazz" which will be organized at Asitane. One of Turkey's young generation jazz groups Evo Trio will perform during this occasion at 11:30 AM on October 18th and October 25th.

An occasion called "Jazz at nightfall' will take place at Akbank Art Center's Cafe between 18:00 - 19:30 on October 17th and October 24th. During this occasion, jazz lovers will have the chance to listen to young talents of Turkish jazz.

Dreams Academy Rhythm Workshop will be organized with the participation and direction of J. Alfred Menhert, who is the founder of the Generation Orchestra, as well as an interactive percussion player at Roxy. Open to all children the workshop will spread to improvise jazz melodies starting with simple rhythms. An exclusive project called Dreams Academy "Social Inclusion Band" will follow three sessions of Rhythm Workshop.

Akbank 19th Festival starts on October 15th, 2009. Note this date to your agenda and buy your tickets in advance if you want to experience the city in a state of jazz!

The tickets are available at Biletix sales points!

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