Bozcaada Jazz Festival has taken place since 2017 on a small island which is about 5 hours by car – plus a 30 minute ferry ride – from Istanbul. Just a few minutes outside the island’s main town, it has a proper outdoor festival site with areas to relax, eat and drink, as well as a stage area which has a certain intimacy to it.
It certainly seems to inspire the best from the musicians. It’s not really a festival for sitting and listen intently, because the audience area by the stage is standing room only. Generally the music worked best when it could appeal easily to the young crowd, numbering over 1000 a night, many of whom were there to savour the atmosphere as much as the music. The festival was nevertheless a catalyst to explore, listen and learn about some of the musicians on the local jazz scene.
I managed to get a snapshot of the first two nights. The groups balance the Turkish with visiting bands from elsewhere. For example, there was Alfa Mist from the UK, Girls In Airports from Denmark and Léo Phal from France. Saxophonist Phal certainly delivered quite a full-on set. It showed how music is a universal language, as we had French musicians communicating so well with an audience almost solely Turkish.
While it doesn’t generally seem to be an audience looking for the most adventurous radical musicians, it proved to be very appreciative and attentive for the concert by Klein, the band of Jérome Klein from Luxembourg. Klein is always striking as a multi-instrumentalist, both on keyboards and drums. It had an almost trancelike feel to it.
Amongst the local musicians, we heard Aydin Esen, one of the father figures of the recent Turkish scene, with a career that has included working with Wolfgang Muthspiel and Dave Liebman. The band included his wife, the vocalist Randy Esen. This was a dynamic group with influences of some of the best fusion over the years, such as Headhunters. The Bozcaada Ensemble was made up of some of the musicians who are often to be heard in Istanbul at venues such as Nardis Jazz Club. They mainly seemed to focus on jazz standards.
It was also a chance to get to identify some of the trends in the local jazz scene beyond the festival. On one lunchtime, we were lucky to hear a solo bass set by Esat Ekincioğlu, a dynamic young player, whom I had recently heard both with AVA Ensemble in Schwaz and Kuhn-Fu in Groningen, two very diverse groups. Very communicative in his playing and taking advantage of the percussive nature of the instrument’s body while adding extra percussion with ankle bells. Its earthiness at times reminded me of Charlie Haden.
Some of the younger players seem to get their ultimate stimulus by mixing their times in Turkey with other homes, especially if they want more diversity, such as from the freer end. Ekincioğlu lives in Groningen. In London, we already have Aydin’s son Cenk (who played recently at the Vortex with the band Dreamscapes). Saxophonist Korhan Futaci, who’s played Cafe Oto a few times with his band Konstrukt, is about to move here.
The area itself has exciting history and locations. Bozcaada has very strong Greek connections. Çanakkale, the main city on the mainland near Bozcaada, is on the Dardanelles and where the Gallipoli catastrophe took place in 1915. Halfway between Çanakkale and Bozcaada is the prime archaeological site of Troy. So, to the charm of an island which steeped in its history, wine, food and glorious sunsets… we can now add jazz.
Oliver Weindling was the guest of Go Türkiye and Bozcaada Jazz Festival
