FAITH IN MUSIC: ACT

Showing posts with label ACT. Show all posts

Wednesday, 7 May 2014

Arne Jansen, The Sleep of Reason, Ode To Goya, 2013

It was like love at first sight. The first time his album started spinning inside the player with his modestly named tune (compared to a qualified guitarist almost at the age of forty) "Still Learning", I was truly impressed by this work of Berlin based guitarist Arne Jansen which came as a debut from the label ACT in May 2013. The album caught me not only with this smooth introduction but also with the first sentence of the liner notes which is a quote from Francisco de Goya (the inspiration residing on the back bone of the whole album): "Imagination abandoned by Reason produces impossible monsters; united with her, she is the mother of the arts and the source of their wonders." This quote and the Goya's related painting -Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters, 1799- gives its title to this work.

Arne Jansen has been playing with many bands such as Jazzanova, Nils Wülker Group and Firomanum as well as with his own trio for years. In addition to 5 years in University of Art, Berlin, he has studied with prominent jazz guitarists such as Pat Metheny, John Abercrombie and Kurt Rosenwinkel. He has two albums with Firomanum in his discography and two more with his own trio (Younger Than That Now and My Tree). His last album The Sleep of Reason, Ode to Goya (first from ACT), which is the main subject in my review, has been very successful and he received ECHO Jazz Award in 2014 as "Instrumentalist of the year national / guitar".

The most impressive feature of the album The Sleep of Reason for me is Arne Jansen's dignified and unique guitar tone. From beginning to end we listen to a guitarist who is concentrated on nuances of each note he plays. In my humble opinion, the warm texture of the album is mostly created by his warm sound. Besides, his talent in composing is evident both for the fresh authenticity and complexity in the album. The compositions (and arrangements) are not as easy as a boring Kenny G. performance and are not as complex as some analytically designed piano trio work. We can easily define the overall genre of the album as jazz but with a strong connection to progressive rock and some tangential links to fusion. Another point to be mentioned is the success of drummer Eric Schaefer, who is an ACT artist too. His contribution in the groove of the whole album is huge. Andreas Edelmann (bass), Friedrich Paravicini (Hammond organ, keys, cello, vibraphone), Stephan Braun (cello), Nils Wülker (flugelhorn) are other musicians accompanying Arne Jansen in various tracks. Co-producer Axel Reinemer (with Arne Jansen) made the recording and mixing in the Jazzanova Studios in Berlin. The mastering is accomplished by Klaus Scheuermann.

Stilll Learning is like an easy and white entrance to the building of the album each of whose walls are painted with a different colour. The composition has a catchy melody and Arne Jansen's unique guitar tone concentrated on tails of each sound makes the piece an impressive one.

Rise & Fall is getting the listener warmer with its progressive-like structure which is actually turning around a single main theme and coloured by some energetic transitions between variations of this theme. Eric Schaefer's impressive energy on the drum set is obvious in this piece. Check especially how he fills all the space given to him by naive bass and guitar.

Love is Blindness is a hit from U2 and it faces us with a very nice arrangement in this album. The performance starts with a calm, dignified and low level guitar tone. This feels like a wise-man starts to talk in a crowded meeting and everyone around locks into his voice. Less is more. The tail of the sounds of the guitar let the listeners think and concentrate. Arne Jansen's control over what he produces from his instrument is impressive. Galloping-like rhythms of the drums, which are achieved mostly on toms and started after some cello addition from Stephan Braun, let the tune enter to a new stage where Arne Jansen is driving on high registers increasing the tension.

The arrangement for Jeff Beal's Golden looks like a basic solo acoustic guitar piece at first sight. The arpeggio-like introduction followed by long, solid and durable notes from the guitar gives a pastoral aura to the piece.

The Great He-Goat is a powerful composition with surprising rise & falls. Especially the double bass solo in the middle and the transition part between the main body and this double bass solo, whose deep background is built up by guitar, Hammond and drums, worth attention.

Pilgrimage's rock-like sound is dominated by distortion guitar and it carries a little bit progressive feeling. Even the first parts may sound hard, there is also a very peaceful aura where the quartet can talk to each other and the layers of each dialogue is very "al dente".

San Antonio starts with a virtuosic and multi-layer guitar which is accompanied by nice tone of Nils Wülker's flugelhorn later on. A dialogue between two instruments based on a nice pictorial story is supplied by some keys.

Divina sounds almost like a piano trio piece. The naive and mid-tempo main theme is carried by guitar. The bass solo is again impressive and melodic. The drum partitions are cymbal dominant and rich in texture. The tensional rise and falls are followed by the band members in a flawless harmony.

Tauromaquia starts like a Spanish song carrying an additional distortion for the guitar. We experience once again a virtuosic and successful trial on the instrument. It is fast and energetic. The drummer Eric Schaefer is very well at playing from low volumes and he has a tremendous control on his instrument while he is decreasing the width of his movements without letting the granularity of his touches disappear.

Presentiments is a naive solo guitar piece, which is almost like a signal to the ending of the album. If the spacing between last two tracks were shorter, I could easily define Presentiments as the intro of the next piece, Brothers in Arms.

With Brothers in Arms Arne Jansen and his band present another arrangement for a popular rock song (by Dire Straits). The introduction of this slow tempo work is made by multi-layer guitar which is accompanied by some drum texture and basic bass lines. The guitar stays alone for a while after this introduction with its reverberant tone which makes the audience feels alone too, and then -with sudden touches of drummer on snare- the band makes an impressive return to where they left.

Nowadays, Arne Jansen is performing mostly with Jazzanova, his own trio (Eric Schaefer and Andreas Edelmann) or Nils Wülker Group. You can see his schedule to listen to him lively:
http://www.arnejansen.com/category/concerts/

Saturday, 15 February 2014

Iiro Rantala: The String Trio's First Album, "Anyone With A Heart" and A Retrospective Look to The Pianist's Discography

What Frank Zappa said cynically about music writers, paradoxically proves that writing is also an art form even it is for music: "Writing about music is like dancing about architecture." Yes, that's right. Trying to express the details of an architectural piece by dancing is as hard as to explain what is going on during a musical performance by words. It may seem to be as unnecessary as dancing in front of a building for some people; but writing a good review is not an easy thing. So is finding a real good melody for a musical composition nowadays. Composers have used indefinitely many melodic structures throughout the music history, some of which became so successfully famous that the melodies can easily be recognized even if the composers' names are not remembered. Being full of many already discovered melodies, the music in new millennium pushes musicians especially in jazz to do extraordinary things in styles, rhythms or sound. Some may show technical perfection and complexity as the necessary and sufficient conditions for an impressive jazz performance, whereas some may see the blues and swing as "sine qua non" for this. However, finding a catchy, unique and longevous melody is still one of the most important aspects of a successful musical piece regardless of the genre. In other words, what you play is as important as how you play it.

Having been already known for his success in composing and finding really impressive melodies in his famous Trio Töykeät period (1988-2006), Finnish pianist Iiro Rantala seems to have increased the weight of the melodies in his works with his ACT related career, which started in 2011 with the fantastic solo album Lost Heroes. Iiro Rantala was born in 1970 and his relation with classical music goes back to childhood where we can see Bach's impression on the musician. Besides, after his education in Jazz Department of Sibellius Academy in Finland, he studied classical music in Manhattan School of Music. He has taken place in 7 albums and approximately 2000 concerts of his jazz trio. We can also see his name in many classical albums, performances and compositions. Thanks to both his connection to classical genre and his long time experience in jazz, what we hear at first sight was a self-confident performance of a virtuoso jazz pianist on very well composed pieces in this solo album. Dedicated to many passed away musicians such as Pekka Pohjola, Bill Evans, Esbjörn Svensson, Michel Petrucciani and Luciano Pavorotti, each piece somewhat has a connection to the inspiring name with its style or emotion. In my opinion, this album has become one of the most precious pieces in solo jazz piano history. Let me remind you that with the release of the album, Iiro Rantala is awarded both by German Critics and ECHO Jazz. Following this success, the second album from ACT is named My History of Jazz and created in 2012 by a collaboration with Swedish bassist Lars Danielsson, Polish violinist Adam Bałdych and Danish drummer Morten Lund. Iiro Rantala expressed his wide connection to jazz obviously not only by playing many different sub-genres such as swing, bebop, smooth jazz, Nordic but also by starting and ending the album with Johann Sebastian Bach's Arias and inserting an individual improvisation based on Goldberg Variations between each piece. He directly says in the liner notes "I've never been into blues piano or so called main stream jazz. That's why they're missing on the album." Since he has taken stage with pianists Leszek Moźdźer and Michael Wollny for the first Jazz at Berlin Philharmonic concert which is recorded as a live album and released in 2013; I think Iiro Rantala can surely said to be one of the most important pianists of ACT label. I heard with my own ears that Siggi Loch (founder of ACT) found him very impressive for his wide spectrum in styles and talent in playing the classical music as well as jazz.

It seems that the collaboration between Adam Bałdych and Iiro Rantala from the record My History of Jazz is in the roots of the latest album which came again from ACT in 2014: Anyone With A Heart. Iiro Rantala formed a string trio for this record adding Crotian cellist Asja Valcic next to Adam Bałdych. Actually this is not the first time we see Iiro Rantala in an interesting trio configuration to play jazzy compositions. His collaboration with a guitar and a human beat box created Iiro Rantala New Trio in 2005 and stayed alive until 2010 also releasing an album. Being an interesting formation for a jazz performance, Iiro Rantala String Trio is evidently on the way which Iiro Rantala has been following: putting the composition at the heart of the performance, finding impressive melodies and using improvisation to tune the tension of the music. Frankly, it is not easy to define the string trio as a jazz one and we can tell the same also for their first album. However, it is obvious that neither Iiro Rantala suppose the opposite, nor the borders of the jazz in Europe are very well defined in last decades. The romantic album Anyone With A Heart is unique not only with its formation and almost genre-less structure but also with its incredibly emotional liner notes prepared by Iiro Rantala, whose main theme is related with heart and love consistent with the title. Our talented pianist emphasizes on the materialistic trends the world is following nowadays and he says that love is the ultimate ingredient for a beautiful world and happy people. Iiro Rantala finishes the notes with a hope that the music will touch listener's heart, which reminded me an old quote from Monteverdi: "The end of all good music is to affect the soul."

The name of the first piece is Karma, the Indian philosophy based on the idea that says "good intent produce good actions and deeds". The musical structure of Karma releases the overall aura of the album in the introduction very well with naive pizzicato touches of Adam Bałdych on the violin first. The catchy and melancholic melody in the first part is build up by entrance of Iiro Rantala's well known tone and Asja Valcic's organic sound. The composition has an interesting second part which sounds like one hand of the piano passes to lower octaves resembling a double bass shuffle giving the base of the overall sound. The kicks going on throughout this second part are repeated solely in the end producing a very mystical ambiance in the listening room. Freedom catches attention by the really impressive piano performance throughout the piece. There is a strong progressive feeling mostly created by the duo performance of strings near to the middle. I learned from notes of the album that the piece is inspired from Jonathan Franzen's novel with the same name. A Gift starts and ends like a classical piece which hides some improvisational parts from the piano in between. Asja Valcic sometimes plays from lower octaves to give a double bass like feeling. By the attacks of Adam Bałdych, the piece passes through a very energetic and impressive part near to the end. A Little Jazz Tune is dominated by Adam Bałdych from beginning to end. His definitive technique is very well obvious in this performance. Belle Epoque, the Golden Age for France and Belgium between 1871 and 1914, reminds us French style in piano. The piece Alone is again under effect of classical genre and shoots us with its melancholy at first notes of the cello which are accompanied by dark lower octaves of the piano. The lyrical violin adds another level in the deepness of the feeling. Iiro Rantala seem to have caught an unforgettable melody that can easily match with a rainy scene in a melancholic European movie. Hard Score is exactly a genre-less performance. You can neither describe it as something from classical, baroque or modern period, nor define as a complete jazz performance. It is like a jazzy performance of a classical piece affected by a progressive style. The piece has a very aggressive intro which rests between some repeats in the beginning. The melody evolves in several cases and the emotional state of the piece is almost unstable. Surely, one of the most impressive performance of the album is Hard Score with its improvisational and ambitious character. Prayer has some deep relations to Bach again with its piano partitions and it is almost a complete classical composition which again carries a very touching melody. Strings remind the late Baroque period. Playing mostly the main theme, Iiro Rantala sometimes prefers to be the rhythm line in some strings dominant partitions. The title track returns to the optimistic main theme of the album. Anyone With A Heart is like a composition for ballet. Harold Arlen's jazz standard Over The Rainbow (which is generally called Somewhere Over The Rainbow as it is done in the album) is successfully performed with its each nuances inherent to the composition. More than that, the trio -especially Iiro Rantala- added a melancholic spice to what we used to hear in general. Happy Hippo starts like an entrance of a cabaret and after the introduction the piece gives a hopeful ending to the album.

As a summary, Iiro Rantala String Trio seems to have started a long time collaboration with the album Anyone With a Heart, which will attract not only European Jazz listeners but also classical music followers. Most of the pieces have been turning in my head since I listened to them for the first time. My recommendation for you is to be absolutely open while listening to such intense works. Yes, I believe that Iiro Rantala String Trio played something coming exactly from heart in this album and all you have to do is to listen with a free mind. No need to analyze, no need to tabulate, no need to classify, no need to concentrate on similarities and differences... Just listen. In other words, let the music touch your soul.

The CD (ACT 9566-2) will be released in February 28th. The recording, mixing and mastering are all made by Klaus Scheuermann, whose name is familiar for ACT followers. The album is recorded in Emil Berliner Studios on October 29th and 30th 2013.

As far as I can see, you can listen lively to Iiro Rantala String Trio on March 11th and 12th in Germany and March 13th, 14th and 15th in Austria.

You can also have a look at Adam Bałdych's first ACT album Imaginary Room and wait for his next duo one with Yaron Herman on piano, which will be released on May. Asja Valcic's duo albums with bandoneon & accordion player Klaus Paier can be found with the names Silk Road and A Deux again from ACT. Radio String Quartet Vienna's albums from ACT are also recommended in which you can listen to Asja Valcic.

Wednesday, 17 October 2012

After The ACT Jubilee Night Concert in İstanbul on October 7th

I am not going to explain just a concert or a musician in this article because it will be a kind of understatement to write ordinarily what I have lived on October 7th in İstanbul. In fact my consciousness and subconsciousness were continuously moving me back and forth since I have heard about the event. However, you know, things you have faced in real life can sometimes simply exceed what you dream. The last Sunday was just one of such days. (I should mention that I will continue on writing in this lyrical and subjective style throughout the post which is consistent with the spirit of music and explain my dreamy view of things. For anyone having a problem about that and waiting a solid objectiveness such as in soccer reviews, I advise changing the channel.)

I took the flight in the early morning from Ankara (capital of Turkey) to İstanbul. Just after landing on airport I made my way to Arnavutköy quickly. The beautiful reason why I am so excited and being in rush is that I was going to meet founder of ACT, Siggi Loch, for lunch before ACT Jubilee Night Concert. Easier than said, Siggi (Siegfried) Loch has realized his dreams of producing the music he likes by founding ACT, which is one of the most important jazz labels in Europe. I could not even made a question list but at least I managed to take some notes on my phone. I have had just basic goals in this meeting: preventing myself from getting too excited, trying to listen carefully and not to talk too much. Frankly, I am not quite successful on attaining such goals. Forgive me, I was with my role model and asking for guidance.

Although Siggi Loch has vast experience in music and life, I have found him quite sincere and modest. I mean, I feel like I am not talking with someone who worked with legendary Arif Mardin and Nesuhi Ertegün for Warner Music and founding ACT records company. He became more important for me with his each comment and story about music and musicians. He has not come alone to Turkey, his wife Sissy Loch was with us at the lunch. Both of them liked İstanbul very much. We have talked about our meals, streets and wines. He has mentioned that he fall in love with İstanbul and it’s been 20 years since they last visited İstanbul.

We sometimes remembered the legendary musicians, sometimes talked about new talents during our lunch with creator of ACT. Esbjörn Svensson was the main topic for a long time. According to Siggi Loch, Esbjörn Svensson Trio is the best trio of their era and From Gagarin's Point of View is a very important album in jazz history. We fell in sorrow when he was talking about his passing away and we saw Sissy Loch crying while she was explaining Esbjörn Svensson’s wife and sons. Siggi Loch said “At first, I just decided to finish ACT after Esbjörn passed away but there were lots of new talents in the label. Michael Wollny is especially important for me with his special talent and you will see what I am talking about tonight. After I have considered these, my decision was on continuing.” I felt that pianists are especially important for Siggi Loch. He has explained their musical adventures with Vijay Iyer in detail. We have talked about his last album Accelerando and his success of becoming cover for Downbeat magazine in UK. Iiro Rantala, who is one of the talented new pianists of ACT, was mentioned as possibly the most technically successful pianist of the label so far by Siggi Loch. I have learned that Siggi Loch likes his album Lost Heroes very much just like me.

In order to relief the environment a bit after Esbörn Svensson’s depressing story, I have asked to Siggi Loch the first thing that come into his mind when I say Turkish music. After some trial, we have learned that he has listened to percussionist Burhan Öcal in one of his performance and liked it. When I asked him whether I should stay as a music enthusiast or I can do something professional about music, Siggi Loch started to tell us a fabulous story of jazz world guided with legendary Turkish music producers Arif Mardin and Nesuhi Ertegün. The last days of Nesuhi Ertegün, the East-West label and his Warner Music days... The moment that he said “All these people are Turkish then why not?“ probably is when seeds that will change my life in future are planted in my brain. I have felt a certain self-respect with these important words. We learned that he does not like two things. One is working with musicians whose main concentration is on money and the other one is listening to music while doing something else. I was about to ask him to take me and educate as a disciple but I restrained myself. After that fabulous meeting we have said goodbye to each other to meet again at the concert. Siggi Loch told me that he had a surprise for me at the concert by calling me with my name. While I was trying to decide on whether this is dream or real life, I just shook hands with him and left.

There was another good concert 2 hours before ACT Jubilee Night in İstanbul Lütfi Kırdar Hall. Miles Smiles project gathered many wonderful musicians who are Miles Davis’ students at the same time. We have listened many qualified variations of Miles Davis’ compositions at this concert. The Hammond performance of Joey DeFrancesco and drummer Omar Hakim were highlights of the night. We have faced with a certain reverberation and reflection problem in this concert due to acoustic design of the hall. Thus, the overall effect on the audience was not as good as it should be considering the musicians’ performances. Although the emptiness of the hall approximately to the half of it due to Fenerbahçe-Beşiktaş football match is not important for me, I think the organization should check itself and take it as a feedback.

I have met Siggi Loch and Sissy Loch again between two concerts. Siggi Loch was carrying my gift in his hand which was my surprise. The new album of Wolfgang Haffner, Heart of the Matter, which is not released yet. It is hard for me to explain my feelings at the moment that I took it.

After having a great day and warming up with a good concert it was time for ACT Family Band to be on the stage. Siggi Loch was on the stage just before them. He seemed a bit sorry to have seen the hall is only half-full. However, he has shortly shared the 20 years history of ACT label by mentioning names of Nesuhi Ertegün and Arif Mardin. He also dedicated the night to them. The concert started with a problem in the microphones and our high energy level is disturbed a bit. I think the reasons were the previous night’s ACT Jubilee concert in Malmö, Sweden and the Miles Smiles project just before this concert preventing the musicians to perform a soundcheck. However we had the wonderful Nils Landgren on the stage. He is someone who knows what to do when and affects people not only with his music but also with his charisma. He managed to save the night and made a perfect intro. He gave a perfect description of a meal to explain the diversity and richness in ACT label all around the world. While Nils Landgren was starting to do that there was just Lars Danielsson on his double bass at the back playing a walking bass instead of his well known lyrical tunes. After that Nils Landgren invited his friends from ACT Family Band one by one: drummer Wolfgang Haffner, pianist Michael Wollny, saxophonist Céline Bonacino, trumpeter Verneri Pohjola, vocalist Caecilie Norby and guitarist Johan Norberg. Each new musician took part in the first piece Family Stew by adding their partitions and in the end, the whole band finished it together. Johan Norberg and Nils Landgren performed a very emotional piece from their nostalgic Chapter Two project called Get Here just after that. Johan Norberg participated in the concert as another famous guitarist of ACT label since the regular member of Family Band Nguyen Le is not with the band. The playlist was very similar to previous ACT Jubilee Nights with some interesting differences: But This One Goes in Four from Ancient History (2012) album of Verneri Pohjola, Zig-zag Blues from Céline Bonacino’s Way of Life album, Lonely Dancer from Michael Wollny, Silent Way from Wolfgang Haffner’s album Shapes, Hymn (from Liberetto) and Pasodoble from Lars Danielsson, Bei mir bist du schoen and Dead Princess from Arabesque (2011) of Caecilie Norby and a Joni Mitchell cover Both Sides from her voice and Stars in Your Eyes from last album of Nils Landgren.

Performances are given by changing configurations of artists on the stage. Nils Landgren took part in more pieces than what I expected with his velvet soft voice. His tiredness that is obvious from previous night could not prevent him from making incredible trombone solos. The highlights of the performance were the mimics of Lars Danielsson while performing with his double bass, Nils Landgren’s raising arms through the end of the solos and Michael Wollny’s dances with his piano. Once again, the last performance of the band just before the encore was Dodge The Dodo of From Gagarin’s Point of View (1999) of Esbjörn Svensson Trio. The guitar solo intro from Johan Norberg for Dodge the Dodo was incredible. Michael Wollny proved himself again in this extraordinary piece having nice piano partitions. I did not understand whether he danced with the piano or played it. There is a profound and organic connection between his hands and instrument. His cold tone remembering us the Scandinavian tradition was so nice. We continued to remember the legendary Esbjörn at the encore. When Nils Landgren mentioned the name of Esbjörn Svensson the audience responded with applause. Love is Real was created by Esbjörn Svensson Trio and Josh Haden (son of Charlie Haden) in the album Seven Days of Falling (2003) of the trio. It is actually based on the composition Believe, Beleft and Below which is in the same album and lyrics are written and sung by Josh Haden. We have listened Love is Real from Nils Landgren as the main vocal and Caecilie Norby as the side vocal. While Verneri Pohjola is playing the ballad Nils Landgren closed his eyes and Caecilie Norby looked down. We dived into dreams, sorrow, melancholy and asked why again.

And the concert ended just like that. I have taken lots of autographs on my albums. I almost have all albums of Nils Landgren and Lars Danielsson but the meeting could be realized only after that concert. It was so easy for them to remember me because of my social networking, blogging and my dedication to ACT label. I was like meeting some relatives from my family.

As a summary I was as happy as I can be. The only huge missing one was Esbjörn Svensson, whom I could not met in this life. However, I am sure that he was on the stage and between us during and after the concert since there are lots of people thinking and dreaming about him. I know that’s a dream but you know, people live what they feel.

7 Ekim ACT Jubilee Night Konseri’nden Aklımızda Kalanlar

Bu yazıda size tek bir konseri veya özellikle bir müzisyeni anlatmayacağım. Çünkü 7 Ekim günü olanları her zaman başımdan geçen müzikal maceralardan biri gibi anlatmak o günü biraz hafife almak olur. Aslında bugünü aylar öncesinden duyduğumdan beri bilinç ve bilinç altım beni yerle gök arasında devamlı hareket ettirmekteydi. Ama olur ya, bazen yaşadıklarınız hayallerinizi aşar. Geçtiğimiz pazar işte böyle bir pazardı. Konuyu bu hamaset stili ile bu abartı seviyeye taşıdığım şu satırlarda olanları daha da duygusal ve müziğin ruhuna da uygun bir şekilde sübjektif bir perspektiften ve kendi hayali dünyamdan anlatacağımı belirtmek ister futbol yorumu gibi bir şey bekleyenlerin ise kanalı değiştirmelerini tavsiye ederim.

Sabah erkenden Ankara'dan İstanbul'a uçtum 7 Ekim’de ve hava limanından da doğrudan Arnavutköy'e uçarak vardım o pazar sabahı. Acelemin ve heyecanımın nedeni ise onunla görüşecek olmamdı. Sevdiği müziği, hayallerini gerçekleştirerek kurduğu ACT ismi altında üreten Siegfried(Siggi) Loch ile ACT Jubilee Night konseri öncesi yemek için buluşacaktık. Kafamı toplayıp bir soru listesi bile hazırlayamadım son ana kadar ama neyse ki telefonuma bir kaç not almıştım. Yine de tek bir konsantrasyonum vardı o da heyecanıma yenilmeyip gevezelik yapmadan onu dinleyebilmek. Becerebildin mi derseniz, hayır. Ne yapayım rol modelim ile karşı karşıyaydım, bana bir yol göster diyordum ona.

Yılların tecrübesine, yaşanmışlıklarına, bilgisine ve duygusuna sahip Siggi Loch’u oldukça mütevazi ve sıcakkanlı buldum. Yani karşımda Arif Mardin, Nesuhi Ertegün gibi efsanelerle Warner Music firmasında çalışmış ve şu an ACT ismi ile Avrupa cazını yönlendiren bir insan yok gibiydi. Bütün o ağırbaşlılığın yanında müzikle, cazla, müzisyenlerle ilgili yaptığı her yorumla, aktardığı her anekdotla biraz daha büyüdü gözümde. Yalnız gelmemişti Siggi Loch, eşi Sissy Loch ile beraberdi. İkisi de çok beğenmişlerdi İstanbul’u. Yemeklerinden, şaraplarından ve sokaklarından bahsettik bol bol. Arnavutköy'ün manzarasına bakarken İstanbul'a aşık olduğundan ve en son 20 yıl önce geldiğinden bahsetti.

ACT’nin yaratıcısı ile yaptığımız sohbette kimi zaman eskiler hatırlandı kimi zamansa yeni yetenekler konuşuldu. Esbjörn Svensson konunun odak noktasındaydı uzun süre. Siggi Loch'a göre Esbjörn Svensson Trio döneminin en iyi triosu ve From Gagarin's Point of View albümü jazz tarihinin en önemli albümlerinden. Siggi Loch, Esbjörn'ü anlatırken hepimiz yutkunduk ve çocuklarından ve eşinden bahsederken Sissy Loch’un gözlerinden yaşların indiğine tanık olduk. "Çocuğum gibi görüyordum Esbjörn Svensson'u. O aramızdan ayrılınca ACT'yi kapatmaya karar verdim ama bir sürü yeni yetenek vardı. Özellikle Michael Wollny, gerçek bir dahi, bugün siz de göreceksiniz. Sırf onun için bile devam ettirmeliyim diye düşündüm." dedi Siggi Loch. Onun için ACT çatısı altındaki piyanistlerin yeri çok ayrıymış gibi geldi bana. Uzun uzun Vijay Iyer'den, onun son albümü Accelerando'dan ve Downbeat dergisine kapak olduğundan bahsetti. Genç yetenek olmasa da ACT ile yolları yeni kesişen Iiro Rantala'dan konuştuk. Harika albüm Lost Heroes'dan ve yeni yayınlanacak olan albümden bahsettik. Teknik açıdan ACT'nin karşılaştığı en geniş spektrumlu ve başarılı piyanist olabilir diyor Siggi Loch, Iiro Rantala için.

Konuyu biraz yumuşatmak adına Türk müziği deyince aklınıza ilk ne geliyor diye Siggi Loch'a sorduğumda bir kaç deneme yanılmadan sonra Burhan Öcal'ı bir yerlerde dinlediğini ve çok beğendiğini öğrendim. Konu buradan Arif Mardin ve Nesuhi Ertegün gibi Türklerin jazz dünyasına verdikleri inanılmaz katkılara geldi. Ben Siggi Loch'a sadece bir müzik hayranı olarak devam mı etmeliyim yoksa sence ben de inandığım müzik için daha önemli birşeyler yapabilir miyim diye sorduğumda işte o zaman jazz prodüktörleri tarihinin bizden birileri tarafından yönlendirilmiş hikayesini dinlemeye başladık. Nesuhi'nin son günleri. East West plak şirketi. Arif Mardin'in caz dünyası için önemi. “Bütün bu işleri yapanlar Türk, neden olmasın?” dediği anlar zannedersem benim için en önemli olanlardı. Bir özgüven geldi üstüme başıma, ileride hayatımı değiştirebilecek şeylerin tohumları beynime atıldı gibi sanki. Parayı çok ve en önde düşünen müzisyenlerle çalışmaktan ve müzik dinlerken başka bir şey yapmaktan hoşlanmadığını öğrendik. Sayın Siggi Loch, lütfen beni yanınıza alıp müridiniz olarak yetiştirin diyecektim ama tuttum kendimi. Bu güzel sohbetin ardından akşam konserde görüşmek üzere ayrıldık ve “Konser alanında sana bir sürprizim olacak.” dedi Siggi Loch bana ismimle hitap ederek. Rüya mı hayal mi derken ellerini sıkıp ayrıldım.

7 Ekim Pazar akşamı 20:30’daki The ACT Jubilee konserinden önce yine Lütfi Kırdar’da önemli bir konser daha gerçekleşti. Saat 18:30’da başlayan konserde Miles Smiles konseptinde sahnede birçok önemli ismi gördük. Miles Davis’in bestelerinin oldukça farklı ve güzel düzenlenmiş hallerini yine zamanında onunla beraber çalmış müzisyenlerden dinledik. Joey DeFrancesco’nun harika Hammond performansı dikkat çekiciydi. Yine de onu daha önceden North Sea’de dinleyen arkadaşımızdan daha iyidir aslında diye bir yorum kulağımıza çalındı. Harika solo performansı ile olduğu kadar düzenlemelerin ve performansın altyapısına can katan Omar Hakim akıllarda kalan müzisyendi. Bu konserde genel olarak Lütfi Kırdar Kongre Salonu’nun akustik kondisyonlarına bağlı olarak ciddi bir yansıma ve reverberasyon problemimiz vardı. Bu sebeple de genel etki istenildiği ölçüde değildi. Pazar gününün Fenerbahçe-Beşiktaş maçına denk gelmesi ile ilgili olabileceğini öğrendiğim böylesi ünlü müzisyenlerin konserinde salonun yarı yarıya boş olması sorunu ise beni çok ilgilendirmemekle beraber organizasyonun kendisini biraz sorgulaması için bir sebeptir diye düşünüyorum.

İki konser arasında, ACT Jubilee Night konserinden hemen önce Siggi Loch ve eşi ile Lütfi Kırdar'da karşılaştık. Siggi yemekte söz verdiği ve bana hediye etmek istediği Wolfgang Haffner'in henüz piyasaya sunulmamış Heart of the Matter albümünü de yanında getirmiş. Albümü aldığım andaki mutluluğumu tarif edemem.

Mükemmel geçen bir gün ve güzel bir konserle ısınmanın ardından o beklenen konserin anonsuna gelmiştik nihayet. ACT Family Band sahneye çıkıyordu. Hemen öncesinde Siggi Loch sahneye geldi. Çıkarken, sanırım yarısından fazlasını boş gördüğü salon birazcık moralini bozdu. Yine de 20 yıllık ACT hikayesini Nesuhi Ertegün ve Arif Mardin isimlerini de anarak bizlerle paylaştı ve geceyi onlara ithaf ettiğini belirtti. Gece ses düzeneğindeki mikrofonların sıkıntısı ile başladı ve tepelerde gezinen enerjimiz biraz hayal kırıklığına döndü. Bunun sebebi bana göre hem bir gece önce İsveç Malmö’de verilen ACT Jubilee Night konserinden dolayı müzisyenlerin geç gelmeleri ve ses kontrol yapamamaları hem de Lütfi Kırdar’da konserin hemen öncesinde Miles Smiles konserinin olmasıydı. Ama sahnede muhteşem Nils Landgren vardı. Neyi ne zaman nasıl yapacağını bilen ve sahnede müziği ile olduğu kadar karizması ile de dinleyicilerini etkileyen biri o. Bu işin de üstesinden geldi ve çok etkili bir giriş yaptı. ACT'nin, Avrupa'nın hatta bazen dünyanın çok farklı ülkelerinden topladığı sanatçıları ile oluşturduğu zenginliği anlatmak için çeşnili bir yemek tarifi yaptı. Bu sırada arkada sadece Lars Danielsson tanıdık bas tonu ile alıştığımız lirik melodiler yerine temel bir bas hattı çalmaktaydı. Devamında Nils'in davetleri ile davulcu Wolfgang Haffner, piyanist Michael Wollny, saksofonist Céline Bonacino, trompetçi Verneri Pohjola, vokalist Caecilie Norby ve gitarist Johan Norberg sahnedeki yerlerini aldı. Her yeni gelen sanatçı ilk parça Family Stew'in kendisine ait partisyonlarını çalarak sonunda sahnede bir bütün halini aldılar. Bu performansın hemen ardından normalde ACT Family Band’de gitarist olarak yer alan ünlü Vietnamlı müzisyen Nguyen Le’nin konsere katılamamasından dolayı diğer ACT Jubilee Night gecelerinden farklı olarak Nils Landgren ve Johan Norberg'in Chapter Two'dan hatırlanacak nostaljik çalışmalarından biri Get Here ikili tarafından icra edildi. Devamında ACT Family Band’den diğer ACT Jubilee Night konserlerine benzer olmakla beraber ilginç değişiklikler de içeren bir parça listesinde şu eserler çalındı; Verneri Pohjola’nın ACT’den 2012’de yayınlanan Ancient History albümünden But This One Goes in Four, Céline Bonacino’nun tek ACT albümü Way of Life’dan Zig-zag Blues, Wolfgang Haffner’in Shapes albümünden Silent way, Lars Danielsson’dan Hymn ve Pasodoble, Michael Wollny'den Lonely Dancer, Caecilie Norby’nin Arabesque (2012) albümünden Bei mir bist du schoen, Dead Princess ve yine onun sesinden bir Joni Mitchell coverı Both Sides, Nils Landgren’in son albümünden Stars in Your Eyes.

Sahnede sık sık değişen konfigürasyonlarda performanslar verildi. Nils Landgren güzel ve kadife sesi ile beklediğimden daha fazla parçada yer aldı. Bir gece önceki konser kaynaklı ve her hallerinden belli olan yorgunluğu uzun ve enerjik trombon soloları yapmasına engel olmadı. Lars Danielsson’un mimikleri, Nils Landgren’in trombon sololarında sonlara doğru devamlı kalkan kolları ve Michael Wollny’nin piyanosu ile dansı konserin ana merkezindeydi. Jubilee Night’ın bisten önce son olarak çalınan eseri yine müteveffa Esbjörn Svensson’un o unutulmaz 1999’da yayımlanan From Gagarin’s Point of View albümündeki en başarılı bestelerinden Dodge The Dodo parçası oldu. Özellikle parçanın girişinde Johan Norberg’in gitar introsu unutulmazdı. Michael Wollny çok önemli bir yetenek olduğunu bir kez daha piyano partisyonları eşsiz bu eserle ispatladı. Dans mı etti tuşlarla, piyano mu çaldı anlamadım. Gerçekten sinir bozucu bir organik bağ vardı elleri ve enstrümanı arasında. Kuzey Avrupa’lıları hatırlatan buz gibi de bir tonu. Dodge the Dodo ile daldığımız hatıralara biste devam ettik. Nils Landgren bis performansından hemen önce “şu an aramızda olmayan arkadaşımız” diye Esbjörn Svensson’dan bahsettiğinde salondan alkışlar yükseldi. 2003 Seven Days of Falling albümünde yer alan duygusal beste Believe Beleft Below’a Charlie Haden’in oğlu Josh Haden’in söz yazması ile ortaya çıkan Love is Real’i ana olarak Nils Landgren ve yan olarak Caecilie Norby’nin vokalinden dinledik. Verneri Pohjola trompeti ile baladı çalarken Caecilie Norby yere baktı, Nils Landgren ise gözlerini sımsıkı kapadı. Hayallere, isyana, hüzne ve melankoliye daldık.

Ve öylece bitti bu konser. Çıkışta birçok albüme imza alıp hepsi ile sohbet ettik. Neredeyse bütün albümleri vardır Nils Landgren’in ve Lars Danielsson’un bende ama tanışmak şimdiye kısmetmiş. Doya doya özlemimi giderdim. ACT firması ile olan duygusal bağım, blogum ve yazılarım sosyal paylaşım platformları sayesinde zaten birçok müzisyen tarafından bilindiğinden beni hatırlamaları kolay oldu. Sanki yıllardır tanıdığım insanlarla bir araya gelmiş gibiydim.

Mutluydum kısacası. Tek eksik Esbjörn Svensson’du, hayattayken tanışamadığım efsane. Ama onu düşünen, seven bu kadar insan bir araya gelince onun konserde sahnede, konser sonrası aramızda gezindiğini hissettim sanki. Hayal işte ama ne yaparsınız, insan ne hissederse onu yaşar.

Monday, 1 October 2012

The Concert in My Dreams, The ACT Jubilee Night in İstanbul on October 7th

I heard about The ACT Jubilee Night that will be held in İstanbul long ago. As far as I have remembered, it was on June. Since I'm a dedicated ACT follower and collector, I usually look at their website to learn about released albums and new concerts. ACT is the German Label that has the largest place in my archive. At that time, I just wanted to learn about the place of Liberetto concert of Lars Danielsson and Thread of Life concert of Magnus Öström which will be performed in İstanbul Jazz Festival in July 2012. When I sorted the concerts with respect to countries, I have seen the announcement of the concert in my dreams. One of the ACT Jubilee Nights would be held in İstanbul on October 7th in Akbank Jazz Festival. Frankly, since it's only me who distribute ACT albums to my friends, talk about ACT musicians and unsuccessful to make people love Nordic records in Turkey, I rarely can listen lively to them in their performances in my country/city and I am not hopeful about that. Thus it is hard for me to express how happy I became when I heard about this concert in which most of my favorite musicians will be on stage. Easier said done, Nils Landgren, Lars Danielsson, Caecilie Norby, Michael Wollny, Wolfgang Haffner, Verneri Pohjola, Johan Norberg and Céline Bonacina are coming to İstanbul for one special concert. After learning about it, I met with Robert Mehmet Sinan İkiz, the Turkish drummer living in Sweden who is also a part of Nils Landgren Funk Unit just before a gig of Mehmet in İstanbul. On learning that Siggi Loch, founder of ACT will join the concert in İstanbul during that meeting, my happiness is doubled up.

ACT Family Band performs in The ACT Jubilee Night concerts and the performances are dedicated to the 20th anniversary of foundation in 2012. They have performed six concerts so far. Four of them is held in Germany in four consecutive days on February, one of them was in Paris on April and last one was in Stockholm five days ago. The Hamburg concert is released as a 2 CD album. There will also be another concert on October 6th in Malmö, Sweden. Lastly, İstanbul will be hosting to the last concert of this series on October 7th.

ACT Family Band is Nils Landgren (tb, voc), Michael Wollny (p), Verneri Pohjola (tr), Céline Bonacina (sax), Lars Danielsson (b), Nguyen Le (git), Caecilie Norby (voc) and Wolfgang Haffner (dr). The members of ACT family band can be varied from time to time. For instance we will see Johan Norberg instead of Nguyen Le in İstanbul concert. As the vocal we can see Caecilie Norby as well as Viktoria Tolstoy. Lezsek Mozdzer, who has recorded one of the best album of ACT, Pasodoble with Lars Danielsson, sometimes joins the Family Band as a guest. Considering the discographies within ACT label and their works in ACT, I see Nils Landgren, Lars Danielsson, Wolfgang Haffner and Nyguen Le as the leaders of ACT Family Band. On the other hand, Michael Wollny has became a long-establidhed musician of ACT with his extraordinary musical perspective, talent and exciting discography. Listening to Verneri Pohjola, who is heard with recently released great albums will be very exciting considering his unique tone. I am sure that Caecilie Norby will attract many music enthusiasts’ attention in İstanbul with her emotional and strong voice. I am new at following Céline Bonacina who is an extraordinary leader for a trio with her baritone saxophone and I really wonder her unique performance.

It is difficult for me to make discrimination between any ACT musicians I am following. However, unfortunately, the one to which I am connected most deeply is not with us anymore. He is most probably became the pianist of the best trio in heaven now. I am talking about Esbjörn Svensson, who turned the jazz world upside down and about whom I wrote several articles in my blog before. His relationship with ACT starts after he has taken place as pianist of my another favorite ACT musician Nils Landgren’s band, Nils Landgren Funk Unit until when he played with his trio including his childhood friend Magnus Öström and Dan Berglund and recorded with some vocals such as Lina Nyberg. Esbjörn Svensson Trio released their album from ACT after that and they became the most worldwide famous musicians of ACT with their many great records and unbelievable live performances. After his sudden passing away in 2008 he has taken his place within unforgettable music legends. Drummer Magnus Öström and bassist Dan Berglund are going on their individual projects with their own groups within ACT now. By the way, I should say that ACT Family Band performs Esbjörn Svensson’s composition Love is Real in the Jubilee Nights as a tribute for him, whose lyrics are written by Josh Haden (son of Charlie Haden) from the album Seven Days of Falling, including one with vocal and one without vocal performance and which is performed in many times with different jazz vocals.

Nils Landgren, the man with the red horn, is born in 1956 and he is just like a Swedish Jazz School with his long-established Funk Unit, female vocal jazz albums he produced and albums in which he appeared as a sideman. There are approximately 25 albums in ACT with his leadership and 25 more produced or assisted by him as a guest. Thus, even the first musician signing a contract with ACT is Nguyen Le, I can say that the most important musician of ACT is Nils Landgren. He may be the most seen name in ACT after the founder Siggi Loch in the label. For me, the reason why we see so many Sweden musicians in German label ACT is Nils Landgren. In my opinion, Nils Landgren is one of the best trombonist in the world and a great funk musician. He was pretty active even before ACT. He is inspired by legendary Swedish musician Bengt-Arne Wallin as well as by Eje Thelin. He became well-known after seen in Baltic Jazz festivals in ‘90s. You should certainly listen to the live albums of Funk Unit. Swedish Folk Modern and Layers of Light, which they recorded as a duo with Esbjörn Svensson, are among the legendary albums of ACT with their beauty and simplicity. Salzau Music on Water is another one of his extraordinary work made with vibraphonist Christopher Dell and Lars Danielsson. I should mention the album Creole Love Call recorded with Joe Sample. Nils Landgren has a real profound and competitive vocal performance in this album.

Lars Danielsson, who is born in 1958, is another iconic musician in ACT. He is an important figure for ACT followers with his lyrical bass tone and violoncello playing in his great albums as well as in many other ACT musicians’ albums. He has performed and recorded with his own quartet formed of very important musicians before ACT. Moreover he has played and recorded with many worldwide famous musicians so far. He is so famous in my country especially with his latest album Liberetto in which you can see Tigran Hamasyan on piano. The reason for that is his tendency to our melodies in this album in my opinion. His albums Tarantella (in which you can see Eric Harland on drums) and Pasodoble recorded with Lezsek Mozdzer are among the best albums of ACT so far.

Wolfgang Haffner is the most seen name as the drummer in ACT albums. He has a characteristic and profound technic on drums. The album I like most from Wolfgang Haffner is Abracadabra which he recorded with Roberto di Gioia and Dieter Ilg as a celebrating album for Klaus Doldinger, released in 2006. He has many other records as a sideman as well as his own mostly electronic-jazz albums from ACT.

The trumpeter member of ACT Family Band is young Finn Verneri Pohjola. I have heard his name in two albums in 2012 one of which is his own Ancient History and the other one is Imaginary Room of new young talent of violin Adam Baldych. In his own album the composition Deism and But This One Goes in Four(played in the previous jubilee concert) compositions and Björk Hyperballad cover should be pointed out.

The first time I have heard voice of Caecilie Norby was in Lars Danilesson’s 2004 album Libera Me. She was beautifully singing the New Born Broken composition that she made with Lars Danielsson. Caecilie Norby has a mature, characteristic and impressive vocal. She is born in Denmark and not only interested in jazz but also is an important figure in rock scene. Caecilie’s first own album from ACT is Arabesque which she produced with Lars Danielsson in 2012. However, there are lots of albums she appeared as a guest or as a side musician as well as found place in lots of vocal compilation albums in the name of magic/nordic voices of ACT. She also had lots of rock and jazz albums before working with ACT label.

French baritone saxophonist Céline Bonacina released the album Way of Life from ACT with her trio. It is unusual for a leader of a trio to be a baritone saxophonist. The same word unusual can also be used as a descriptive for their music. Their performances are very minimal, dominated mostly by bass and baritone lines and full of improvisations. Johan Norberg is an important figure as an acoustic guitarist mostly in Sweden folk and world music. He has not only found Chapter Two with Nils Landgren and gave many live performances but also recorded many good albums which are released from ACT later on. Moreover he has lots of Swedish Folk Music albums from ACT with famous saxophonist Jonas Knutsson.

There are lot to say about Michael Wollny who has many good records with famous ACT musicians. He has recently added a perfect one to the albums he performed with his band [em] with the name Wasted & Wanted. He also visited İstanbul in the tour held for this album. He is like a symbol for the reformist insight of ACT records. I remember young German pianist Michael Wollny always with a photo of him in the catalog I found in the album of E.S.T. Viaticum released from ACT in 2005. (He looks like Robert Smith from Cure with his too wavy hair in this photo.) The slogan written on this photo was “Everything Must Change” The message written here was as follows: “Nobody grows up by listening only to jazz music. Not even jazz musicians. Rock’n Roll, techno, folk, country, world, jazz and other styles are among the significant wide range of influences on most young musicians today. All these diverse musical forms can now be combined. Jazz is no longer just based on harmonic, structural and improvisational principles. Unlike in the past, jazz nowadays can not be described in terms of a definitive style. It has become a synonym for freedom and openness in its use of musical influences from diverse sources. We encourage musicians to reach out for a MUSIC BEYOND CLASSIFICATION”. Although this message seems to be written to young musicians, for me, this reflects the main perspective of ACT for music. You can easily feel that in ACT albums when you listen to them.

Freedom, diversity, talent, niceness, being hard to categorize… It is normal to face with authenticity and beauty when you gather these. Musicians are very important for Siggi Loch. They are carefully discovered by this music enthusiast producer, recorded and presented to world. The comfortable environment that Siggi Loch supplied to them results in perfect and spiritually complete albums.

This is certainly the most important and exciting concert in this year’s Akbank Jazz Festival for me. I am sure they will make us live an unforgettable night and they will send me a travel that I have joined so many times in this fabulous musical world. One last note is that there will be held another concert in Lütfi Kırdar just before ACT Jubilee Night in which you will experience Miles Smiles conceptual band gathered as students of Miles Davis: Larry Coryell, Darryl Jones, Joey DeFrancesco, Omar Hakim and Wallace Roney. Lütfi Kırdar will be an individual festival place within the festival on October 7th where you will see approximately ten important musician on stage in 4 hours.