What Did I Do In My Last Summer in USA: Jazz Clubs and Record Stores in New York, Boston and Chicago

This time I was in USA for about two weeks. I have been to New York, Boston and Chicago. Although we were celebrating our 6th wedding anniversary with my wife, music - especially jazz - was a real inflammatory as always. Although I have visited many touristic attractions, experienced many things other than music and seen many fantastic sightseeing places all around these cities - especially in Cape Cod - I kept this post related only with jazz clubs and record stores I have visited in these cities (besides some blues clubs in Chicago, a college from Boston and some classical concert places in New York and Chicago).

Manhattan, New York - The Fast Fourier Transform of Life and Music

If somebody wanted a single word from me about New York City, I would say "crazy". The time seems to be running fast in Manhattan. As a visitor - even you have a good plan and time of around a week - what you can get is generally digital samples of a continuous river of energy. You can find, drink, eat, taste or experience everything. Music - especially jazz - is an important part of this city. Any jazz lover in the world wants to be in New York. Most of the precious live records of jazz history are achieved in jazz clubs of New York. Many young jazz musicians were born, grown and became stars in these places. However, in my opinion, like many of other New York iconic properties, jazz became a partial-touristic attraction of the city in last years. As far as I have seen from my friends, even people who has no interest in jazz goes to a jazz club in New York. When you ask them about the performance, many do not know the name of the musicians and even the name of the place. Frankly, there are some touristic jazz clubs in New York, but whatever the current case is, being a home for many historical legendary jazz clubs, New York is always the most jazzy city of this world for me. As you will read in following parts, having just a week I could only visit jazz clubs in central Manhattan. I hope I can visit jazz clubs in Harlem, New Jersey and Brooklyn for the next time. 

Dizzy's Club Coca Cola: Jazz at Lincoln Center, August 5th 2013 - 7.30 pm - Ali Jackson Quintet

The club is located in Jazz at Lincoln Center near south-west corner of Central Park. You can reach there easily by subway - get off the train at the 59th Street Station and look for a building labeled as "Jazz at Lincoln Center" at the intersection of Broadway and 60th street. Broadway is passing through the circular road you are on. The club is at 5th floor of this building having a large stage whose background is the wonderful Central Park view with some nice architecture. For this reason, I strongly recommend you join the first set of any performance starting at 7.30 pm. This way you can see both the day and the night view. Besides, since the audience for the second set are generally waiting at the entrance for the first set to finish, joining the first set is also advantageous to spend some quality time before the performance by drinking nice cocktails or eating good food with this great view. As far as I have seen the line-up is changing each week and the bands are playing twice a night. There is the first come-first seat policy. For each set I think you should be at the club approximately 1 hour before the scheduled performance time. Considering the popularity of the musicians you can make this arrival before half or one and a half an hour. If you are new to Manhattan and using subways, I think you should add an additional half an hour as a safety margin to all your travels in case you can mixed up in the subway search or there is a problem in the subway station or line. If you are nearer than 1 mile to a place and there is no possibility for rain I recommend you to walk in this well designed matrice-like city. The doors are opening at 6.00 pm. Dizzy's Club is one of the most classy jazz performance halls in this city, thus although there is certainly no dress-code policy I recommend you not to be too sport in clothes, casual smart will be more suitable. 

I was really wondering the performance of Ali Jackson Quintet especially because of the young pianist Emmet Cohen and experienced saxophonist Sherman Irby. Including the bassist Russell Hall and trombonist Vincent Gardner, the performance was fairly good and naive in sound which is consistent with the magic ambiance of the place. The full-bodied sound of Irby, soft touches of Cohen to the keys and swinging rhythms of Jackson were very well in harmony together. 

Smalls Jazz Club, August 5th - 9.30 pm

Smalls Jazz Club, which is located near Greenwich Village, is a really small, warm and sincere basement with its small stage covered by a very nice Louis Armstrong picture. The seats are almost randomly located next to the wooden bar which is extended as long as the club. Interestingly, as far as I have experienced, the acoustic is near perfect - in other words, the place is more than meets the eye. There are many sets in one night and according to their schedule at those days each band has a single - and fairly long - set. I have joined Gerry Gibbs Quartet's performance on August 5th: Gerry Gibbs (drums), Steve Wilson (saxophone), Mark Feldman (violin), Benito Gonzales (piano), Essiet Essiet (bass). I felt very lucky to be able to listen to Mark Feldman whom I follow over ECM. Besides, it was a privilege for me to listen to Steve Wilson, one of the best saxophonist of US recent jazz stage. The performance was very satisfactory from an overall point of view. There were many jazz musicians within the audience, the average age of the listeners is low and the sincerity of the place and stuff is like they are all reflected to the audience. 

Smoke Jazz Club, August 6th - 10.30 pm

Smoke is a bit far away from the other best-seller jazz clubs. It is almost at the north-west corner of Central Park between 105th and 106th streets. You can again use subway. The place is classy and warm at the same time. The stage is not too large and there is a fairly big bar that has a good view and acoustic condition. The tables are tidy but the only problem is that the sitting positions are looking to the stage with a 90 degrees angle and there are too many waiters walking around and serving food. I was at the forefront table and the acoustic was perfect. There are generally three performances each night: 7/9 pm sets with dinner and 10:30 set. Reservations are possible only for two first sets with dinner. For each set, first come-first seat policy is applied. It seems that the club has generally a different line-up for each day. I have been at this good jazz club to see Mike LeDonne's Groover Quartet. Although I was waiting to see Eric Alexander for the saxophone, Vincent Herring was there. I was glad to listen to him once more after his great performance in Ankara with our Turkish drummer Ferit Odman. It was absolutely a fantastic performance. I really understood why Mike LeDonne is shown as one of the best keyboardists in USA. Joe Farnsworth was also very successful on the drums.

Jazz Standard, August 8th - 7.30 pm

I felt myself very lucky when I saw that The Next Collective would be performing in Jazz Standard for the whole week with two sets for each night when I was in New York: Logan Richardson, Walter Smith III, Matthew Stevens, Gerald Clayton, Kris Bowers, Ben Williams, Jamire Williams. I had listened to them with Christian Scott for a very short time in last North Sea Jazz Festival. I was at one of the most famous jazz clubs of New York, Jazz Standard, for the first set at around 6.30 pm. I advise you to make reservations prior to going there but since the policy for the table plan is first come first seat again, to guarantee a good place to listen, you had better go to the club one hour before the performance. The place is wonderfully organised by its staff. The sitting plan at the forefront tables are not good since they are vertically located with respect to the stage and speakers. If you can go earlier you can take one of four or five horizontal tables that are behind these forefront tables to have a better acoustic and view. Jazz Standard is famous for its wonderful acoustic condition. This is also what I have experienced during the performance. The first piece of Next Collective's album Cover Art is Twice. They are generally playing this as the first piece of their live performances. With its interesting, energetic and extraordinary introduction part, Twice let the band members express their fresh styles and catch the audience with the first note. Different than the album and the live performance in Darling at Rotterdam, Ahoy, here in Jazz Standard the performance has started with a very low sound level. The audience was almost thinking of this as the part of the sound-check. But after first a couple of seconds I recognized it. As it was getting higher and higher in sound level we started to experience a wonderful performance.

Village Vanguard, August 8th - 10.30 pm

After having listened to him with Mark Feldman and Gerry Gibbs at Smalls four days ago, I could get a second chance to listen to Steve Wilson, this time with his quartet - Orrin Evans, Ugonna Okegwo and Bill Stewart. Frankly, Village Vanguard is the place that I was dreaming to see in New York because of its historic reputation. On entering the club that is located at a basement on 7th Avenue near Greenwich Village, I could see the history on walls and smell the jazz from the stage. It was fantastic to dream about - for instance - Bill Evans, Scott LaFaro and Paul Motian was performing at the same place and walking around for about 50 years ago before creating one of the most beautiful live records of all jazz history - which was just about 10 days before LaFaro died in an accident. The sessions were scheduled just like many clubs in NYC in Village Vanguard: two sets each night with the same line-up and a good band generally plays during the whole week. You can buy ticket from the internet for Village Vanguard. The stage and the seating plan is just as it should be. A large stage compared to the size of the place is very well observed and listened from a circular seating plan. The fact that there is no food service at the place is also a very useful property that is increasing your focus as a member of the audience. Steve Wilson Quartet's performance was certainly one of the best performances I have seen during my holiday in USA with its classic jazz style full of fantastic improvisational parts, energetic solos and high-quality collaborations.

Birdland, August 9th - 11.00 pm

Another legend place of the jazzy city New York is located near Times Square. This place is named with nickname of one of the most important iconic personalities of jazz history, Charlie Parker - The Bird. Birdland is started to be called Jazz Corner of The World recently and it is certainly the most classy, large, popular and touristic place with Dizzy's at Lincoln Center among jazz clubs in New York. Surely, its touristic location has a very well contribution on its popularity. On entering the place you can see a large and beautiful bar next to the stage but I do recommend you not to make a reservation from this bar since it is a bit far and almost at the 150th degree of the stage line. If you'd like to experience a real Birdland performance you should pay more to sit on the tables having an incredible view of the stage and having a wonderful acoustic condition. 

The schedule is as usual again - two/three sets for each night of a whole week of same line-up. You had better to be a bit classy in clothes but there is again no dress-code. It was a real privilege for me to see Vijay Iyer as a guest musician to the Trio 3 - Oliver Lake (multi-reeds), Reggie Workman (bass), Andrew Cyrille (drums). Vijay was a musician that I was closely following from the label ACT with his wonderful albums. Especially the entrance made by Oliver Lake to the concert was exciting and interesting. After having listened to his albums for a long time, listening to Vijay Iyer was also a real joy for me.

Iridium Jazz Club, August 11th - 8.00 pm

Being home for the legendary Les Paul, Iridium was another jazz club near to the famous Times Square. The band was Amina Figorava Sextet. Amina Figarova - piano, Bart Platteau - flutes, Wayne Escoffery - tenor sax, Alex Pope Norris - trumpet, Jeroen Vierdag - bass, Jason Brown - drums. The place was not as shiny as it was seen over its webpage but it is fairly a nice place. As far as I have seen the line-up is changing in one or two days. 

According to the popularity of the musician that will take stage you may need to make reservations. The seating is not very well designed - when you sit on the tables, you see your partner instead of the stage so you have to turn your head to listen. I have to say that the entrance to the performance was not so good but they became better tuned to each other after a while.

Blue Note Jazz Club, August 11th - 10.30 pm

Our last night in New York has ended in another best jazz club of the city and we were very lucky that it was Paquito D'Riviera's week in Blue Note Jazz Club - a legendary name from earlier times of jazz who has played with many jazz legends such as Dizzy Gillespie. He was with his Panamerican Ensemble at the stage: Alex Brown, piano, Oscar Stagnaro, electric bass, Victor Provost, steel pan, Pernell Saturnino, percussion, Eric Doob, drums. The performance was a energy-full one with a wonderful rhythm line. Paquito has a magic touch to the authentic texture of the music, increasing the tension. More than that, his humorous style made the night an entertaining one also. Our luck did not stop to play with us and suddenly - through the end of the performance - Paquito has called a woman sitting at the forefront to the stage to play the last pieces with him and the band. I, then, noticed that she was Anat Cohen - the rising star of clarinet. I could have the chance to listen to her with a big band in last North Sea Jazz Festival at an open-air performance hall as well as in this year's International Jazz Day in Hagia Irene, İstanbul. Anat Cohen was with a percussionist in Blue Note at that night and two of them had two good performances with the band on the stage. Again, the bar is very far from the stage which is not suitable for a good listening. Furthermore, the club is far from being a square; it is, instead, a rectangular whose one side is very large compared to the other. The stage is located in the middle of the wide side causing that even most of the seats were out of the main view area. You had better make reservations fom the middle part.

Jazz Record Center

Jazz Record Center is the best record store for jazz in New York. It is located at 8th floor of a building on West 26th Street. Fred Cohen has been running this place for 30 years. He was there as always when I have visited the place. The place was very tidy and focused on Jazz. I was really impressed by the huge archive. I found many historical records there and had spent almost two hours checking the shelves. The LP archive mostly consists of second hand original records but there are also some new ones. There are also very good CD, DVD, posters and books collections distributed over many different parts of the house. 

Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center

I have been to place for a classical concert held in Mostly Mozart Festival. I got the chance to listen to famous violinist Isabelle Faust. Lincoln Center is a very important place for the whole New York. Located near to Central Park this campus is almost like a cultural breathing center. There are performance halls, an Opera House (Metropolitan Opera House), restaurants, a music school (Juilliard Scholl famous for many famous jazz musician graduates), theaters and many more cultural centers around. 

The place is founded as a part of a renewal project for the place in '50s. There was also a blues concert in an open air hall when we were there. Avery Fisher Hall is the concert hall which is generally used for classical concerts. This nice place seems to have passed through many acoustical correction. As a result of these corrections the acoustic is very successful today - I liked it too. The night and day views from many other resting places in the center is wonderful to spend some quality time.   

Boston - The Academic Side

Boston is a real university center. It is more like a European City considering the shape of streets and buildings. Therefore the city is very calm and naive compared to New York. There is Berklee College of Music which affects the musical characteristic of the place very much. There are two important jazz clubs in Boston: Scullers and Ragatta. Ragatta was closed for a private event during two days when I was there. Thus I could only see Scullers. 

Scullers Jazz Club, August 15th, 10.00 pm

Scullers is located at the second floor of Double Tree Suites by Hilton Hotel at Boston. It is a difficult place to go without a car or a taxi. Besides, the place is very very popular and you should certainly make a reservation in advance. The biggest crowd I have ever seen in a jazz club in USA was in Scullers. Although it was fairly a large hall the place was so full on that night that not a single person can enter after the performance begins. The performance was a Jazz Funk Soul one with Jeff Lorber on piano, Everette Harp on saxophone and Chuck Loeb on guitar. It was really an energetic concert that resembles to a pop-star's one considering the ovation. There were more than one encore.

Newbury Comics Music Store

It was a nice music store at the famous Faneuil Hall Marketplace. More than jazz and blues it is focused on rock and pop. You can find CDs, DVDs and BluRays as well as LPs. There are also many memoir pieces with musician themes. Jazz LPs are sold there at very low prices.

Berklee College of Music Shop

I should mention name of this place for musicians who are looking for sheet music from legendary jazz concerts or readers interested in music books. There are also many memoir pieces about music in this place. It is located near to Berklee College of Music building. You should also visit the building to see the classrooms and library.

Chicago - Quietness for Me

Chicago may seem to be focused on blues and there are many wonderful blues clubs there. (Buddy Guy's Legends and Blue Chicago are among bests and I have been to these clubs.) However, not surprisingly, some of the best jazz clubs of USA are also in this city. Jazz Showcase, Green Mill and Andy's Jazz Club are at top three. The streets are cleaner and the city is calmer compared to New York. The river crossing the city coming from the Michigan Lake has a real profound contribution to shiny look of the city. 

Jazz Showcase, August 18th, 10:30 pm

Jazz Showcase is located near to the Grant Park. It is a little bit in the inner parts of the city with respect to Michigan Avenue. The club had Claudio Roditti and friends in its line-up for two days. It is surely the biggest club I have ever seen in USA. The stage is is very shiny, having a wonderful label at the right part. The large walls of the place are full of many wonderful memoirs of jazz legends - historical concert advertisements, unforgettable instants from some performances of jazz musicians. The acoustic is almost perfect. 

There were Jim Trumpeter, George Fludas and Dennis Caroll next to Roditi. Their performance was full of Latin air swinging with American music. I could find the chance to talk to them after the performance. In fact Claudio would perform with McCoy Tyner as Latin All Stars in last North Sea Jazz but the concert was cancelled due to McCoy's illness. Claudio mentioned that he wanted to play in a jazz festival in İstanbul. I also learned from him -and really surprised- that his father is actually from İzmir, Turkey. Jim Trumpeter was wonderful on piano and he gave me two of his albums as a gift.

Andy's Jazz Club, August 19th, 6:00 pm

Andy's Jazz Club is a warm and family-like place. It is very near to the famous Magnificent Mile of the city on Hubbard Street. Chicago Jazz Orchestra was on the stage when we were there. The stage location with respect to the bar and half of the tables is not acoustically suitable for a good listening session. In order to have a proper table you should make reservation.

Green Mill, August 19th, 9:00 pm

Patricia Barber, with her unique vocal and incredible piano playing was always a musician whom I really would like to listen lively for a long time. The coincidental fate caught me on a Monday night at a considerable far place from central Chicago, The Green Mill Jazz Club. Patrick Mulcahy - bass, Makaya McCraven - drums, John Kregor - guitar has collaborated with Patricia Barber for a long time and they were there on that night. Especially, unexpected guitar ingredient to the standard piano format has impressed me very much. John Kregor has a really wonderful acoustic sound and he has given very important solo performances. Drummer Makaya McCraven has also caught my attention. The acoustic of the club is well but the bar side is a bit noisy.  There is no reservation policy. In order to have a good view with your partner(s) you should be early because there are just 4 or 5 tables that have a good hear. Besides, I have to say that staff of this nice bar/performance place has a bit cold manner towards people visiting their places. You should certainly use subway, bus or a taxi to go to this club. I used subway to go before sunset. Many of my friends insisted that I should use a taxi instead of subway to go back to hotel after sunset because of some safety issues. I have to tell you that I have used the bus and nothing bad has happened.

Jazz Record Mart

Near to city center Chicago, on East Illinois, there is the biggest record store for jazz and blues of this world: Jazz Record Mart. On seeing the place, I felt like I am in a shopping mall full of LPs. Here you can find everything you are looking for Jazz and Blues in America. There are many classification titles such as Pre World War II. The prices are generally not high and many wonderful LPs are at low prices. There are second hand originals as well as many new prints. There is also a very distinguishable CD archive. Especially the huge parts for legendary names such as Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Ella Fitzgerald should be seen. The music books are very cheap. Interestingly (or not), the place is not complete for European Jazz. 

Grant Park Music Festival at Millennium Park

Grant Park Music Festival is an annual event and there are many concerts that are held each year mostly on impressive open-air stage Pritzker Pavilion seeing the beautiful Millennium Park of Chicago, which is also the house for Cloud Gate - The Bean of Indian Contemporary Artist Anish Kapoor. 

There is also Art Institute of Chicago here, which, I think, is one of the most important modern art museums in this world. On our first day in Chicago we got the chance to listen to Stravinsky's Rite of Spring in this festival from the festival orchestra. Even the place was open-air and the audience were Americans coming from home with picnics, blankets and outdoor chairs there was a complete silence during the performance. It was one of my most beautiful musical experiences in my life. I was almost hearing just some subway and air conditioner noises at the background - I felt like the whole city has been listening to the concert. After the first part, on hearing the ovation, I remembered that I am with more than a thousand people there in the park. It was a fantastic performance.

AMERICA vs. EUROPE

Having seen so many clubs, places and people about music in USA I could get a general opinion about the style of the music as well as the differences between America and Europe considering musical thought in general and in jazz. Surely, America is a big continent and there are still many cities I had to see to have certain ideas but for now I, at least, have some estimations. 

First of all I can not make a generalization about noise level in jazz clubs. There were noisy places as well as quiet places. However, considering jazz listeners in States, as far as I have seen in these three cities, I think there were many listeners who see a musical performance only as a part or an accessory of an event - i.e a good music with a good dinner or a touristic visit. There is also this type of audience in Europe and Turkey but I think America is a bit more out of concentration while listening. 

As you can see in details above, there are generally two sets for each night. This is also the case in Europe however you generally pay once in each set and the sets are generally are not individual concerts, instead they are following each other. I can not generalize this but American style of jazz club, consistent with its mostly-money-dependent daily life, is more like an economic, consumer activity. There is almost no possibility of an encore after each set. More than that, for a band playing for the whole week it is hard to perform  with joy since the set-list looks like the same everyday carrying even same improvisational parts. 

I think, because of the holiday season, there were no jazz concerts at any big performance hall when we were in States and I could not join any of them - if I had joined I am sure there would have been a more concentrated audience. I should say that before I join some concerts with a big audience in a big performance hall in USA, my comments are not fully reflecting the whole picture but including jazz clubs in New Jersey, Brooklyn and Harlem there may be more than a hundred clubs in New York. Thus you can see that jazz is actually turning around clubs in US as it should be and as it was in its origin. Since the Europe jazz scene is generally full of musicians having a classical music background and the music played/demanded in Europe has exceeded the boundaries of jazz and entered towards classical music, the concerts and performances naturally passed to the concert halls. Surely, there are many jazz clubs in Europe but the number of jazz clubs in European cities having performance everyday is between one to at most a couple. As far as I have experienced, the difference in daily economic lives of USA and Europe has a profound effect also on differences between the musicians. Europe is said to force its people to be alone and cause them to have a cold manner towards people. However, in my opinion, the social policies in European countries prevent people to have very different monthly incomes which results in a social equality and peace. More than that, government support unpopular art. In USA, liberal economy rules create an overall income inequality among people. It seems to me that everybody is bound to each other with an invisible economic dependence in America. Musicians and listeners are all in this relation. Almost all musicians I have talked in New York and Chicago, in a way, have talked about money in the end and I found American people less friendly compared to Europe unless you are the customer. Frankly, my country, Turkey, is somehow more similar to USA lately. Actually, in this global world of free liberal economy, even many musicians from Europe started to behave in American style. I am sure money is a very important thing but jazz is a music for soul, not stomach in my humble opinion. In this cruel world, it is hard to be rich with jazz. But I can understand the musicians caring first about money; because they have a family to take care or have a life to live. The actual solution resides in the listener who cares about how the musician lives. If you get benefit for your soul as a listener, I am not telling you should pay but I am telling you should care. Money should not be the aim for any people, it should be an apparatus to reach some more civilized thing - to share the art for instance. As a listener, if you care about any musician, money problem will be solved automatically. But in American style, money is important also for listeners. To summarize all, the cycle in US is turning now with power of money and music have to accept the rules of this cycle. In my opinion this causes the music to lose its soul. The Jazz and Blues is born in pain and poverty. It was a voice of talents who are neglected by industrial rules and used as slaves. Although jazz found its way and developed within the cruel American economic conditions throughout all these years, it always sounded as if it is brave people's music who are keeping themselves out of popular trends. I think, even their music is criticized by Americans for not being related with mainstream jazz styles but related with classical and folk genres, Europe seems to be carrying this idealist purpose now. Or I am just dreaming...

The Following Posts Will Be About...

As some of my followers from social networks may have noticed I have been to USA in August 2013. Although I was mainly in vacation in New York, Boston and Chicago with my wife for our 6th wedding anniversary, I have also joined many performances in jazz clubs and visited some very important record stores. Music -especially jazz- is always with me, playing in my mind. Thus, my following post will be basically about my observations about current condition of jazz in USA. Please do not worry, it won't be rediscovery of the new world. More than that I am planning to compare Europe (including my country Turkey) with USA with respect to their approach to jazz, music and musicians. It is obvious that these two different places created very different environments for musicians and the music they make in years because of not only their different origins in creating music but also different life styles they presented to their people. Since I also like to learn and observe cultural characteristics and daily habits of cities and residents in my holidays I had a general opinion and some estimations about the reasons for the differences. I hope I can manage to write as soon as what I have in my mind and share it with you. I think because of it's detailed subject this post will take a lot of time for me to prepare. 

Besides, I also want to write reviews for some new albums that is released by my favourite jazz musicians recently.

Lastly, I would also like to announce that I am working on my personal website that will replace with the blog and become a more tidy page having different subtitles such as album reviews, concert reviews, upcoming performances and new albums...

Let's see whether I will be able to do all of these in September.

Thanks for your patience and interest.

Dhafer Youssef Ankara Concert, August 1st 2013

It has not been even 6 months since Dhafer Youssef has given a fantastic concert in Ankara Jazz Festival with his fabulous quartet. This time, the nice square of Cer Modern Art Center was the concert place yesterday for this fantastic musician. In addition to their quartet configuration (Dhafer Youssef, Kristjan Randalu, Audun Erlien and Chander Sandjoe) we had Eivind Aarset on guitar, Hüsnü Şenlendirici on clarinet and Aytaç Doğan on kanun. The band has  previously performed with Hüsnü Şenlendirici and Aytaç Doğan in İstanbul and North Sea Jazz Festivals and gathered very good reviews.

Many of latest performances of Dhafer Youssef are including his great compositions performed with a tensional and energetic European Jazz style. He is using his oud and incredible vocal to give the oriental taste. He is not only a member of the band but also a conductor directing the transitions and solo performances. I think it is a great idea to include Turkish musicians to the band and what we see as a result is proving that the musicians are really excellent choices. Hüsnü Şenlendirici has real good reputation among musicians all around the world. My questions in some of my interviews were for learning European musicians’ knowledge for Turkish music and musicians. Not surprisingly, they are generally answered as “Hüsnü”. He is always improving his old school style for clarinet with academic work and integration. I have listened to Aytaç Doğan first time yesterday. He is just great. I will surely follow him more closely.

The performance has started with the quintet version. The piano entrance of Kristjan Randalu was great again. His style is really as soft as silk. Audun Erlien was always there at the back with electric bass – strong and solid with the drummer Chander Sandjoe. Different that the previous concert, Chander Sandjoe was a bit more silent. The solo performance of Kristjan Randalu in around middle of the concerts, I think, is the most important highlight of the night. Eivind Aarset was responsible almost for all electronic background. He, with his laptop open in his front, was a great ingredient in the resultant beauty. The overall sound was amazing. I should mention here that the previous concert’s hall and the square of Cer Modern have very poor acoustic conditions. However what I have experienced in the previous concert in Meb Sura Hall was the best I have ever heard at that place. Same has applied yesterday and I, again, have listened to the best sound created in the square so far. It is obvious that Dhafer Youssef is caring about that and the sound engineer from Berlin (he was in Ankara for both concerts) has a big contribution in that. This experience forces me to make a comment that if musicians care about the good sound then the good sound is achieved.

The entrance of Hüsnü Şenlendirici and Aytaç Doğan to the stage in later performance was good and bad at the same time. Aytaç Doğan was the shining star of the day. He was like playing all the time with Dhafer and the band. The way he is carrying the melody in his solo performance was incredible. It’s the first time I am listening to Hüsnü Şenlendirici in such a configuration; but I can easily say that especially in the first parts, his accompanying to Dhafer Youssef’s high register vocal was not successful enough. From beginning to end there was also a serious clip-like problem in the sound of clarinet. Especially their intense duo performances in high frequencies are generally destroyed with this unwanted noise. However, I should admit that Hüsnü Şenledirici was just like a master in his solo performance and their duo with Aytaç Doğan. Moreover, the following performances of Hüsnü Şenlendirici with the band were better.

Ankara audience had a real good participation in the concert considering the holiday time and ongoing Ramadan. As far as it is seen in the ovation part they liked what they listened to.

North Sea Jazz Festival 2013 - A Visitor's Notes on Festival and Some Performances

It's been almost 20 days since I had experienced my best days of jazz ever. These dreamy days have been lived in North Sea Jazz Festival 2013. You know; when you have so many data in your hand, you generally do not know where to start. That’s why I have waited so long to write an overall review of what I lived in my first North Sea Jazz Festival. I am intentionally predefining my review as “what I lived in North Sea”, because in my opinion a normal human being can live at most quarter of what’s going on throughout these three busy and jazzy days.

Since this review is written also to give general information for any possible new participants for following years, I’d like to start with a little bit about the organization, place and travel from abroad. The festival has been held since 1976. The place was Hague until it is decided in 2006 that Rotterdam will be the new home for North Sea Jazz Festival. You can easily arrive at Rotterdam in at most 30 minutes from Amsterdam Airport. The city is small. Therefore it is never a problem to reach to the Ahoy, the port on which the festival is held. All you have to do is to stay at a hotel near to a subway station. With its beautiful view, my hotel Inntel was, for instance, was a nice place for being on the line of subway to Ahoy and near to the Central Station, where the train from Amsterdam touches to Rotterdam.

Although it was my first time in North Sea Jazz, I had a general opinion about the festival, mostly thanks to some of my jazz enthusiast friends who has been participating in the festival for years. Additionally, started from the day I have decided to join and begun to plan my schedule, I was a bit aware of what has been going on every year in this incredible organization managing more than 150 performances with 1200 artists in three days in 15 stages. 

In spite of all these previews of mine for the festival, I was simply in the state of OMG when I saw the crowd in front of the Ahoy at 2.30 pm, almost two hours before the doors of Ahoy opened in the first day July 12th. I have never seen this many people gathered to listen to jazz by paying almost 70 Euros for a single day or 200 Euros for three days (I am not counting at least two plus concerts for each day priced 15 Euros or 30 Euros). I have also observed that many people could not find 3-day or 1-day ticket at the first day. I have heard that at least 30000 visitors have come to Ahoy each day for the festival. I have bought the tickets almost two months ago to prevent such things and I advice the same for all future participants.

Let me give some information also about the physical structure of Ahoy. There are four floors including the entrance floor. Most of the performance halls are at the entrance, floor 0 : Nile, Maas, Congo, Congo Square, Mississippi, Amazon, Darling and Hudson.

Only Mississippi and Congo Square are open air places. Rests of these halls are concert halls in different sizes.

Smaller ones, which are mostly resembling to fairly large jazz clubs, are located on upper floors: Yenisei on first floor, Madeira (and Tigris) on second floor and Volga on third floor. I have to mention that some other places in which many exhibitions, resting places, VIP events and interviews are realized: Central Square is in the entrance level to take something to eat and to sit down while watching previous year’s legendary concerts or the ongoing performances of celebrity musicians in the biggest hall Nile. Birdland is for VIP events. Jazz Cafe is on the first floor for questions & answers and interviews. Mekong is on the third floor for Jazz Art exhibitions. In addition to these, there were many stands near to Central Square which includes exhibition and sales of CD, LP, instrument and hi-fi speakers. There were many drink stands and fairly enough types of food places most of which are located near to Central Square and some of which (mostly smelly ones) are located outside on the open air way from Nile to Hudson passing through Mississippi.

  

Considering 2013’s program I can easily say that the styles of the music (although its main genre seems to be jazz) tried to be distributed in almost all aspects or kinds residing in the vicinity of jazz. From hard-bop to Nordic, from Latin to avant-garde, from R&B to funk and from soul to blues. Therefore, I think the participants’ profiles were widely distributed in age, hometown and wealth. All these different styles seem to be consistently distributed to different places. For instance, bands having a real American Jazz style were generally in Hudson. Terence Blanchard, Branford Marsalis, Roy Hargrove, Charles Lloyd and Ron Carter have all performed in Hudson. We also saw some names from other schools in this hall, who are certainly affected by mainstream jazz such as Avishai Cohen, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Monty Alexander, Michel Camilio, Zakir Hussain and Eliane Elias. Amazon can be shown as the biggest hall for jazz. It is mostly used for plus concerts whose tickets are sold individually. Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, Diana Krall, Dee Dee Bridgewater and David Sanborn’s concerts were all in Amazon. Two symphonic performances, EST Symphony and Eric Vloeimans and Limburgs Symfonie were also in Amazon where a big stage is needed. Darling and Congo were hosting generally bands performing with a higher energy level and decibel with many electronic contributions. Robert Glasper with Lionel Leouke, Next Collective and Electric Masada from Darling and John Medeski from Congo can be given as examples. 

From the snapshots I have added to my review you can easily see that the most crowded place for jazz lovers was the indoor way between Amazon and Hudson which includes also the entrance of Darling. This path was generally blocked when a long queue for a well-known name in Darling and start or finish of another important name’s performance in Hudson are coincided. Maas and Nile are giants of the place. The celebrities such as Sting, Santana, Jamie Cullum, Bonnie Ratt, Steve Winwood and John Legend were listened at Nile. Jazz, Funk (even Soft Rock) and R&B singers with big bands were generally at Maas. Gregory Porter, Gretchen Parlato, Ben Harper, Anthony Hamilton, Brecker Bands Reunion can be given as examples from Maas. Madeira, although it is on the lower lines in the daily program sheets, can be one of the most important places for real jazz lovers in North Sea with its line-up such as Kenny Barron, The Cookers, Willie Jones, Steve Coleman, Steve Swallow and Carla Bley. Yenisei and Volga have been the place generally for qualified European Jazz musicians such as Mathias Eick, Yaron Herman, Ivo Neame and Martin Tingvall. Outdoor performance places Mississippi and Congo Square were generally presenting big bands featuring soloists or entertaining rhythmic groups. Anat Cohen has performed in Mississippi. I should also tell you that we have a Turkish singer performing in Missisippi: Karsu Dönmez.

In this three days program most of my time has passed in Hudson, Amazon and Yenisei. Madeira was the place that I’d like to be very much in but I generally waited at the door because of its small capacity.

For all these three days – since it is my first time – my main policy was to listen to as many different musicians as I can achive. However I have also chosen three performances for each day which I’d like to experience on a good seat from beginning to end. Between these three performances I was planning to see small partitions from some names that I have never seen before on the stage. This way, I saw at least seven performances each day in almost 9 hours. 

During realizations of these plans, most of the time, walking between my main performances to small partitions became a real rush and a stressful act. This also sometimes prevented me from comfortably eating and drinking. But you know, who cares eating when there is good music playing. My single mistake, I think, was to divide some performances into two when two of my favorite musicians exactly coincided at the same interval. The organization has no contribution to this, everything is a result of my vast musical taste and hunger. I strongly recommend you not to do that division and to decide on one.

Let me also shortly review each performance I have joined. The first day has started with a single piece from Anat Cohen and Royal Conservatory & Codarts Big Band in Mississippi. Then I was at the fabulous performance of Terence Blanchard, Brice Winston, Fabian Almazon, Joshua Crumbly and Kendrick Scott in Hudson. Terence Blanchard was as perfect as he usually is. The pianist Fabian Almazan and the drummer Kendrick Scott were highlights of the concert. The single mistake that I have seen during the festival may have happened in this performance: the announcement system mistakenly worked twice and told something in Dutch in the middle of Terence Blanchard’s performance.

My second station in July 12^th was Amazon for a single piece from Eric Vloeimans, Martin Fondse and Limburgs Symfonie. The compositions were brilliant. Congo was the next place to hear again just a single piece from John Medeski with Martin & Wood. They have a great album together. Their performance seemed to have gathered many listeners from this festival.

Then, for my second concert in first day, I passed immediately to Yenisei, where Mathias Eick performed with Andreas Ulvo, Audun Erlien, Andreas Bye and Kenneth Kapstad. Yes, you did not read it wrong or I did not write it mistakenly. We simply had two drummers on the stage with two full drum-sets. I was really wondering this performance since the one in İstanbul just before North Sea was cancelled. The pieces were mostly from his ECM album Scala. Many electric ingredients and two drummers turned the concert into a very tensional one. It was a good concert when evaluated in general but I was expecting a better one considering overall sound created. I think Yenisei is a bit problematic place for music performances because of its low ceil heights considering mostly mid-frequencies. Mathias Eick's followers know very well his unique sound from the trumpet which has many layers that should certainly be given to the audience in a live performance. Moreover, the sound produced seems to need a bigger hall. I think Darling could be a better place.

Diana Krall was waiting in Amazon for the first plus concerts of the festival at around 9 pm on July 12th. I have never listened to her lively before. Listening to jazz celebrities is always a strange experience for me. You know, big concert halls, cold and far away stage and lots of fans around are not the things a real enthusiastic jazz listener like. Diana Krall is an important jazz vocal however. She sings flat – I mean real flat. Many find this boring but less know that singing flat – like talking in daily life – is a real difficult thing to do. During her beautiful performance she sang many songs from really earlier times of jazz and blues. She also has covered some Neil Young’s wonderful compositions – this was my favorite part in the concert. I had to leave Diana Krall’s last two or three performances to have a look at Santana and Monty Alexander Trio Plus. Santana was just a big show at Nile. The Hudson’s door was almost stuck because of the crowd. What I see was a big applause from the audience after each piece. As far as I have experienced in last two pieces, Monty Alexander Trio Plus’ concert was just great even resulting an encore which is rare in North Sea due to tight schedule.

My first day has finished with two coincided performances – the incredible Roy Hargrove Quintet and our qualified European pianist Yaron Herman. I have chosen Roy Hargrove as the entrance. Both performances were telling stories from different worlds but with same level of beauty. Roy Hargrove’s compositions and performance were great again. I should admit that I hardly left it.

July 13^th has started with Gretchen Parlato and Gregory Porter in Maas with a full house. What a wonderful voice they both have. Their duo performance was just touching. Before E.S.T. Symphony, I have seen a single performance from Sangam project of Charles Lloyd, Zakir Hussain and Eric Harland at Hudson. When I was passing to Amazon I have tried to enter Madeira for Kenny Barron’s Platinum Trio but the door was closed and there was a long queue. As far as I have heard from my friends, Kenny Barron’s performance was fabulous.

My first beginning to end concert in second day was E.S.T. Symphony in Amazon, a symphony project achieved by composer/conductor Hans Ek, bassist Dan Berglund and drummer Magnus Öström whose names you will remember as the living members of one of the best European jazz trios in jazz history Esbjörn Svensson Trio. After Esbjörn’s passing away we can see this symphony project as the most important work Magnus and Dan are presenting together. I had seen them in İstanbul three day before their North Sea performance and wrote a detailed review about that great concert. The line-up is changing in each E.S.T. Symphony concert. There were many different names in the premiere in Stockholm and İstanbul. Here in Rotterdam, we had Yuri Honing on saxophone, İbrahim Maalouf on trumpet, Kurt Rosenwinkel on guitar, Yaron Herman and Martin Tingvall on piano. Since the interval defined for the concerts are not long enough in North Sea we had some missing pieces compared to İstanbul and Stockholm such as Seven Days of Falling. Again, an interesting difference is that there are trumpet players in Stockholm and Rotterdam but we did not see a trumpet player in İstanbul. The Amazon stage was big enough for the big orchestra and the sound was very good compared to a bit problematic sound created in İstanbul.  The stage placements are a bit different too. Magnus, Dan and other soloists were at the forefront right after Hans Ek. I learned that they were preferring to be at the back but the stage structure of Amazon caused them to do this. I am excluding the incredible Marius Neset in İstanbul, but I think soloist performances were generally better in North Sea than what we listened to in İstanbul. Even Magnus and Dan were a bit more energetic. I think two most important parts of the concert were İbrahim Maalouf’s wonderful and oriental contribution with his quarter-tones to the piece Behind The Yashmak and the guest appearance of Jamie Cullum in the last piece Love is Real. Besides I have at last met face to face Wilfried Rijsemus, a real jazz lover from Holland with whom I share many interests in jazz for a long time especially for E.S.T. stuff.

After E.S.T. Symphony concert I was planning to see Willie Jones III in Madeira but what I see was again a big queue and closed doors. Again friends joining the concerts mentioned me that what I am missing was another great performance. Before passing to my second plus concert to Amazon I wanted to have a look at Eliane Elias, Randy Brecker and Marc Johnson at Hudson. The concert was fairly good but mostly for looking for a calm Brazilian sound.

Chick Corea and The Vigil at Amazon was a real promising concerts for most of us with Christian McBride on bass. I have lately listened to these two great musicians with the incredible Brian Blade on drums in a wonderful concert. The musicians and compositions were surely all good but I think because of our great expectations the overall performance was not satisfactory.

After an early exit from Amazon I found the opportunity to join Questions and Answers of Magnus Öström and Dan Berglund in Jazz Cafe in the middle. I found the forefront seat and I barely noticed that the woman I am telling “excuse me” while passing was Dee Dee Bridgewater waiting for her turn after them. I made some contributions and asked some questions. I also found some time to talk to my heroes after the event. It was again very depressing to remember Esbjörn’s death.

The last part in my second day was including three single performances from The Cookers in Madeira, Zorn at 60 Electric Masada in Darling and Talking Cows in Volga. The Cookers were really good. The Electric Masada has the highest decibel I have ever heard in a jazz festival. I just had a snapshot look at John Legend’s performance in Nile and ran away from R&B. The end of the day was wonderful with the incredible duo of Michel Camilio and Tomatito. They were really energetic and lively. The compositions, arrangements and overall sound in Hudson were really touching.

The last day has the most difficult schedule for me. I was mostly at Hudson because Kurt Rosenwinkel, Branford Marsalis and Avishai Cohen were there too in consecutive performances.

To start with Kurt Rosenwinkel’s performance was not what again the audience expected but anyone should respect the great technique and sound of this fabulous guitarist. Eric Revis was very good in this performance as well as he is in Branford Marsalis Quartet. When I have found some time I had a look at Ivo Neame Octet in Yenisei which includes Jasper Høiby on bass. In other words, 2/3 of the qualified trio -Phronesis- was on the stage. I have listened to their performances till the end. They were just great. Next to this I also found the chance to see Marcus Miller: The Renaissance at Nile. It was a great show for jazz. Considering the non-jazz line-up in Nile in three days Marcus Miller’s concert was a very important one gathering this many people just for jazz. The compositions and the musicians’ energy were just awesome.

Next Collective is a kind-of-new sound from USA with Gerald Clayton on piano. We had also the great Christian Scott on trumpet. Their compositions are carrying also European tastes and the album is a real success. Since Branford Marsalis Quartet was at Hudson for the following performance and I would see Next Collective in New York in following days I convinced myself to see just the entrance piece of this good concert in Darling.

It was more than a full house in Hudson in Branford Marsalis Quartet’s Concert. We have noticed that there were something wrong when Branford could not come instantly to stage when presented and the problem became evident when we saw that he is trying to fix something in his instrument while his friends are keeping the performance going on. I am not sure but I think the instrument has broken while being carried by airways. Fortunately, after the first performance another musician has made a soprano saxophone to reach to Branford Marsalis and we have listened to a great concert. Joey Calderazzo, Eric Revis and Justin Faulkner were just amazing. Can you believe it? The instrument is hardly working, it is replaced then, you are facing this problem lively on the stage, your friends have to compensate your absence by changing arrangements and you can still return for a great performance. All my respects and WOWs are for Branford Marsalis. This was my first time for his quartet. Their duo performance with Joey Calderazzo was just touching in İstanbul and I was looking forward to listening to the quartet. I got what I expected.

Between Branford Marsalis Quartet and Avishai Cohen Quartet I tried to see Steve Swallow Quintet in Madeira and Joe Lovano in Amazon. I have managed to enter Madeira and at last could see Steve Swallow and Carla Bley together on the stage. Amazon was closed due to high demand.

I have listened to Avishai Cohen Trio before. The quartet configuration and the other musicians were all new for me in live performance. The energy level of Avishai Cohen Quartet in Hudson at the entrance was very low and I think the drummer could not join the event with an enough concentration at first. Later on, the band found their best state and Avishai has started to impress audience again. The encore was a classical solo performance from him: Alfonsina Y El Mar. The last jazz concerts I have seen in the festival were Robert Glasper Experiment with Lionel Loueke in Darling and Ron Carter and WDR Big Band in Hudson. Besides, after his fantastic concert in İstanbul, I wanted to listen to Sting again this time in Nile considering also that Branford Marsalis will be on stage with him. It was just a wonderful end to this fabulous festival.

If you are a jazz lover, YOU HAVE TO GO TO NORTH SEA JAZZ FESTIVAL.

If you are interested in jazz but new, YOU SHOULD GO TO NORTH SEA JAZZ FESTIVAL.

If you are not listening to jazz, YOU MAY GO TO NORTH SEA JAZZ FESTIVAL.