The Nardis Jazz Club, situated in an old Genoese building in a side street close to the Galata Tower, is Istanbul’s oldest venue of its kind, having opened its doors in October 2002. Consisting of a stage, a ground floor seating area and a balcony, it has a maximum seating capacity of 120. Customers can have meals served at their tables. The club, which is named after a composition by Miles Davis, is owned by jazz musician Önder Focan and his wife Zuhal, the publisher and editor of Jazz magazine.
Jazz concerts are held every night of the week except Sunday. Seating is determined according to the order in which members of the audience arrive, starting at 20:30. Reservations are kept until 21:15 (i.e., 15 minutes before the music starts). Tables for two are limited. All other tables are shared.
Important note: The club’s online ticket sales application has been terminated. Bookings are now carried out exclusively via [email] (focan@nardisjazz.com) or by telephone: +90 (212) 244 63 27
Saturday, April 5
Singer İpek Dinç (pictured above) first came to prominence when she won the Nardis Club’s competition for young jazz vocalists in 2009 and was subsequently invited to sing at the Nömme Jazz Festival in Tallinn, Estonia. Here she performs a selection of jazz standards plus latin and funk numbers.
Time: 21:30 Price: 800TL
Monday April 7
Kaan Bıyıkoğlu + Cem Tuncer + Ozan Musluoğlu
Kaan Bıyıkoğlu’s musical career began in Ankara, where he studied the piano at the Middle East Technical University and the Başkent University Ankara State Conservatoire. In 2006 he moved to the Netherlands, where he received tuition in jazz piano, harmony, composition and orchestration. He returned to Turkey in 2013 and is currently teaching piano and harmony in the Jazz Department of the Hacettepe University Ankara State Conservatoire.
Mehmet Can Tuncer studied guitar with Sarp Maden and Gökçen Taşkıran at Akademi Istanbul, where he also took lessons in music theory and ensemble playing. In 1998 he received a scholarship to Bilgi University, where he completed his undergraduate studies in the Composition Department. Later, in addition to playing in a large number of concerts both in Europe and in Istanbul, he taught jazz guitar and ensemble playing at Yıldız Technical University. In recent years, he has written the music for a large number of films.
Ozan Musluoğlu attended the Music Department of Bilgi University, where he studied the double bass. He then toured Turkey and other countries with ‘Athena’, a Turkish ska and punk rock group. In 2009 he formed his own ensemble, the ‘Ozan Musluoğlu Quartet’. His first album, ‘Coincidence’, appeared in 2009, and this was followed by ‘40th Day’ (2011), ‘My Best Friends are Pianists’ (2012) and ‘My Best Friends are Vocalists’ (2015). His latest album, ‘Nine’, was released earlier this year.
Time: 21:30 Price: 800TL
Thursday April 17
Cenk Erdoğan, who plays the fretless guitar, has developed a technique that is influenced by traditional Turkish stringed instruments such as the bağlama and the tanbur. His playing style and his compositions, in which he combines jazz harmonies with traditional Turkish melodies, have attracted international attention: in 2004 he was invited to demonstrate his skills at the Berklee College of Music and the Queens College of Music. The recordings he has so far produced are ‘İle’ (2008), ‘Kavis’ (2011), ‘Kara Kutu’ (2014), ‘Fermata’ (2018) and ‘Lahza II’ (2019).
Time: 21:30 Price: 800TL
Tuesday April 22
Flapper Swing is a group that keeps alive the musical atmosphere of the roaring 1920s – ‘the times when jazz was still fun’. It has five members: Nevin Hetmanek on vocals, Erhan Erbelger and Tomas Hetmanek on guitars, Volkan Topakoğlu on double bass and Batu Şallıel on soprano saxophone. (I believe Tomas Hetmanek hails from the Czech Republic.) They appear on stage in 1920s costume, but the audience is at liberty to dress as they will. I have fond memories of the times when Flapper Swing played in the street – at the Tünel end of İstiklal Caddesi. I always admired their blend of musical professionalism and good humour.
Time: 21:30 Price: 800TL
Wednesday, April 23
Bilge Günaydın is a pianist, composer and arranger who has recently completed a master’s degree in jazz composition at William Paterson University in New Jersey, USA. She has in the past worked with famous names such as Bill Charlap, Pete McGuinness, Cecil Bridgewater, Steve Nelson and Ed Neumeister. Bilge Günaydın is also a member of the BMI Jazz Composers Workshop and ISJAC (the International Society of Jazz Arrangers and Composers), and currently works with both these organisations in the area of big band and orchestral music. In the past, her compositions have been played by the BMI Jazz Orchestra, One More Once Big Band and the Twin Cities Jazz Composers Orchestra. Her style includes elements of modern, classical and Turkish music as well as jazz; her first album, ‘Daydreams’, was released in 2020, and her second, ‘Sketches of Green’ (recorded with guitarist Cenk Erdoğan and double-bass player Ozan Musluoğlu), in 2022.
Time: 21:30 Price: 800TL
Friday, April 25
Evrim Özşuca studied the cello at Bilkent University, Ankara, before graduating from Bilgi University, Istanbul, as a jazz vocalist. In 2005, the won the Nardis Jazz Club’s Young Jazz Vocalists Competition and the International Young Jazz Vocalists Competition at the Nomme Jazz Festival in Estonia. Following this, she gave concerts with jazz trumpeter Ted Curson (1935-2012) in New York and Paris. In 2008, she took part in Ali Perret’s ‘Atonal Standards’ project. Evrim Özsuca has been teaching jazz vocal since 2003, and sometimes performs with ‘Effective’, the group she founded at the end of 2009. Her style includes elements of blues, R&B, soul and funk.
Time: 21:30 Price: 800TL
Saturday, April 26
The inimitable Sibel Köse, dubbed ‘the Queen of European Jazz’, is a vocalist of outstanding talent. Last time I saw Sibel perform, I said the following:
‘Over the three-and-a-bit years since I last had the privilege of hearing her, nothing of her energy has been lost: if anything, her singing is more powerful than ever. She hits the high notes with tremendous force and faultless intonation; she improvises creatively with nonsense words even more frequently than before, fashioning them into meaningful episodes within the song as a whole; and her emotional range remains unrivalled within my experience of jazz singers. All this is mixed in with both a searing sincerity and a wry sense of humour. How could anyone fail to enjoy and appreciate her artistry?’
Time: 21:30 Price: 800TL
Issue 67, December 2024
Beauty in the Wilderness
