In the London Jazz Festival, to follow the radiant gig by Andrea Motis I sallied forth to swinging Exmouth Market to sample a mini-festival of Turkish jazz curated by Turquazz in celebration of the 20th anniversary of Nardis jazz club in Istanbul. A “pop-up venue” * in the same pleasant hall that last year hosted Veronica Doubleday’s entrancing concert to launch the new edition of Three women of Herat, among a series of gigs (reviewed here) was Female voices of Turkey, as well as an intriguing talk on Thomas the “Black Russian” and Maksim tavern.

I relished the Anatolian fusion ensemble, led by Ozan Baysal on bağlama plucked lute. Rather as the only word that makes any sense in the “Hengshan Daoist Music Troupe” is “Daoist”, I wasn’t hung up on the Anatolian connection or the fusion, but the ensemble was exhilarating.

My ears having become attuned to the bağlama by its use to accompany the nefes hymns of Alevi ritual (click here, and here), I admired the creativity of Ozan Baysal (YouTube; and e.g. this intro), playing with Tolga Zafer Özdemir on keys and synth, Bora Bekiroğlu on electric bass, and Burak Ersöz on drums, all currently based in London.

While Ozan remains steeped in the traditional style, * the double-necked bağlama opens up new possibilities for him in a rock-based vibe, as he explores the şelpe style with a variety of left- and right-hand techniques. Being keen on free-tempo preludes, I appreciated his fine taksim intros, unfolding into long numbers in exhilarating dialogue with Tolga Zafer’s funky keys and synth. The band clearly loves playing together, and I’m All Agog (a complete gog, or perhaps ğöğ—cf. kösk) to hear more from them.

For a visit to the Nardis jazz club in Istanbul, click here!

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* In more traditional mode, here’s Ozan Baysal at SOAS earlier this year with the different lineup of Anatolian Groove, including the Kurdish/Alevi singer Suna Alan, and Melisa Yıldırım on kamancha fiddle (website, YouTube):

Click here for Ozan’s recent collboration with Melisa Yıldırım. For my belated education in Turkish culture, see under West/Central Asia: a roundup. And click here for a roundup of posts on jazz, including not just the Golden Age but also Ethiopia, Poland, and Japan.

* The tabloid Leitmotif “pop-up brothel” has recently segued seamlessly into “pop-up Prime Minister”…