John McLaughlin, Melody Gardot and Kalben among the highlights at Istanbul Jazz Festival

The 29th edition of Istanbul Jazz Festival was held, between 25 June-7 July, on a very special year for the organizer IKSV – Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts: on its 50^th birthday. Sponsored by Garanti BBVA, a tradition ongoing from its first years, in 13 days of the festival, over two hundred local and foreign musicians met with audiences numbering almost 40,000.

One of the highlights of this year’s festival was the concert by John McLaughlin & The 4th Dimension at the Harbiye Cemil Topuzlu Open-Air Theatre, where the performances of the experienced musician and his band captivated the audience. This best concert venue of Istanbul, on a hilltop overlooking the Bosporus, hosted some other great musicians once again this year, one of which was Melody Gardot. As her uniquely serene way of singing invited the audience to dreamlands on that beautiful summer night, the synergy between her and Jorge Bezerra on drums, Philippe Powell on keyboard, Chris Thomas on double bass and Irwin Hall on saxophone was majestic. At another moonlit night at this venue, one other elegant lady was on stage: Diane Reeves. Opening her concert with a delicate version of ‘Morning Has Broken’, Reeves delighted the audience with her selection of songs, some very well-known some coming as surprises, as well as with the expression of her love for Istanbul and the Turkish culture referring to her various memories and experiences.

The Israeli clarinettist Yom, accompanied by Léo Jassef on piano at the CRR concert hall, left his trace at the festival as a truly marvellous musician. The two musicians played, in an uninterrupted flow, songs from the album ‘Celebration’ (2021) to the great enthusiasm of the audience as they brought together emotional authenticity with virtuosity. Another welcome guest from the Mediterranean shores was Enrico Pieranunzi, who played, also at the CRR, with Luca Bulgarelli on double bass, and Mauro Beggio on drums.

The Turkish singer/songwriter Kalben (pictured above - photo byMuhenna Kahveci), who was a surprising entry in the line-up, gave one of the most amazing concerts of this year’s festival. Being at the Harbiye Open-Air is a milestone for every musician in Turkey, and on that very special night the audience had the opportunity to share Kalben’s excitement and happiness as she was experiencing ‘that first’. Accompanied beautifully by a string quartet, saxophone, and Genco Arı’s piano as well as some guest singers at various points, as she sang jazzified versions of her songs, the thousands filling the venue sang along with Kalben.

The night was so unforgettable also because of Kalben’s honest, courageous, and highly humorous messages and comments regarding sexual freedom, body politics and shapism, democracy and free speech, as well as her former lovers. Her thanking over and over again throughout the night for the labour and effort of everyone who had a share in making the night possible – from the organisers of the festival to the cleaners of the venue, from the musicians on the stage to those who checked the tickets at the entrance – was a remarkable gesture of her heartfelt humbleness.

Like in the former years, there were various free concerts at the festival, in beautiful green spaces in different parts of the city. Also, the organiser IKSV, at great sacrifice, offered tickets costing only ten liras (50 cents) to students. Through such policies, the festival once again this year introduced jazz, and awareness of good music, to people with limited access to culture and arts; and also did a fascinating job in removing the stigma of elitism over jazz music.