Ilhan Ersahin's Istanbul Sessions
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Ilhan Ersahin's Istanbul Sessions

İstanbul, Istanbul, Turkey | INDIE

İstanbul, Istanbul, Turkey | INDIE
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"Erik Truffaz passe par la Turquie pour doper son jazz"

Le saxophoniste Ilhan Ersahin, agitateur turc de la nouvelle scène new-yorkaise, fondateur du label Nublu, invite dans son quartette Istanbul Sessions le trompettiste Erik Truffaz et le violoncelliste Vincent Segal, tous deux par ailleurs manipulateurs d'électronique et d'effets divers. D'Istanbul à New York, leurs concerts ressemblent à des transes ou à des cérémonies, pour un public, dit Truffaz, "de 20 ans à...". Ils seront, samedi 13 mars, à l'Espace Fraternité d'Aubervilliers pour la deuxième soirée du festival Banlieues bleues, organisé en Seine-Saint-Denis jusqu'au 16 avril.


www.banlieuesbleues.org

D'origine turque, né en Suède d'où vient sa mère, Ilhan Ersahin balade son saxophone d'Istanbul à New York au bras de son épouse brésilienne. Icône parfaite pour Banlieues bleues, cinq semaines d'inventions et de découvertes en Seine-Saint-Denis.

A New York, dans les endroits chauds de l'East Village, Ilhan Ersahin suscite toutes les formules, toutes les rencontres, toutes les fusions. Ersahin a son club, son label (Nublu), et les déclarations du programme de Banlieues bleues, festival fou et festif, doivent, pour le qualifier, casser le coffre à qualificatifs : fusion, impro, groove électro, hip-hop, funk, drum'n'bass, musiques du monde.

Avec Truffaz, Ilhan Ersahin et son quartette doté d'un fantastique percussionniste, Izzet Kizil, vient de publier un album, Istanbul Sessions (paru le 8 mars). C'est une musique qui ne s'en fait pas. Une musique sophistiquée au point qu'elle donne à penser qu'elle ne s'en fait pas. Un voyage, un déplacement dans l'espace-temps, et parfois, sur scène, des sets endiablés qui durent deux heures. Aigris du vrai jazz, autant passer votre chemin. Pudibonds, itou. Trop de jouissance en vue.

Comment se sont-ils rencontrés ? "Je l'ai entendu sur album dans un club d'Istanbul, dit Erik Truffaz, le Dulcinea, où je jouais. C'était avec Larry Grenadier à la contrebasse. Ce son, cette énergie, m'ont convaincu de partir à sa recherche, à New York. On s'est vus, on a cherché la forme ensemble. Ce projet m'a beaucoup plu." Le point fort, évidemment, c'est la rythmique turque, "une dynamique bien énergique, dans la durée". Leurs prestations tiennent de l'expérience, de la transe, de l'éros syncopé. "Quand je l'ai connu, Ersahin était assez free, trop même. Mais là, c'est libre, avec intelligence." Trop free ? "Tant que la musique est belle, elle n'est jamais trop free, mais chaque artiste doit, à mon sens, rester conscient de la magie de son langage. En tant qu'artistes, il arrive qu'on soit un peu égocentriques. On ne se rend pas bien compte des limites, on oublie le temps."

Le disque Istanbul Sessions célèbre judicieusement l'année de la Turquie. Plongée dans le modal, le nappé, l'incantatoire, sur des modes assez singuliers, rehaussés de gammes qui s'apparentent à la musique turque et à celle des Balkans : "Moi, poursuit Erik Truffaz, j'apprends, et pour la musique des Balkans, j'ai fréquenté pas mal de Gitans à Istanbul. Les musiciens qui m'ont le plus impressionné dans la vie ? Les Gitans et Mike Brecker (sax ténor historique, mort en 2007). Quand j'ai joué avec Christophe, lui aussi invitait plein de Gitans. Bien entendu, j'aime le flamenco, je vais tous les ans à Grenade pour les écouter." Ouvrez grand les oreilles. Le jazz a changé de forme. C'est d'ailleurs, depuis 1899, sa définition. - Le Monde / 13.03.10


"ILHAN ERSAHIN ; Saxophonist Turned Club Entrepreneur"

You can easily pass 62 Avenue C. That’s the address for Nublu,
one of the hottest new clubs in New York’s underground electronica
and jazz scene. It’s a quaint, unassuming place with no marquee
or marking.
Nevertheless, just inside Nublu’s white doors is a chic wonderland.
Modern furniture, a well-stocked bar and a modest DJ booth
decorate the cozy club, which has a small performance space right
in front of an enclosed garden patio. Open seven days a week, the
lounge plays host to the likes of Butch Morris, Jason Lindner and
Graham Haynes.
The place serves as a new destination for established, cuttingedge
musicians and an incubator for new talent. The funky artelectronica
group Brazilian Girls got its start here, as did the jazztronica
outfit Wax Poetic.
Nublu’s slightly “under the radar” charisma serves as an ideal
analogy for the career of its 39-year-old founder Ilhan Ersahin,
a gifted tenor saxophonist-turned-entrepreneur and global
impresario who seems at once ubiquitous and anonymous—
at least when it comes to the mainstream jazz scene in the
United States. In countries such as Turkey, England, France
and Brazil, he’s treated like a rock star.
At the beginning of the year, Ersahin took his current
ensemble, Love Trio (with drummer Kenny Wollesen and
bassist Jesse Murphy), along with drummer Aaron Johnson (of
Brazilian Girls), Jesse Harris and rappers Dionysos and Stimulus, to
Brazil. The crew rented a big villa and threw parties for two months
through a partnership Ersahin forged with a Brazilian radio station.
A decade ago, Ersahin was a promising post-bopper trying to find his
way in New York’s crowded straightahead jazz scene. With a dark tone
that at times recalled Joe Henderson, his playing was steeped in the
“young lions” esthetic of the mid ’90s, even though his first Golden
Horn discs, Home (1997) and Our Song (1998), were composed of all
originals.
Having studied at Berklee College of Music from 1986–’88, Ersahin
arrived in New York a few years later, where he forged a barter deal
with Joe Lovano—he would bring Lovano exquisite cymbals from
Turkey in exchange for saxophone lessons. But in New York, Ersahin’s
starry eyes got blurred by commercial realities. The pressure of emulating
yesteryear’s hard-bop began weighing heavily on his creative spirit.
“It felt strange to keep playing other people’s music,” he said. “If I
played a Wayne Shorter song, I started sounding like Wayne Shorter.”
Born to a Turkish father and a Swedish mother, Ersahin grew up in
Stockholm, where he first picked up the saxophone. As a teenager,
Ersahin would go to Turkey every summer and spend three months at
the beach town of Bodrum, where he claims that his music career started.
Still, he had his eyes set on New York City.
“I dreamt about playing tenor with Art Blakey,” he said. “But when I
arrived, the scene was already decided upon. It was either the John Zorn
scene or the white beboppers or the black beboppers.
“Then I started listening to Massive Attack, Portishead, Tricky and
Everything But The Girl,” he continued. “I got absorbed by the British
trip-hop scene. Those guys were hearing the music the same way I was
hearing it.”
His interests in fusing cosmopolitan jazz with electronica and soul
were apparent on Wax Poetic’s 1999 debut, issued on Atlantic. At that
time, the group featured a then-unknown Norah Jones. But before Wax
Poetic could pick up any commercial or critical steam, Atlantic shut
down the department to which the band was signed. Distraught, Ersahin
wrote Atlantic, requesting the masters of Wax Poetic’s sessions.
Remarkably, the company granted his request.
“We were fusing a lot of different types of music, but in an organic
way, not just putting Indian flute on drum-’n’-bass,” Ersahin said. “We
wanted to evoke the feeling of living in Manhattan, where there are so
many different people and cultures.”
Since Wax Poetic’s disastrous debut release, it has gone on to
become an underground jazztronica sensation. Its 2003 disc, Nublu
Sessions, found Jones making a cameo appearance as well as vocalist
N’Dea Davenport and spoken-word artist Saul Williams. The group has
also traded in the volatile drum-’n’-bass rhythms and angst-ridden
gloom of trip-hop for a more silken, polyglot sound—one that Ersahin
claims to have provided the impetus for Nublu. “We had a unique
sound, but I needed a home for it,” he said. “Nublu started slow and then
my friends and I started playing there. Now, there’s this whole new
scene coming out of Nublu.”
In addition to building the club’s reputation, Ersahin recently
launched Nublu Records, releasing CDs and 12” vinyl singles from Wax
Poetic, Love Trio, his new band Kudu and Brazilian percussionist
Mauro Refosco. He also has collaborative projects with trumpeter Erik
Truffaz, reggae producer U-Roy and electronica maverick Charles Stella
slated for summer release.
And in keeping in step with Ersahin’s - Downbeat / August 2005


"Nublu, rois new-yorkais de Banlieues bleues"

Jazz . Collectif et label prolixes, les Américains feront l’ouverture ce week-end de la 27e édition du festival de Seine-Saint-Denis.
Par DOMINIQUE QUEILLÉ - Liberation / 12/03/2010


Discography

>> ISTANBUL SESSIONS <<

ALBUM- Ilhan Ersahin - Istanbul Sessions with Erik Truffaz (2010 / nublu records),
Released
in Turkey (Oct'09-nublu/pozitif),
in Europe(March'10-nublu/discograph),
in USA (June'10-nublu-redeye)

> The Album has been in Top10 on iTunes France and Amazon.fr
> Our titles like "Freedom", "Bosphorus", "Les Ottomans", "Thomas O'Malley" are on radio selection

EP- Bosphorus (with Etienne Jaumet remix) (nublu/discograph)
released in USA (June'10-nublu-redeye)

++++++++++++++

>> PAST ALBUMS/PROJECTS of Ilhan Ersahin <<

- Ilhan Ersahin - An Afternoon in Rio (Nublu Records) 2010 (to be released in fall 2010)
- Ilhan Ersahin - Istanbul Sessions with. Erik Truffaz (Nublu Records) 2010
- I Led 3 Lives - I Led 3 Lives (Nublu Records) 2009
- Wax Poetic - Istanbul (Nublu Records) 2008
- Wax Poetic - Brasil (Nublu Records) 2007
- Nublu Orchestra conducted by Butch Morris (Nublu Records) 2007
- Wax Poetic - Copenhagen (Nublu Records) 2006
- Love Trio in Dub feat. U-Roy (Nublu Records) 2006
- Our Theory - Our Theory with. Erik Truffaz (Nublu Records) 2006
- Ilhan Ersahin - Wonderland/Harikalar Diyarı (Doublemoon Records 2005)
- Wax Poetic - Nublu Sessions (Ultra Records) 2004
- Love Trio - Love Trio (Nublu Records) 2003
- Wax Poetic - Wax Poetic (Atlantic Records) 2000 (with Norah Jones, Ndea Davenport, Kurt Rosenwinkle etc)
- Ilhan Ersahin - Virgo (Doublemoon Records) 2000
- Ilhan Ersahin - Our Song (Golden Horn Records) 1998
- Ilhan Ersahin - Home (Golden Horn Records) 1997

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Bio

The free-form jazz riffs of NYC's East Village and the exotic-tinged jazz rhythms of Istanbul come together harmoniously on the compelling new album ILHAN ERSAHIN'S ISTANBUL SESSIONS with ERIK TRUFFAZ, released March 8 on Nublu Records in Europe and June 6th in the U.S...

Noted saxophonist/composer Ilhan Ersahin, who helms the acclaimed Nublu Records and adjoining East Village nightclub of the same name, has spent many years traveling to Istanbul, and absorbing the great music scene blossoming there. The jam sessions and creative circles he found in Istanbul are the inspiration behind ISTANBUL SESSIONS.

"It was natural for me to continue my journey within music in Istanbul, partly because I’m half Turkish, and have been going to there on and off now for 15 years," comments Ersahin. "I have established myself in the Istanbul music scene by bringing artists mostly from NYC to play with me there, as well as playing lots with local artists. Over the years I have brought Eddie Henderson, Kenny Wollesen, Norah Jones, Bebel Gilberto, Matt Penman, Otto, U-Roy and many many more."

The four-piece band featured on ISTANBUL SESSIONS started off as a handpicked group for a one time show Ersahin did in Istanbul three years ago. "We didn’t play a “Turkish” sound, but a more open sound true to who we are , so of course the spirit of Istanbul is in there when we play," elaborates Ersahin. The group is regularly joined by European jazz star, French trumpeter Erik Truffaz, who performs on most of the tracks, which were all composed by Ersahin. The band is rounded out by Alp Ersonmez , the bass player, also plays with Turkish superstar Tarkan; Turgut Alp Bekoglu, the drummer, plays with Turkish diva Sezen Aksu; Izzet Kizil is the percussion man behind almost every other studio recording in Istanbul.

In March, the group took France by storm, touring all over the country and performing at the prestigious Banleues Bleues Festival in Paris. The album has received rave reviews from French media including L

e Monde, Rolling Stone France, Vibrations, So Jazz and many more.