As I have started dwelling on brunches, Bosphorus and unique scenes, I shall continue in line with it and talk about the “Jazz at Breakfast” series organized at the Sabanci Museum throughout the summer.
Recently and for the first time –despite the fact that I was dying to do it before- I have attended Ilhan Ersahin’s concert at the Sabanci Museum. Let me talk about Mr. Ersahin first and then I may go into the details of food, music and settings.
“Ilhan Erşahin is a Turkish saxophonist, record producer and composer living in New York,” taken directly from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia online. Despite his Turkish name and origin, he was actually born in Sweden and he moved to NYC in his 20s to spend the most of the rest of his life there. He started his music career pretty later than the standard. He was 16 when he discovered his passion for music, and 19 when he was deep in practice and 20 when he moved into states with a scholarship from Berklee. After his graduation he continued his training with Italian Joe Lavano. Later in his career he shared the stage with prominent musicians, namely: Wallace Rooney, Jeff Williams, Cameron Brown, Victor Lewis, Eddie Henderson and Valery Ponomarev.
He took stage in Turkey much later and the occurrence happened during when he was on vacation in the seaside city Bodrum. He was among the audience in a jazz club listening to music, when he first appeared on stage and accompanied Nüket Ruacan, İmer Demirer, Tuna Ötenel and Nezih Yeşilnil.
Ersahin now owns a jazz club in NYC and a record name under the same name: Nublu. He takes stage more often in Turkey both in summers and in winters. He still shares the stage with prominent other musicians such as: Erik Truffaz, Norah Jones, Alp Ersonmez, Turgut Alp Bekoglu, Izzet Kizil, Kenny Wollesen, Jessy Murphy and many others.
So, it was one of these occasions, when he was in Turkey and giving a concert that I also happened to be there at the concert J. Despite the way I may make it sound, it was actually a very planned occurrence. Soon as I had become informed via e-mail to my inbox that Ersahin was going to be performing during the Jazz at Breakfast sessions, I had bought my tickets.
The Jazz at Breakfast sessions is a rare, interesting and an entertaining organization in Istanbul. The Sabanci Museum, which aids in the organization process, used to be the home of the wealthy family –the Sabancis in Turkey. The house is now used as a museum with a little café –much like any other museums abroad. The concerts –contrary to what I had initially thought- do not occur inside the café. Better yet, they happen outside under open air, in the big garden of the complex. The audience tends to arrive near 11.00 A.M. in the morning –I did so as well-, but I would really advise to go early to be able to have better seats. There are no assigned seats as there are no actual seats or chairs. The staff hands you a big pillow –comfy- to sit on during the concert. Arriving early allows you to be able to find a nice and big tree to lay your back on, or a wooden bank at the back of the garden. Breakfast starts at 11.00 A.M. sharp. It usually gets very crowded around the open buffet, but the line goes really fast. The open buffet offers cold and hot dishes including and an assortment of cheese, salami, cucumbers, tomatoes and olives and hot dishes including sausages and pastry. There is also a wide assortment of baked bread and bagels. The concert starts around 12.00 A.M. During the concert, fresh fruits and desert is served around the open buffet. One needs to be careful though as the fruit dishes are emptied quite fast. A little after the fruit service, tea biscuits get served in another area. Tea, coffee and cold drinks (non alcoholic) are served non-stop through out the concert. The concert finally ends at 15.00.
As to my thoughts on Ersahin’s performance that day: To me it was superb. But, the reader needs to keep in mind that I am not calling myself a virtuoso in music nor a good ear or anyone with the best taste. My experience was simply that I could lie down on the grass, close my eyes and imagine myself dancing to the music. It was very relaxing, very peaceful and very refreshing.
My advice is therefore, check your schedules and see if you could create a few hours of a Sunday morning to daze off in a cool garden with good music and taste.
Links:
http://burcutokatli.com/music.html
http://biletix.com (for tickets)
http://www.flickr.com (pictures)
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November 30th, 2009 at 8:00 am
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