Syrian musicians to highlight Istanbul Jazz Festival
Syrian musicians to
highlight Istanbul Jazz Festival
This year's festival to reunite
Damascus-based orchestra under a project by Blur frontman Damon Albarn.
More than 200 Turkish and
international musicians will turn Istanbul into a jazz stage during this
summer, with almost 50 concerts at over 20 venues.
The 23rd Istanbul Jazz Festival,
organized by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (IKSV), will take
place between June 27 and July 25.
One of the festival highlights
this year is an event presented by Blur frontman Damon Albarn's project Africa
Express.
The project brings together
current and former members of the Syrian National Orchestra for Arabic Music,
led by conductor Issam Rafea, who is based in the U.S.
The group, which will reassemble
for a number of gigs, will be performing on June 27 at Istanbul's Cemil Topuzlu
Open-air Theatre in Istanbul.
The orchestra first played with
Albarn at the Damascus Opera House in 2008.
The team later worked again for
Albarn's virtual band Gorillaz's track White Flag and later toured around
Europe and the Middle East.
As most members of the orchestra,
including Rafea, had to flee their country after the Syrian civil war started,
Albarn's project aims to reunite group members.
Speaking to Anadolu Agency just
before the press launch of the festival on Monday, director Pelin Opcin said
that Syrian musicians would have a number of gigs in London, the Netherlands,
Glastonbury, Cologne, and Istanbul.
“Choosing Istanbul as a destination is not
surprising,” Opcin said, referring to the more than 2.7 million Syrian refugees
currently hosted by Turkey.
Apart from Albarn, a number of
special guests promised to take the stage with the 85-strong orchestra, she
added.
Mentioning the recent deadly
terror attacks, Opcin said that some musicians did not want to attend the
festival.
Almost 90 percent of the program
has been generated, she said: “We are trying to convince the artists. We are
all in the same boat; Europe is no different from Istanbul."
“Either we will stop this job totally or we
will do our part,” she said.
This year's Lifetime Achievements
Awards will go to Turkish musicians Ozdemir Erdogan and Erguven Basaran,
according to the IKSV.
Other names who will participate
in this year's festival are venerable musician Nile Rodgers with his group
Chic; Los Angeles saxophonist Kamasi Washington, who will share the stage with
French-Cuban musical duo Ibeyi; and Grammy-winning American jazz vocalist
Gregory Porter, who will be performing with jazz vocalist Roberta Gambarini
alongside the TRT Popular Music and Jazz Orchestra.
This year the festival will also
continue to offer its free “Jazz in the Parks” concert series in Istanbul.