Bands and albums
While performing his Saturday brunch sets at Sweet Basil, performing modern jazz, Erşahin attracted the attention of a small independent label in San Francisco called Golden Horn and recorded two albums for them. His first record was called "Our Song," (1997) [8] and featured Eddie Henderson, Doug Weiss, Jon Davis and Kenny Wollesen. ("Our Song" was originally released in Turkey as "She Said.") [9] Erşahin's second release, "Home," (1998) [10] was a trio album featuring bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Kenny Wollesen. His sound was described by critics as "post-bop," and he was praised for his original compositions. [11]
But the cosmopolitan, edgy ambiance of late 1990s New York was re-orienting Erşahin's creativity. The year 2000 marked a pivotal shift in his approach to music as he released two albums with a new approach. On "Virgo," he worked with voice and words in a new way, by adding the political hip-hop poet, Saul Williams to the mix of drummer Brian Blade, pianist Jon Davis, bass player Larry Grenadier and Val Jeanty, a vocalist and electronic sample player. [12] In late 1990, the first phase of what would become a long-running project, "Wax Poetic," was also released on a deal with Atlantic Records. The band had developed playing at Lower East Side after-hours joints, notably the long-running Save the Robots on Avenue B. [13] The first Wax Poetic album showcased Erşahin's new direction, featuring spoken word and trip hop techniques. Norah Jones was the band's lead singer for two years and her first released recorded song was "Angels," on Wax Poetic's first self-titled record. Initially released on Atlantic Records in 2000, it was re-issued on Nublu Records in 2013. [14] Other musicians on that record were Arto Tuncboyaciyan, Marlon Browden, Eddie Henderson, Kurt Rosenwinkel and Guyora Kats. Its sound is a snapshot of downtown NYC at that time, and the video features the band in iconic Lower East Side locations such as Tompkins Square Park. [15]
Released two years after the opening of the Nublu club, "Wax Poetic Nublu Sessions," 2004, was equally a time capsule of the excitement and spontaneous energy of the club's live shows and legendary jams. This incarnation of Wax Poetic had a strong spread of voices, including Norah Jones, soul-jazz diva, N'Dea Davenport, Saul Williams, Marla Turner, and Turkish singer Nil Karaibrahimgil. [16]
Erşahin delved more specifically into the modal textures of Turkish music in his atmospheric album "Harikalar Diyari (Wonderland)" in 2002. [17] Wonderland also features the sound of Hüsnü Şenlendirici, a third generation Turkish clarinet virtuoso. This record was a particularly important release in Turkey, as it featured four then unknown up and coming artists who went on to become famous: Hüsnü Şenlendirici and vocalists Nil Karaibrahimgil, Bora Uzer and Dilara Sakpinar, who was 14 at the time of the recording. Its blend of traditional 'world music' with electronica and dance beats, was new in Turkey and made the record extremely successful and influential. [18]
To capture the sound of his creative Nublu community, Erşahin founded Nublu Records in 2005. Among their first releases were three releases under the name Wax Poetic; however, in that period, the band was not active and Erşahin adopted the name for his experiments with local musicians in different countries. The result was a conceptual trilogy: "Copenhagen" (2006), "Brasil" (2007) and "Istanbul"(2007.) [19] [20] [21]
The next Wax Poetic release, "On A Ride," (2012) [22] was an encounter between Erşahin and Swedish pop producer Klas Wikberg. [23] In 2013, Wax Poetic released "Tonight," an album of remixes by Nouvelle Vague and Rob Garza from Thievery Corporation; [24] and Erşahin started yet another version of Wax Poetic, working with producer Gus Oberg, who produced the last two albums by the band, The Strokes. [25]
Many more projects emerged from Nublu Club's creative crucible. Erşahin released two albums as part of the Love Trio, together with Californian bassist Jesse Murphy (who went on to play with The Brazilian Girls,) and drummer Kenny Wollesen who plays with Tom Waits and John Zorn, among many others. The improvisational trio gave Erşahin the opportunity to explore his roots in reggae and dub, along with turntablism and the new electronica, which dub had inspired in a generation, mixed with dance music. They released two albums on Nublu Records, "Love Trio" (2003) featuring contributions from Erşahin's longtime partner, legendary trumpeter Eddie Henderson, vocalist Marla Turner, Kenny Wollesen, Brazilian Girls bass player Jesse Murphy and DJ Logic; and "Love Trio in Dub with U-Roy," (2006.) The voices of The Brazilian Girls' Sabina Sciubba and Marla Turner are featured on this album as well.
Also in 2006, Erşahin played in and produced the Nublu Orchestra album under the direction of Butch Morris, the presiding genius of Nublu. [26] As Morris resided on nearby East 7th Street, Nublu became not just a welcoming but a convenient laboratory for the creator of the Conduction sound. From the club's opening until his death a decade later, Nublu was the creative home base from which Morris was able to spread Conduction globally. [27]
Adding to a busy 2006, Erşahin also launched another project, Our Theory. Erşahin described the Our Theory sound to All About Jazz magazine as "Nu-Jazz." The group began when Erşahin met French trumpeter, Erik Truffaz on the road. Deciding to record a few sessions together, they formed Our Theory with Matt Penman, a young bass player from New Zealand; at the time Wax Poetic's guitarist and drummer, Thor Madsen and Jochen Rueckert, the latter also an accomplished electronica man. Their experimental, ambient jazz self-titled album on Nublu Records was improvised and recorded in the studio over a period of two days; then Erşahin and Madsen cut and pasted the tapes over the next two years. [28]
"Thinking About You," a track Erşahin co-wrote with Norah Jones, came out on her 2007 album, "Not Too Late." He also wrote the score for a BBC/Swedish TV documentary on Nobel Prize winner, Turkish Orhan Pamuk, in 2008. [29]
In 2009, Erşahin composed the soundtrack for director Fatih Akin's section in the movie "New York, I Love You," a compilation of eleven director's segments on the city. Also in 2009, Erşahin helped form I Led Three Lives, a trio in which he played saxophone and keyboards together with drummer Jochen Rueckert and bass player Juini Booth of Tony Williams and the Sun Ra Arkestra, all regulars at the Nublu club. The trio formed as a result of many late-night jam sessions at Nublu. Their track, "House of Ahmet," from the album, "Peace Now,"(2008) was selected as Song of the Day by Washington University's WKEXP who described "the album's range of sounds – electronica, techno, jazz, funk, blues, hip hop, house, and even psychedelia – and its ability to slash through any preconceived genre restrictions and examine how far these established stylistic ranges can be pushed." [30] [31]
Erşahin's next two releases both revisited musical terrain he had explored with Wax Poetic. For the first time, Erşahin chose to include himself in the group's name, calling his even more personal tribute to the city he loved, "İlhan Erşahin's Istanbul Sessions." [32] For a 2009 art event being held in that city, Erşahin formed Istanbul Sessions with local players bassist Alp Ersonmez, drummer Turgut Alp Bekoglu, and percussionist Izzet Kizil. [33] The one-off combo was so well received that they toured Europe and played in America and recorded an album the following year that reunited Erşahin with French trumpeter, Erik Truffaz. Istanbul Session' next release, "Night Rider," (2011) blended a cosmopolitan electro feel with its improvised jazz. Le Monde said, "Hear this! Jazz has changed form." [34] Jazzwise Magazine described Istanbul Sessions as "...a highly distinctive new sound that connects the dense modal funk of Miles Davis' Agartha group with the dervish whirl of Turkish and middle-eastern melodies and spikes it with a potent shot of dub electronics." [35] Writer Eli Dvorkin of Flavorwire saw Istanbul Sessions perform in Istanbul and described what he called a quintessential hometown gig: "A sold-out crowd at Babylon, one of Istanbul's best live-music clubs. The rapturous response from the hometown crowd, which eventually spilled out onto the narrow streets and ancient cobblestones of the Beyoglu neighborhood, elevated the show to a plane somewhere above an ordinary Saturday night." [36] Such projects led to Erşahin being described as "the driving force behind the new Turkish jazz," by world music site, Gladys Palmera. Istanbul Sessions performed in Turkey at the 2012 Jazz in Ramadan festival [37] and at 2013's Babylon Soundgarden Festival. [38]
Next in his homages to his urban inspirations came "İlhan Erşahin's Afternoons in Rio" (2011). [39] This time round, he assembled a group of mostly local São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro musicians including Mamelo Sound System's Lurdez da Luz and Rodrigo Brandao, Thalma de Freitas, Junio Barreto, China, Kassin, Fernando Catatau and Nina Becker. The website Sounds and Colors described it as "a certain style of music that is becoming more and more prevalent in São Paulo (i.e. the noirish-take on samba perfected by CéU), as well as showing musical links between New York and São Paulo and allowing for a number of very talented Brazilian musicians to get their chance to shine outside of their country." [40]
Erşahin's horn has become identified with a modal style of jazz, combining the influence of the cool Nordic sound to the minor-key strains of Istanbul and the quirky funk of the East Village, Manhattan. [41] Continuing his work as a songwriter with Brazilian links, in 2011 Erşahin co-wrote a track called "Six Minutos," with Brazilian vocalist Otto for his album, "Certa Manha Acordei de Sonhos Intranquilos." [42] In 2012 Erşahin also co-wrote the song " Like This," with top Brazilian singer, Tulipa Ruiz. Although Erşahin has performed at many of the world's largest concert halls, his affinity for the boho soul of jazz is evident in the videos posted to YouTube of him jamming by the Bosphorus.
