Review: 22nd Istanbul Jazz Festival

At the 22nd Istanbul jazz festival, enthusiasm met with optimism triggered by an advance for the left wing in recent elections, says N. Buket Cengiz

In the first general elections since the 2013 Gezi Resistance, the left in Turkey has raised its votes for the first time since the 12 September coup of 1980. As a result, progressively minded people in Turkey are having a nice summer.

Kicking off on 27 June, only 20 days after the election, the 22nd Istanbul Jazz Festival organised by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (IKSV) started on the same positive note.

There were three unforgettable concerts at the Cemil Topuzlu Amphitheatre. There could be no better concert than that of Joan Baez (pictured right by Muammer Yanmaz), one of the most enthusiastically anticipated appearances at the festival. She is an icon of late-60s counter-culture and her songs have dealt with social issues in an admirably poignant manner. 

Baez radiated joy and happiness even in the saddest songs. She sang, in Turkish, Zülfü Livaneli’s Kız Çocuğu, a song whose lyrics are based on a Nazım Hikmet poem about a seven-year old child killed in the Hiroshima bombings. 

Towards the end of the concert, Kardeş Türküler, an acclaimed ethnic-folk-jazz band from Turkey also known for their activism, came on the stage. As Baez sang with the band their song Tencere Tava Havası (inspired by the Gezi Movement), the whole amphitheatre was covered with Gezi slogans.

The band also sang a part of Baez’s song Donna Donna in Kurdish. That was an unforgettable concert for her followers of many decades as well as those from younger generations lucky to see her on stage with such beautiful, endless energy.

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