Kavkaz Jazz, jamming up the borders!

This article was originally published on jazzdergisi.com on July 5, 2017.

This was my second time at Kavkaz Jazz Festival. In 2016, we opened the festival with Tuluğ Tırpan Quartet. We all left with a smile on our faces, however, altough I had a feeling about what’s being done over there, I’ve realised only this year that the festival is playing a very important role in the region. This year from Turkey, electric bass player Şentürk Öztürk, half of the Songs From a  Breeze project that came as a breath of fresh air into our jazz scene, participated in the festival. He took part in a project starting from scratch and an educational program. I was there to watch, observe and feel, now I’m trying to put this experience into words to share it with you.

Kavkaz Jazz Festival is held in Tblisi, the capital city of Georgia that I fell in love with at first sight. I don’t know if I lived here in one of my past lives or if it’s the Georgian blood from my father’s side, but everytime I go there I feel at home.

We spent the majority of our time in Old Tbilisi, the city’s art and entertainment center. Though, I can easily say that this city has a high level of involvement and appreciation in art. There is a theatre, a concert hall, a conservatory building in every district you pass.  It is kind of hard not to envy.

Old Tbilisi is the tourist center of the city. The 19th century houses with wooden balcony and verandas, remind me of New Orleans and cowboy movie sets a little. The historic texture is under the protection of Unesco.

Narikala Castle watching the city from above, the magnificent historical buildings, monuments, sulfur springs, and the Kura River dividing the city are very impressive but what is even more impressive is: There is art everywhere!  Modern art is in the city texture and alive. You may find yourself toasting with Tamada, the toastmaster of Georgian ceremonies or taking a selfie under the wings of  Soviet film director Sergei Parajanov.

Music is everywhere too. There is live music in almost every bar, cafe, even on the streets. People love to have fun with music. They drink too much, but this was my third time there, I have not witnessed a fight. Envy 2.

There is plenty of jazz in Tbilisi.  Although it doesn’t pay enough to satisfy the professionals, there are lots of options for those who want to play and listen. Jazz Cafe Singer being in the first place, there are good performances and jam sessions in cafes, restaurants and bars every night. We also had the opportunity to discover a few exciting young talents. I can say that there is a good jazz listener in Tbilisi. I have seen it in the clubs and in our concerts, also read about it. Young people are particularly interested. The ears have the competence to tell good from bad, not a surprising fact for the people of the region. Georgians come from the tradition of polyphonic music (world famous choirs) and they have been familiar with classical music since the mid-19th century. Although there is classical music education in the country since 1917,  jazz education is fairly new, yet self-educated Georgian jazz musicians have been giving concerts since the 70's. Tbilisi Jazz Festival has been organised since 1978 (with great intervals until 2000) and North Sea Jazz Festival in Batumi since 2007, but neither of them is the subject of this article.

Kavkaz Jazz Festival is the only non-profit jazz festival in the region. There is a mission behind it that has been fulfilled for 8 years.  Creating joint projects to establish a cultural dialogue between jazz musicians from the countries of the region and contribute to the development of jazz in the Caucasus.

Behind this organisation, there is a mesmerising, young woman, with a wonderful energy, Helen Mechitova. She dreamt about this festival during her conservatory years, when she studied classical violin. “I was meeting young musicians from neighbour countries during different contests and I always was eager to learn about them more. It was really sad being neighbours and not to know each other. Especialy after hard times in the 90s, when all cultural ties were cut because of different circumstances like collapsing of USSR, territorial conflicts, civil wars and so on. During 20 years after 90s, there was no communication on cultural level, so I wanted to do some changes. Our societies have a lot of stereotypes about each other without really knowing each other, I simply wanted to act and make changes through arts”

This is exactly what they are doing. Bringing musicians from politically and socially distressed countries together on the same stage and at the same table, contribute them to create together, share their music and life even for a short period of time. Music is the common denominator but what is more deeply common is that we are all human regardless of our identities. You can easily see how we are similar within our differences. The othering is everywhere but not at Kavkaz Jazz Festival. Over time, a strange attachment is established among all the participants and the festival team. You become a part of a huge music family. It feels so good to experience this.

I think the festival team has an important share in creating this feeling. Helen, Nino, Beqa, Lado. Each of them shows maximum effort to make of us feel all comfortable and safe. It is not so difficult to build on this base, created with their belief, love and care to what they do. 

This is not an easy task though. They are creating big impacts on low budgets, but it’s getting harder and harder every  year. Last year, they were finalists in the "Best Festival / Event" category at the National Tourism Awards, but their work may not match the priorities of the sponsors. “The government has a priority to raise awareness about Georgia on an  international level. They spend not small amounts to bring world famous musicians to support that. Of course it needs time, and investment will show its benefits one day but many promoters oriented on local or regional projects lack of financial resources. We need to have at least one platform for young and talented musicians. The platform which can be a good start for their future carrier and opportunities. This idea doesn’t attract commercial sponsors, they need bigger audience and famous names.” Sounds familir, right?

The festival was supported by the American Embassies in Tbilisi, Baku and Yerevan in its first year and since 2011 it has been presented by the Ministry of Culture and Monument Protection of Georgia, with the support of Tbilisi City Hall. Tbilisi State Conservatoire gives them rehearsal space and concert hall. Georgian National Tourism Administration, Jazz Cafe Singer, Downtown, Askaneli Brothers, and Jimsher are the festival’s hosting sponsors. Yunus Emre Institute Tbilisi has been the supporter of Turkey's participation to the festival for the last 3 years. They hosted us this year and last year, so we had the chance to become a part of this family. Last year, we played to a great audience with Tuluğ Tırpan Quartet, it was such a pleasant concert.  This year, we were at the core of the festival’s two missions. Bringing together musicians from the Caucasian countries in the same project and training.

Before I tell you about our project, I would also like to briefly mention other groups that played at the festival. I missed the concert of Auditorium A from Georgia because the taxi driver  drove me to a wrong place, but I had the opportunity to spend some time with the musicians at dinner; sparkling, beautiful, young people. After them;  Lucy Khanyan Trio and Artur Grigoryan Quintet from Armenia,  ZZAJ Patterns from Azerbaijan shared inspiring music and performances on the same stage. These young musicians played together at the jam sessions the following nights, shared their music as well as their stories.

Back to the project we participated in. This year, 4 musicians from Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia and Turkey came together for the training program of the Kavkaz Jazz Festival. For 4 days, they worked individually and together with amateur and professional musicians, then on June 19 they gave a concert as a quartet on the first set and with the participants on the second.

Salman Gambarov (p) from Azerbaijan, Armen Hyusnunts (s.sax, t.sax) from Armenia, George Melikishvili (dr) from Georgia and Şentürk Öztaş (el. b) from Turkey. 4 musicians, from different musical disciplines and backgrounds, who do not know each other at all. It was a risk taken, as the result might not have been pleasant. At their level of professionalism, they would surely deliver a decent outcome but the process might not have been enjoyable. However, it was much more than expected. These 4 musicians enjoyed playing together (as well as each other’s company) a lot, even excited by that. So much so that when the festival was over, there was a band who wanted to play together again and again. With only a 4-hour rehearsal, they played a concert, consisting of their originals and arrangements of traditional pieces. Some set list that surely required skill and mastery. They were all soloists on stage, but they were good accompanists as well. No one attempted to dominate the others, which is often encountered in such meetings. Both during the rehearsals and the concert, the musicians gave each other the necessary field of freedom and took each other’s ideas into account. In such a short time, they achieved such a harmony, you would have easily thought that they had been playing together for years. Everyone agreed that it was something rare.

In addition to speaking the same musical  language, the resemblance of things we experience, both socially and sectorally, was an important factor in establishing this bond. Everyone was completing each other’s sentences while talking about the culture politics, how jazz being the first thing to sacrifice when it comes to budget cuttings and the difficulties we face while trying to create quality things. This was a great motivation to continue producing together. You will soon have the opportunity to see them in Turkey.

These 3 musicians have come to Turkey many times with different projects, you may have seen them playing before. Salman Gambarov played with Yıldız İbrahimova, Önder Focan, Şenova Ülker, Fatih Ahıskalı and Ferit Odman at Istanbul Jazz Festival in 2014. He’s a musician who is open to explore what’s outside the conventional frameworks. In addition to his Bakustik Jazz band, he plays with musicians from different parts of the world, making projects fusing ethnic music with jazz. He is our Salman Can (read Djan). He doesn’t reveal at first, but if we don’t take into account the times he is a true gentleman, I can say he is a naughty little boy.  Not when he plays though, he takes his music very seriously. There is such an emotion in his playing, the way he gets the feeling from other musicians and he gives it back after filtering it through his soul, shakes you deep inside.

Armen Hyusnunts is the artistic director and conductor of the Armenian State Jazz Band. He is a member of Armenian Navy Band and played several times in Turkey with the project. Armen has also a trio with Arto Tunçboyacıyan. Armen is an elegant person, you can see it in his music and social exchanges. There is a nice mixture of East and the West in his playing, melodies familiar to our ears, masterfully-played.

George Melikishvili was born in Georgia but he spent most of his career in New York. He played with Esperanza Spalding, Avishai Cohen, and Raul Midon to name just a few. Besides his drumming, he is also a singer / songwriter. George recently played at Ankara Jazz Festival and a few more places with Evrim Özşuca. To my surprise, they had recorded an album together, and it was soon to be released. George is a very solid drummer, but what remained of him in my mind was the reflection of delight on his face, that he had by playing with his bandmates. What I saw on his face and the others seemed to be such profound encounters, I could not get enough of envying that deep communication between these four strangers.

And the youngest of the band, our Şentürk. Despite it’s being the first international project he took part of, he was perfectly involved in the process, adding his groove and heart to the project. We have not been working with him for long but I must say that he’s an exciting bass player. Perhaps, this excitement comes from the thrill he has  about what he does. There is so many things he wants to do, so much he wants to add to himself and his musicianship. It’s not hard to predict that we will keep on getting more cool material from him in the future.

And of course, the training part. The festival highly cares about the educational component because the country is very interested in jazz, but the jazz education is quite new. There is a lack of teachers, financial resources are not enough to meet the needs of the jazz department. Most jazz musicians are self-educated, so it is very valuable for them to work with professional musicians from different cultures and backgrounds, to benefit from their experience. You could see in their eyes that they were there with the desire to learn something.

Bass players, saxophonists, guitarists and vocalists showed great interest in the training program.  Students and amateurs as well as professional musicians participated in the work. The level of talent and mastery in playing was impressive, but except the professionals, all instrumentalists and singers were lacking in group performance experience. So the trainers have mainly led here. Piano, saxophone, bass and drum masterclasses were also held but in most of the rehearsals, trainers and the professionals played with the participants to make them experience in-group performance. Listening to your bandmates,  following the traffic, leading the orchestra or being an accompanist. The change in many participants was noticeable. A young man, who knows exactly what he wants about music and who believes he can do it, emerged from a young man who does not trust himself enough even to ask questions, because he was  self-taught.  The vocalists, who don’t  know what to do with their hands during the solos, turned into confident singers with a good stage presence, who can improvise with the orchestra.

Of course, not all the participants took part in the concert, but everybody had something useful to guide them through their musical path.  That is why the continuity of these studies is very important and support is needed to make it sustainable. In the past training program, American musicians from Louisville University; saxophonist Michael Tracy and guitarist Craig Wagner had a 2-week workshop, this year's workshop was only 4 days.

The duration of the training or the number of concerts may have decreased, but the festival is going on steadily. The comments they receive from the audience and the participants and what is shared during the festivals encourage them in their way. Established links are sincere and lasting. I know it from myself, there are my sisters (and now my brothers too) doing inspiring work there. I will continue to be their volunteer partner. We will continue to get together around music, talk, listen and share.