Resolution marks a major step forward for Mehmet Ali
Sanlıkol, the musical polyglot, multi-instrumentalist, restless bandleader and
prolific composer who writes in both contemporary classical and jazz but draws
heavily from Turkish influences. His band Whatsnext? — a shapeshifting jazz
orchestra that can be pared down to a combo, depending on his needs — is a
force to be reckoned with, able to conform to the demands of Sanlıkol’s complex
but accessible compositions and shift genres on a moment’s notice.
Sanlıkol was able to recruit a roster of A-list guests to
solo on the compositions of Resolution, including clarinetist Anat Cohen,
soprano saxophonist Dave Liebman, trumpeter Tiger Okoshi and drummer Antonio
Sanchez. Moreover, he composed their showcases with them in mind after he
secured their commitments, rather than try to fit them into the music he had
already completed. “I designed (the compositions) to make sure that it was
these four specific artists that these pieces were written for,” he says. “This
was not a project where I brought them in to blow. Absolutely not.”
The new album picks up where Sanlıkol’s What’s Next? — which
Jazziz proclaimed one of the 10 best albums of 2014 — left off. The orchestra
spent most of that record exploring pieces Sanlıkol had composed between 1996
and 2000; only the last composition was new, written in 2011. In the
intervening years, Sanlıkol — who was born in Turkey in 1974 — immersed himself
in Turkish music and began to grasp the connections between American jazz and
the music of his native country. He wrote the music that populate Resolution in
the summer of 2015, and more than ever before — perhaps more than anyone has
done before — they point to the places where the two cultures meet.
The music of Resolution is a direct outgrowth out of
Sanlıkol’s desire to learn more about the music and culture of his birthplace.
During what he calls his “Turkish decade,” he studied it intently — reading
about it, listening to it and, eventually, composing within its framework of
Middle Eastern modes, microtones and rhythms. “When I realized that I didn’t
know much about my roots, that was a big shock, and I think it triggered
something in me that deep,” he says.
Sanlıkol adds other cultural touchstones to the mix. Though
“The Turkish 2nd Line,” the song that kicks off Resolution, is obviously
steeped in the New Orleans brass band tradition, the album is filled with
references to other idioms — funk, R&B, rock, ’70s fusion, reggae and
Ellington-style big band, to name a few. The first movement of the album’s
centerpiece, “Concerto for Soprano Saxophone and Jazz Orchestra in C,” was
inspired by the soundtracks of 1970s crime movies like Dirty Harry and The
Taking of Pelham One Two Three.
While Sanlıkol conducts the Whatsnext? ensemble, he also
performs on some of the tracks. An accomplished pianist, he plays piano,
harpsichord, clavinet, Moog Prodigy and other keyboards as well as Middle
Eastern string and wind instruments, percussion and, the continuum fingerboard,
a keyless synthesizer that allows the musician to play microtones that aren’t
possible on a piano keyboard. “I overdubbed pretty much everything,” Sanlıkol
says of his own playing. “If one listens carefully to the album, with all of
the harpsichord, clavinet, Moog and Turkish instrumentation — they’ll notice
that there is a lot of production techniques in this album.” And, to boot, he
sings, a duet with vocalist Nedelka Prescod on the absolutely gorgeous “Whirl
Around.”
“This album is a far more focused statement musically,”
Sanlıkol says. “It is all new material, and it really represents where I am
here and now. The first one (What’s Next?) was showing where I was and was
hinting at where I was headed. The first album basically set up this. I think
this is a really major statement from me musically.”
Mehmet Ali Sanlıkol was born in Istanbul in 1974, learned
piano from his mother and began performing publicly at age 5. He came to Boston
to attend Berklee College of Music on a scholarship. He has been leading bands
in Boston since the 1990s, and earned master’s and doctorate degrees from the
New England Conservatory of Music. He cofounded and serves as the president of
DÜNYA, a Boston-based collective of musicians and an independent record label
which presents contemporary music influenced by Turkish traditions. He has
composed dozens of pieces for a variety of jazz and classical groups, and was
nominated for a Grammy in 2014. Sanlıkol teaches at Emerson College and is a
fellow at Harvard’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies.
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