Last week a jazz concert organized by the International Center featured both Turkish and Polish musicians in an ensemble organized by Janusz Szprot, who has been an FMPA faculty member for the last 10 years.
Before the concert, Szprot described how six years ago he got the idea of forming the Turkish-Polish jazz ensemble which is now so well known by jazz lovers. To start the concert, he performed a solo piano piece. Gradually, as each musician was introduced, the assembly became a trio, then a quartet and so on. By the end, there were six Turkish and Polish musicians, and a soloist (a student of Szprot from 10 years ago at Bilkent) all performing together. The musicians were Janusz Szprot (piano and keyboards), Krzysztof Dziedzic (drums), Kamil Erdem (bass guitar), Sibel Köse (vocals), Adam Kowalewski (bass), Tuna Ötenel (piano and saxophone) and Tomasz Szukalski (saxophones). It was interesting to see how a musician could switch from one instrument to another (such as from the piano to the saxophone) and perform the piece equally well.
The concert consisted of a series of jazz "standards", as well as some of Szprot's original compositions based on Turkish and Polish folk music. All in all, the concert was an outstanding demonstration of international teamwork on the part of the musicians.
