Artist: Mehmet Polat Trio
Title: Ask Your Heart
Label: Homerecords
Genre: world/maqam/kora music
CD Review by Dawoud Kringle
On this album you will hear the best selection of my previously unreleased compositions and artistic ideas! I’ve been looking forward to recording these for a long time. My colleagues and I played on this album with full passion and sensibility. – Mehmet Polat
Artist: Mehmet Ali Sanlikol & Whatsnext?
Title: Resolution
Label: DÜNYA
Genre: nu jazz-Turkish music
CD Review by Dawoud Kringle
Turkish composer and multi-instrumentalist Mehmet Ali Sanlikol likes to do things big. His work impresses you as being driven by a strong will and a clear musical vision. This Turkish born polymath has an impressive list of credentials and accomplishments, including having composed for, recorded and performed with the likes of Dave Liebman, Bob Brookmeyer, Anat Cohen, Esperanza Spalding, Antonio Sanchez, Tiger Okoshi, The Boston Camerata, A Far Cry string orchestra, American Composers Orchestra, Boston Cello Quartet, Okay Temiz, Erkan Oğur, Omar Faruk Tekbilek and others. He’s the president of DÜNYA, a musicians’ collective dedicated to contemporary presentations of Turkish traditional music. He has made his Carnegie Hall debut in April 2016 premiering his commissioned piece Harabat/The Intoxicated with the American Composers Orchestra, was nominated for a Grammy, and is a CMES Harvard University fellow.
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Text and interview by Jim Hoey
Video camera: Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi
The New York Arabic Orchestra has quietly been honing their craft for the past three years, after forming out of a series of workshops started by founders Bassam Saba (oud, nay, flute, violin) and April Centrone (lead percussion). What they accomplished on February 12th at the Symphony Space was unique: the only Arabic orchestra in NYC comprised of musicians from the Middle East, the United States, Latin America, and Asia to be joined here by star vocalists Salma Habib (of Palestine) and Naji Youssef (of Lebanon) for a presentation of authentic Arabic songs.
