July 4, Sunday, 9.30 pm
Çeþme Castle
TRIBUTE TO CHARLIE PARKER & DIZZY GILLESPIE
MUVAFFAK “MAFFY” FALAY QUINTET
Maffy Falay, trompet, flügelhorn
Engin Recepoðullarý, sax
Carl Fredrik Orrje, piano
Per-Ola Gadd, bass
Ferit Odman, drums
Muvaffak Falay comes from Ýzmir. Jazz legend Dizzy Gillespie spoke of him as ‘an incredible trumpeter whom he knew in Turkey’. Falay’s own fame on trumpet has spread beyond the provincial limits of Ýzmir, Ýstanbul and Ankara to Europe, the Scandinavian countries and the United States.
Born in 1930, Falay studied trumpet and piano at the Ankara State Conservatory. He joined the Köln Radio Orchestra in 1960, then the Kenny Clarke Francy Boland Big Band travelling all over Europe and playing in six albums which the band issued from 1961 through 1966. On the recommendation of Swedish trumpets player Ake Persson, ‘Maffy’ went to Sweden and became a member of Harry Arnold’s radio jazz orchestra there in 1960. A short while later, he joined the Quincy Jones Orchestra together with Benny Bailey, Ake Persson, Phil Woods and Sixten Eriksson. He played with them in several recordings and participated in the music recordings for Arne Sucksdorff’s movie ‘The Boy in the Tree’.
Afrequenter of the famous jazz restaurant in Stockholm, Maffy appeared on stage there together with many groups including the George Russel Big Band. He met and worked with Bernt Rosengren and Don Cherry between 1962 and 1967, deciding to join the Swedish Radio Jazz Group and settle in Sweden in 1965, but gave regular concerts across Europe and the United States. Having joined Dizzy Gillespie’s Reunion Orchestra in 1970, he went on a long European tour. Group Sevda was established in 1971 and comprised Swedish and Turkish musicians. They gave a great many concerts touring Scandinavia, mixing Turkish folk music and modern jazz which quickly attracted the attention of large crowds of listeners.
Led by ‘Maffy’, the Sevda made a great many recordings. ‘Maffy’ and baritone saxophonist Lars Gullin participated in a great many festivals and concerts with several groups in Scandinavia between1960 and 1976. ‘Maffy’ accompanied Gullin in his albums ‘Bluesport’ (1974) and ‘Aeros Aromatica Atomica Suite’ (1976). As an independent musician playing in Sweden, he has played with several artists such as Don Cherry, Gunnar ‘Silja-Bloo’ Nilsson, The G L Unit, Lalle Svenson, Claes Göran Fagersedt, Nannie Porres, Peter Gullin, Arne Domnerus, Reebop Kwaku Baah, Nils Lindberg, The Radio Jazz Group, George Russell, Bengt Arne Wallin, Monica Zetterlund and Bernt Rosengren, who were all very successful in their own fields.
‘Maffy’ established his own sextet together with tenor saxophonist Bernt Rosengren, trombonist Elvan Aracý and pianist Åke Johansson in 1985. Despite some changes in players through the years, the core of the group remains the same. They issued an album entitled ‘We Six’ in 1986. New member Mehmet Ýkiz, known for his album ‘29m2’ launched last year, has also become internationally famous despite his young age.
Rarely appearing in Ýstanbul, Muvaffak Falay gave a concert in Ankara for the first time after many years. Honoring the festival as a soloist with the HKK Big Band as well as his own quintet, ‘Maffy’ has earned a place in our hearts as the ‘old youngster of the trumpet’. His group, comprising many famous Swedish jazz players was extremely well received by the audience for their highly professional performance.
Charlie Parker, saxophone
The only child of Charles and Addie Parker, Charlie Parker was one of the most important and influential saxophonists and jazz players of the 1940’s.
When Parker was still a child, his family moved to Kansas City, Missouri, where jazz, blues and gospel music were flourishing. His first contact with music came from school, where he played baritone horn with the school’s band. When he was 15, he showed a great interest in music and a love for the alto saxophone. Soon, Parker was playing with local bands until 1935, when he left school to pursue a music career.
From 1935 to 1939, Parker worked in Kansas City with several local jazz and blues bands from which he developed his art. In 1939, Parker visited New York for the first time, and he stayed for nearly a year working as a professional musician and often participating in jam sessions. The New York atmosphere greatly influenced Parker's musical style.
In 1938, Parker joined the band of pianist Jay McShann, with whom he toured around Southwest Chicago and New York. A year later, Parker traveled to Chicago and was a regular performer at a club on 55th street. Parker soon moved to New York. He washed dishes at a local food place where he met guitarist Biddy Fleet, the man who taught him about instrumental harmony. Shortly afterwards, Parker returned to Kansas City to attend his father’s funeral. Once there, he joined Harlan Leonard’s Rockets and stayed for five months. In 1939, Yardbird rejoined McShann and was placed in charge of the reed section. Then, in 1940, Parker made his first recording with the McShann orchestra.
During the four years that Parker stayed with McShann's band, he got the opportunity to perform solo in several of their recordings, such as Hootie Blues, Sepian Bounce, and the 1941 hit Confessing the Blues. In 1942, while on tour with McShann, Parker performed in jam sessions at Monroe’s and Minton’s Playhouse in Harlem. There he caught the attention of up-and-coming jazz artists like Dizzy Gillespie and Thelonious Monk. Later that year, Parker broke with McShann and joined Earl Hines for eight months.
The year 1945 was extremely important for Parker. During that time he led his own group in New York and also worked with Gillespie in several ensembles. In December, Parker and Gillespie took their music to Hollywood on a six-week nightclub tour. Parker continued to perform in Los Angeles until June 1946, when he suffered a nervous breakdown and was confined at a state hospital. After his release in January 1947, Parker returned to New York and formed a quintet that performed some of his most famous tunes.
From 1947 to 1951, Parker worked in a number of nightclubs, radio studios, and other venues performing solo or with the accompaniment of other musicians. During this time, he visited Europe where he was cheered by devoted fans and did numerous recordings. March 5, 1955, was Parker’s last public engagement at Birdland, a nightclub in New York that was named in his honor. He died a week later in a friend’s apartment.
Charles "Yardbird" Parker was an amazing saxophonist who gained wide recognition for his brilliant solos and innovative improvisations. He was, without a doubt, one of the most influential and talented musicians in jazz history.
John Birks 'Dizzy' Gillespie, Trumpet
(born October 21, 1917, Cheraw, South Carolina; died January 6, 1993, Englewood, New Jersey)
With his great ballooning cheeks and trademark trumpet's bell upturned at a 45-degree angle, Dizzy Gillespie easily has the most recognizable face in jazz.
He is also easily one of the most influential figures in that most American of musical forms, having first revolutionized jazz in the 40s by being one of the acknowledged inventors of bebop; and then again in the decades that followed when he championed the rich rhythms of Afro-Cuban, Caribbean, and Brazilian music that, to a large extent, still dominate jazz to this very day.
Born John Birks Gillespie, Dizzy moved to Philadelphia with his family at age 18 and joined Frankie Fairfax's band before moving on to New York City and Teddy Hill's big band in 1937, Later he played with all the greats--Ella Fitzgerald. Duke Ellington, Lionel Hampton, Earl Hines, and Billie Holliday. He met saxophonist Charlie "Bird" Parker in 1940 and soon was jamming with Parker, Thelonious Monk, and others. It was in this hothouse atmosphere of creativity that Gillespie and his cohorts astonished the world with their aggressive ornamentations, complex harmonic alterations, and rhythmic exploration that would soon be labeled "bebop." "What they did was like nitroglycerine, electricity," says Quincy Jones. "They broke all the rules, changed the world concert of American music."
Not all audiences and critics fell immediately in love with these new, often strange sounds. Gillespie, however, was a natural public relations man for this music with his hair-raising technical virtuosity, harmonic adventurousness, and most of all, integrating showmanship. He was, in fact, the first jazz artist to be sent abroad under the auspices of the United States government, spreading American goodwill and good music around the world.
Gillespie's legacy is probably best summed up by Gillespie himself in a statement that would sound a bit arrogant if it weren't so probable: "The music of Charlie Parker and me laid a foundation for all the music that is being played now. . . . Our music is going to be the classical music of the future."
And just how did Gillespie end up with that bizarre, trademark trumpet of his? The bent-bell trumpet got its start in 1953 when someone fell on his trumpet stand backstage; Gillespie liked the sound of the altered instrument so much that his trumpets were specially made from then on.