A night cruise on the Bosphorus has been on my list of things to do for a few years now. But at the same time, whenever I was on the cusp of booking one I would have horrific visions of being packed on a tourist boat and fed sad approximations of Turkish food, whilst being ‘entertained’ by an unenthusiastic belly dancer.
At Friday night’s Denizde Caz concert, however, my fears were supremely allayed; so much so that I don’t want to tick night cruises off my list so much as keep them there for whenever another great jazz concert comes around.
As I boarded the PrimeTime luxury cruise boat for the Denizde Caz concert series, I must admit to some pangs of regret that I was not taking my first cruise on the party boat which lights up like one of the bridges and has an approximation of the Galata tower sticking out of the middle. The same boat I snicker at with friends when I hear its thumping Arabesque and dance music echoing along the waters, but guiltily, secretly long to be a part of.
This cruise, as one might assume from the 125 TL ticket price, is on the fancier side of things. If you were to see it pass by from the shore, you might envision a lot of people twirling pearls on their pinkies and sipping champs, and to some extent you might be right. But the Jazz on the Bosphorus events are likely to make even the scruffiest down and outs like myself feel rather glamorous.
The cruise starts with a slow move out from Kuruçeşme to the other side of the water, taking in the sparkling first bridge and firing up what will be a fantastic night of jazz music. Randy Esen begins her set with one of her own pieces called “We Can Dance”, a modern jazz song, daring a lover to take a twirl with her amidst all the chaos and stress of modern living. By the end of the song, the whole audience had stretched their hands and ears out in acceptance of her challenge and Esen was ready to take the lead.
I love Istanbul, but as a teacher I usually come back from a summer hiatus to the sweat and traffic and seemingly even more people in the streets, and I have to go through a process of learning to love it as much as I did before I left. As we gently chugged past the softly lit Kuleli Military High School to a heartbreaking version of “Blackbird” by the Beatles that fell into a feisty trumpet piece, I could not help but be overwhelmed by how much I really fucking love this city.
Accompanied by the wonderfully nuanced trumpet skills of Şenova Ülker and the rest of the quintet, a host of the best from the Istanbul jazz circuit, Esen brought a hushed gravitas to the evening’s proceedings. The group was clearly having a great time playing together and Esen was on top form, with scat skills to get you moving and a series of humble interjections between songs and information on her personal links to the pieces she played for us.
Silhouettes of tankers drifted by, fireworks for weddings and other celebrations shot up overhead and the sea breeze gave a welcome respite from the past few days of oppressive humidity. I even saw the lit up party boat of my secret fantasies pass, saluting it as it did, far happier to be where I was. With so much sensory stimulus, the jazz being foremost, the time passed as quickly and sneakily as the waters of the Bosphorus itself. Yet it was an undeniably fitting end to such a night, listening to a lively, impassioned version of “Night in Tunisia” whilst passing the ornate baroque edifice that is the Ortaköy Mosque.
All in all, the price is absolutely worth it. The drinks are more expensive at 15 TL for a bottle of beer and 20 TL for wine, but it might just be worth breaking the bank for something special. With only one more concert in this series, go book a ticket and remind yourself why you love this city so much.
For the next and final concert in this series, the Sibel Köse Trio ft. Neşet Ruacan will play on Friday 19 September.
