hüseyin ertunc sextet: a new world

Holiday Records have worked with Hüseyin Ertunç during his terrestrial transit. After the label reissued his wonderful album Musikî in 2016 (privately released on Intex Sound in 1974) and a few collaborative albums with the Konstrukt collective, in 2017 they finally managed to invite him, Doğan Doğusel, Cem Tan, and Umut Çağlar to play some shows in Italy as a quartet. Things got really complicated when their visas got rejected -- only one week before their plane was scheduled to take off -- but then Holidays Records found a stalwart supporter of free jazz music at the phone of the Italian Embassy and incredibly they got the visas in time so they could spend a whole week with Hüseyin and his band, touring Italy and playing four shows of the best spiritual free jazz the label heard in a long while. Right after that, the label took the chance to book a recording session at the good old Outside Inside Studio, where their loyal partner Matt Bordin captured on tape two days of improvisation by Hüseyin Ertunç (Fender Rhodes electric piano, Philicorda organm and chant), Umut Çağlar (percussion and bamboo flutes), Doğan Doğusel (double bass), Cem Tan (drums), joined for this special occasion by the almighty Jooklo Duo: Virginia Genta (tenor and sopranino saxophones, clarinet, flutes) and David Vanzan (percussion). What came out of this is an incredible musical document, and not only for the fact that -- unfortunately -- it was Hüseyin's last session on this world. Edition of 300. "Most of Ertunç's recorded appearances have been on drum set, where he's employed a massive and materialist cymbal approach that takes Sunny Murray's explosive chatter as a lifting-off point. Ertunç waxed one LP as a leader in 1974, Musikî (with then-regular partners Michael Cosmic and Phill Musra, issued on the tiny Intex label), and returned to Turkey in the early 1990s. Ertunç's playing, relentless as it might be, evinces a strident, swinging quality that reaches back decades. His pianistic approach is rooted in the outpouring of voluminous, allover rhythm in concentrated shards. One might first think of early Cecil Taylor, though another Boston resident is also worth mentioning -- Jaki Byard, who could move from barrelhouse to crepuscular romanticism and dense chordal superimpositions at the drop of a hat. If he and Ertunç didn't necessarily work together, their spirits are kindred." --Clifford Allen