Murat Öztürk - Crossing My Bridge (2009)

Born in 1973 in the region of Lorraine from a Turk father and an Italian mother, Murat Öztürk is an artist totally immersed in this great European culture which has been for many centuries mixing the Orient and the Occident. Everything he learned about music was self-taught and his encounter with Jazz (records from Bill Evans or Oscar Peterson) was a real revelation. At 19, Murat decides to perfect his knowledge and starts to take piano lessons at the Bill Evans Piano Academy in Paris, and from there he keeps on meeting with other musicians (Bernard Maury, Clare Fischer, Michel Petrucciani). After 2 records, that he produced himself, excellent but too confidential, Murat is inviting us to « cross the bridge ». A true harmonic sensitivity, a well balanced unity where the ruptures in the rhythms are never disconcerting. From a succession of bewitching melodies to more romantic ones, the music of Murat Öztürk has acquired a deeper dimension, without losing its identity : a tendency to sobriety, a taste for a firm sound and for dense harmonies, an approach to piano both primal and sophisticated.