Mehmet Ali Sanlıkol featuring Anat Cohen, Antonio Sanchez and Miguel Zenón - Turkish Hipster (2023)

In this jazz orchestra album you will hear Brazilian Capoeira meet Turkish folk and a 70s Turkish psychedelic Rock classic run back to back with American Hip hop. While such music may be more accessible to the general listener, I would also like to point out that, as far as I know, this is the first time Capoeira and Turkish folk grooves blend in order to create an entirely new piece of music...

Similarly, this album includes the first ever example of the saxophone and the trumpet sections within a jazz orchestra playing precise microtonal flavors of classical Ottoman/Turkish music through the use of alternate fingerings and various techniques I have perfected over several decades. Furthermore, what is most significant here is that none of the players are Turkish, but rather all American musicians...

Perhaps it is fair to say that this album presents innovative original music written for jazz orchestra that has entry points for a wide audience due to its stylistic variety and accessibility. However, that variety can also be challenging: I ask the listener to go from Capoeira to Sufi influences, and from Swing to classical Ottoman/Turkish music and more!...