Esra Dalfidan
Encyclopedia
Esra Dalfidan was born in 1975, of Turkish parents, and raised in the German industrial town of Solingen
.
After a brief career as a music therapist, and after 10 years of studying classical guitar, she decided to switch her life round and focus fully on becoming a professional musician. She was admitted to the Amsterdam Conservatory to study jazz
singing and completed her Master's degree in 2007 with honours. She now lives in the Netherlands
.
Her own compositions are crisp and precise and full of irregular and changing tempi, 5/4, 7/4, and more, without ever sounding forced. Each of her songs tells a story, and leads the listener on a journey through the singer's and listener's landscape of memories and emotions. It's probably not for nothing that her CD liner notes contain the brief reminder 'Based on a true story'. All this makes for a musical experience quite unlike any other.
Her voice is always on the move. In her songs the presence and absence of her voice provides a nice balance between her singing and playing time for her band members. She sings words and scats, she is loud, she is soft, she is in ballad mode, she is up tempo. The pure sound of her voice opens up the mind like Coltrane's tenor sax could, when playing tunes like India, Spiritual, Olé. There is a remarkable similarity in timbre and straight sound with no or minimal vibrato. With this variety and complexity the music never sounds complex or difficult, on the contrary, it sounds natural, not least because her band members are so well attuned to her and each other.
To quote the artist herself, from her Myspace site:
Her band is called Fidan, a Turkish word meaning 'twig' or 'branch'.
As her main influences and source of inspiration Esra mentions the Azeri singer and pianist Aziza Mustafa Zadeh
and the Portuguese singer Maria João
.
Aziza developed a unique blend of jazz, modern, and Azeri traditional music, called mugam jazz.
To get a taste of Aziza's music click here.
Maria João created a style similar to Esra's, mixing jazz, traditional Portuguese, modern and world music.
Check out Maria João's fan club's website to see and hear some of her performances.
The Turkish popular singer Nilüfer features as a secondary influence.
The second half of 2008 is marked by new compositions and collaborations, notably a series of concerts with the Tineke Postma Group, extending into the first half of 2009.
Esra also features in an ensemble called Gandhi Bazaar, created and led by Ned McGowan
. This group brings together five musicians with various backgrounds in jazz, classical, improvised, traditional Indian, Turkish and Flamenco, creating a form of collective chamber music which uses techniques from all these genres. Particularly remarkable is the interplay between two master percussionists in the group, Indian drummer B.C. Manjunath and Spanish percussionist Enric Montfort. The Gandhi Bazaar concert tour was commissioned by the Dutch Fund for the Performing Arts, and some of the compositions have been created to bring to life texts by the Dutch/Iranian poet Nafiss Nia.
Her debut CD 'Colors' contains 11 tracks: 9 compositions of her own, and two traditional songs from Azerbeidjan.
CounterPoint, March 2008, Challenge Records.
Her second album 'CounterPoint' contains 11 tracks and one Bonus played in a trio line-up with guest musicians Tineke Postma and Olaf Tarenskeen; also 2 poems of Anatolian troubadour Aşık Veysel have been put into music by Esra.
1. Sana bele n'oldu
2. Paradox
3. Bilmem hayalmiydi
4. Aglar Veysel
5. Countdown
6. Waltz for A.
7. Wisdom
8. Ben Seni Sevdigimi
9. Rage
10. Nike Lenya
11. A strange Encounter
BONUS: Feel Free
Solingen
Solingen is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located on the northern edge of the region called Bergisches Land, south of the Ruhr area, and with a 2009 population of 161,366 is the second largest city in the Bergisches Land...
.
After a brief career as a music therapist, and after 10 years of studying classical guitar, she decided to switch her life round and focus fully on becoming a professional musician. She was admitted to the Amsterdam Conservatory to study jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
singing and completed her Master's degree in 2007 with honours. She now lives in the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
.
Her Music
As a singer she is difficult to categorize, but it would be fair to say that the core of her music is founded on the broad carpet of musical styles that we call jazz. Her fondness of Turkish and Azeri traditional music gives all of her songs and compositions an oriental accent, sometimes passionate, then melancholic and yearning, and always full of surprises, both in its melodic lines, tempi, and phrasing.Her own compositions are crisp and precise and full of irregular and changing tempi, 5/4, 7/4, and more, without ever sounding forced. Each of her songs tells a story, and leads the listener on a journey through the singer's and listener's landscape of memories and emotions. It's probably not for nothing that her CD liner notes contain the brief reminder 'Based on a true story'. All this makes for a musical experience quite unlike any other.
Her voice is always on the move. In her songs the presence and absence of her voice provides a nice balance between her singing and playing time for her band members. She sings words and scats, she is loud, she is soft, she is in ballad mode, she is up tempo. The pure sound of her voice opens up the mind like Coltrane's tenor sax could, when playing tunes like India, Spiritual, Olé. There is a remarkable similarity in timbre and straight sound with no or minimal vibrato. With this variety and complexity the music never sounds complex or difficult, on the contrary, it sounds natural, not least because her band members are so well attuned to her and each other.
To quote the artist herself, from her Myspace site:
-
- "The repertoire consists of her compositions: expressing each member's personal musicality and creative way of playing in an uniquely-arranged ensemble. Experimentation with rhythmic patterns, eastern scales and characteristic melodic and harmonic movements have become inevitable trademarks of this formation which carry their listener to diverse and unforgettable moments."
The band
- Tobias Klein, bass clarinet. The instrument suits the music, and is played brilliantly, echoing the genius of Eric Dolphy at times.
- Franz von Chossy, piano. Award winning pianist who moves in and out of and around the singer's tunes weaving a carpet of patterns that supports the whole band beautifully. At times reminiscent of McCoy Tyner in the famous Coltrane group of 1960-1965.
- Sean Fasciani, double bass. Sean Fasciani is an award winning bassplayer who rejoined Fidan in 2009, after spending time in New York City. With his distinct sound and groovy basslines Sean brings a sexy swing to the band.
- Uli Genenger, drums and percussion. Supports the complex tempi and rhythms effortlessly without ever sounding facile, and there are duets between the singer and drums that are breathtaking. Uli has a passion for beetBeetThe beet is a plant in the Chenopodiaceae family which is now included in Amaranthaceae family. It is best known in its numerous cultivated varieties, the most well known of which is the purple root vegetable known as the beetroot or garden beet...
s.
Influences
Aziza Mustafa Zadeh
Aziza Mustafa Zadeh also known as The Princess of Jazz, or Die Prinzessin des Jazz or as Jazziza is an Azerbaijani singer, pianist and composer who plays a fusion of jazz and mugam with classical and Avant-garde influences...
and the Portuguese singer Maria João
Maria João
Maria João is a Portuguese jazz singer.She is known for her vocal flexibility and improvisational skills. While normally considered a jazz singer, her music incorporates a mix of folk/ethnic music, modern jazz, and the avant-garde...
.
Aziza developed a unique blend of jazz, modern, and Azeri traditional music, called mugam jazz.
To get a taste of Aziza's music click here.
Maria João created a style similar to Esra's, mixing jazz, traditional Portuguese, modern and world music.
Check out Maria João's fan club's website to see and hear some of her performances.
The Turkish popular singer Nilüfer features as a secondary influence.
Forging ahead
Esra also features in an ensemble called Gandhi Bazaar, created and led by Ned McGowan
Ned McGowan
Ned McGowan is an American composer and flutist based in Amsterdam.“McGowan’s music strives for an idiom in which various musics – American popular, European classical and avant-garde, Carnatic, a fascination with proportionally intricate rhythms, the use of microtones in the search for new...
. This group brings together five musicians with various backgrounds in jazz, classical, improvised, traditional Indian, Turkish and Flamenco, creating a form of collective chamber music which uses techniques from all these genres. Particularly remarkable is the interplay between two master percussionists in the group, Indian drummer B.C. Manjunath and Spanish percussionist Enric Montfort. The Gandhi Bazaar concert tour was commissioned by the Dutch Fund for the Performing Arts, and some of the compositions have been created to bring to life texts by the Dutch/Iranian poet Nafiss Nia.
Discography
Colors, November 2008, Challenge Records.Her debut CD 'Colors' contains 11 tracks: 9 compositions of her own, and two traditional songs from Azerbeidjan.
CounterPoint, March 2008, Challenge Records.
Her second album 'CounterPoint' contains 11 tracks and one Bonus played in a trio line-up with guest musicians Tineke Postma and Olaf Tarenskeen; also 2 poems of Anatolian troubadour Aşık Veysel have been put into music by Esra.
1. Sana bele n'oldu
2. Paradox
3. Bilmem hayalmiydi
4. Aglar Veysel
5. Countdown
6. Waltz for A.
7. Wisdom
8. Ben Seni Sevdigimi
9. Rage
10. Nike Lenya
11. A strange Encounter
BONUS: Feel Free
Awards
- 1st prize Bundeswettbewerb Jugend Musiziert (see Jugend musiziertJugend musiziertthumb|German stamp: 25 years of "Jugend musiziert"Jugend musiziert is a music competition for children and adolescents in Germany on regional, federal and national level.-Jugend musiziert in Germany:...
), 1991, Germany - Winner of the 7th Dutch Vocalists Concours, 2007
- Finalist Deloitte Jazz Award 2008
Education
- Fachhochschule Heidelberg, Music Therapy, 1998.
- Amsterdam Conservatory, completing her Master's degree with honours in 2007