Sezin Ahmet Türkmenoglu Dazzles on Jimmy Branly Trio’s “The Meeting”

by Kevin Johnson Thursday, January 27th, 2022

Jimmy Branly Trio: The Meeting Drummer Jimmy Branly has returned with a new album called The Meeting, which features his trio with guitarist Will Brahm and bassist Sezin Ahmet Türkmenoğlu. The music takes on a handful of jazz standards with slick arrangements as well as originals from each band member. As the title suggests, the album came about from the players simply getting together to put their own spin on some tunes.

Türkmenoğlu, who hails from Turkey and is currently based in Los Angeles, met Branly in 2013 through pianist Otmaro Ruiz. The pianist’s music features more written bass lines, leaving the bassist to stick to the arrangements. However, The Meeting showcases their spontaneity and musical kinship.

“Since Jimmy is highly musical and technical at the same time thinking about his Cuban background, him and I instantly connected because my ethnic background is Turkish,” Türkmenoğlu explains. “Similar to Cuban music, Turkish music is also rhythmically very rich. Our playing has always complimented each other. As a result, we both have a high level of trust and comfort playing together. The level of trust shows itself even more when we play looser material like we did in this album. It is just so much fun playing with him. On the other hand, I have been playing with Will Brahm about 8 years and him and I played in lots of different musical settings over the years. We both feel very comfortable playing together no matter what the musical setting is.”

One of the standout “conversations” on The Meeting is Türkmenoğlu’s trading with Branly on “Blues 14”. They have an unbelievably creative free flow that is, simply put, impeccable. (It starts at the 2:52 mark)

Türkmenoğlu begins two songs: Wayne Shorter’s “Infant Eyes” as well as his own composition, “One Day.”

“I wrote ‘One Day’ after I saw the movie ‘Lord of The Rings’ for the first time,” he says. “I remember practicing the whole time while I was watching the movie at home so after the movie finished, I just came up with this tune. I felt deeply moved by the movie. The concept of it was to keep the melody mainly in the tension notes such as 11, #9, b9, b13 and so on… I also wanted not to limit myself by sticking to a certain tonal concept. The tune ended up staying around Bb minor but starts with D minor.”

“I feel very grateful to record this album with Jimmy and Will. They are both very creative and hardworking musicians,” Türkmenoğlu adds. “Overall, we all are very happy with the album and looking forward to playing gigs and recording new material in the future.”

The Meeting is available now through iTunes and Amazon MP3.