The Rise Up

Mehmet Ali Sanlikol already sings, plays ney, zurna and oud, but that doesn’t discourage this Turkish-American from penning The Rise Up, an epic piece for the enlarged Whatsnext? ensemble. It’s a three-part suite, divided into a further three sub-sections, and was specially commissioned by its soprano saxophone soloist, veteran jazz master Dave Liebman. He wanted a weaving between Turkish and Sephardic elements, prompting Sanlikol to build his three sequences around Rumi, the Sephardic Jews expelled from Spain and the 16th-century mosque architect Mimar Sinan. This might sound like a huge mash-up, but the finished music reveals a finely crafted intermingling.

Whatsnext? feature an extensive horn section, with guitar, piano, bass, drums and percussion. Liebman flutters alone, at first, with a kind of tender boldness, then the horns shade sensitively, a goblet drum-rattle leading to a poised procession. All is laid out with precise attention to texture and colour, with Gil Evans’ Sketches of Spain acknowledged by Sanlikol as a governing compositional presence. As the pieces progress it’s evident that Sanlikol is expert in stitching together big band jazz with a Middle Eastern heart. ‘A Vicious Murder’ has a propulsive energy, revealed via gleaming sonic details. During such passages of forcefulness, Whatsnext? show how they can metamorphose into a formidable beast, but they’re also attuned to silken thoughtfulness during the quieter sections. Liebman makes a very dramatic entrance on ‘Spain, 1492’, supported by castanets and tambourine, then a ‘tolling’ oud and cutting horns magnify the tension. By ‘A Confrontation in Anatolia’, everyone’s fully firing, with a Greek Orthodox vocal chorus snapping into a rolling jazz groove. There’s an initially gentle climax, Liebman playing beside the unusual piano stylist Utar Artun, before the closer, ‘The Owl Song’, ultimately swells to a ravishing full-band finish.