GRAMMY nominated composer and multi-instrumentalist Mehmet Ali Sanlıkol announces the release of  7 Shades of Melancholia, featuring Ingrid Jensen, on April 25, 2025 via DÜNYA

GRAMMY-nominated pianist and composer Mehmet Ali Sanlıkol is excited to announce his new album, 7 Shades of Melancholia, featuring trumpeter Ingrid Jensen, to be released on April 25th, 2025 on DÜNYA. Having started his career in jazz in the mid ’90s, Sanlıkol is distinguished by his eclectic musical experiences in traditional Turkish music, classical, and progressive rock, which in turn has inspired his innovative approach to his original jazz compositions. In his own words, he eschews the common pitfalls of artists arranging traditional music, by virtue of the decade he spent immersed in scholarly research and performance of the music of his Turkish heritage. He is not only influenced by the “world music” of Turkey; he instead has internalized its vocabulary and depth of meaning to become a unique vessel for it as a refreshed vernacular through the lens of jazz.

Having recorded with his jazz orchestra Whatsnext? since 2014, Sanlıkol released his first-ever trio recording, An Elegant Ritual, in 2021—followed by his next release with Whatsnext?, Turkish Hipster, in 2023. For 7 Shades of Melancholia, Sanlıkol revisited recording with a small group, where his ensemble comprises James Heazlewood-Dale on acoustic bass, George Lernis on drums and gongs, Ingrid Jensen on trumpet, and Lihi Haruvi-Means on soprano saxophone. Sanlıkol performs on piano and voice, as well as a patent-pending instrument of his own invention—a digital microtonal piano, dubbed Renaissance 17 (R17).

After studying classical piano as a child—many years later receiving a doctorate in classical composition from the New England Conservatory—and performing in progressive rock bands in his early teens, Sanlıkol moved to Boston in 1993 to attend Berklee College of Music after discovering his passion for jazz. Seven years later, he began his intense study of a variety of Turkish musical styles and other related genres, having had no prior interest in them. He performed hundreds of traditional Turkish music concerts—and was so dedicated to his studies that he put his jazz career on hold, finally relaunching it in 2014. Emphasizing what sets him apart as a composer and arranger, Sanlıkol states, “I believe that individuals who truly internalize multiple musical languages are less likely to exoticize, stereotype, or reduce those traditions. This is perhaps because such individuals tend to be better musical translators between different musical languages.”

Regarding the album’s title, Sanlıkol shares, “In the region that is now Turkey, melancholia has a long cultural history, dating back to ancient Greece. In the happiest of all [Turkish] dance tunes, the lyrics may refer to lovers separated by war.” Melancholia—or, in Turkish, “hüzün”—permeates Turkish culture extensively, says Sanlıkol, and can be felt in not only the music of Turkey but also its literature and films as well. This poignant emotional thread offers Sanlıkol a palette he has used to move audiences, particularly by selecting and composing melodies that he finds are moving to him first.

The opening track, “A Children’s Song,” stems from the traditional “Annemize Türkü,” which translates to “a folk song for our mothers.” “[The song] inexplicably always makes me emotional, ever since I learned it 45 or so years ago,” says Sanlıkol. Having wanted to record it for at least a decade, he realized, in the process of making 7 Shades of Melancholia, that John Coltrane’s “My Favorite Things” could serve as a model. Sanlıkol shares, “A simple—almost naïve—approach was the perfect way to go about it.” The new release’s cover art, with its visual composition, vibrant blue lighting, and red titling, was also inspired by that for Coltrane’s My Favorite Things. 

Similar to “A Children’s Song,” neither “One Melancholic Montuno” nor “My Blues” present intricate adaptations of traditional Turkish music. Sanlıkol composed the former about a week before his recording session with Ingrid Jensen, and the latter in 1995, before he began his Turkish music studies. Despite this, Sanlıkol later observed that “My Blues” subtly evokes certain aspects of a Turkish “makam,” or mode. The extended composition, running at nine and a half minutes, closes out the album, and gently makes its way through different meditative and dreamlike worlds.

Another piece featured on 7 Shades of Melancholia, “Buselik,” features a makam similar to the one chosen for “One Melancholic Montuno,” both of which are close to the tuning and intonation standards of Western music. “I can safely say that ‘Buselik’ is the most carefully designed compositional statement on this album,” says Sanlıkol. “It begins with a single, quiet note performed by one person and gradually evolves—through strict counterpoint and controlled improvisation—into a raucous collective improvisation.”

Perhaps some of the most compelling compositions on 7 Shades of Melancholia include “Şedd-i Araban Şarkı” and “Hüseyni Jam,” on which Sanlıkol plays the R17. On the former, he sings in unison with his instrumental melody—while transitioning in and out of scat—with the intention of honoring the microtonal quality of Turkish traditional music, with the composition’s text taken from a 17th-century Ottoman source. “Hüseyni Jam” is an adaptation of an anonymous Turkish folk song which Sanlıkol first encountered as a Bektashi Sufi song. “The way I approached this adaptation is not much different from a jazz trio playing a folk song like ‘Dark Eyes,’ which truly becomes a vehicle for improvisation,” says Sanlıkol.

While selecting pieces for 7 Shades of Melancholia, Sanlıkol did not notice that four tracks were in fact named after different makams. “Nikriz Semai” the fifth track on the album, is one of them, and was originally written for an extended orchestral piece inspired by the Turkish shadow play Karagöz. As Sanlıkol shares, the play frequently starts with a prologue filled with themes related to Sufism, or Islamic mysticism. The text for the composition is taken from the prologue, of which Sanlıkol maintained its traditional 6/8 “semai usul,” or rhythmic cycle.

GRAMMY-winning saxophonist-composer Miguel Zenón, who joined Sanlıkol on his 2023 project Turkish Hipster, praised 7 Shades of Melancholia as “a real strong outing by Mehmet and his wonderful ensemble. It features the leader’s conceptual and very personal writing, along with very powerful playing by everyone involved,” he recommended.  

A prolific composer and recording artist, Sanlıkol has recorded and appeared on countless records. On 7 Shades of Melancholia, the composer/pianist shares with his audiences a highly expressive mastery of both Turkish and jazz idioms, whose impressionistic artistry belies the composer’s impressive intellectual accomplishments. Reflecting on the contributions of his musical collaborators, Sanlıkol comments, “I cannot thank Ingrid Jensen enough for taking a chance and agreeing to play on this album—her sound was exactly what I had envisioned. I am also deeply grateful to Lihi Haruvi-Means for her impeccable musicianship. And, my sincere thanks to my brothers, George and James, for always being willing to experiment and honor my unconventional musical requests.”

Noted jazz scholar Bob Blumenthal calls the album “an expertly paced, emotionally consistent exploration with an Ottoman/Turkish tinge filtered through a vision that also treats jazz and European classical music as second-nature.” He continues: “As usual, Sanlıkol displays command as both a multi-instrumentalist and a vocalist who can make traditional makam and scat singing coexist, and a bandleader who creates ideal settings for his guest artists, in this case trumpet great Ingrid Jensen.  His creativity here is both musical and mechanical, as he introduces the Renaissance 17, a digital microtonal keyboard created to bring his diverse musical sources together.  “Beyond category” is no cliche when applied to this inspired original.”

from https://lydialiebman.com