Mark Guilliana, an American drummer, educator and producer, who pumps life into the techno vein of jazz, is a man who managed to create his own vernacular, although he is in his 30s. In this vernacular you can hear hard bop masters like Elvin Jones and Art Blakey, or the Roland TR-808 drum machine samples, even J Dilla. And the bonus is a discography recorded with unique musical personalities such as Avishai Cohen, Brad Mehldau, David Bowie, Meshell Ndegeocello, Gretchen Parlato, Jason Lindner, Lionel Loueke, Dhafer Youssef, Tigran Hamasyan and Matisyahu. Maybe the most attention-grabbing one among them is Blackstar, the last album of Bowie, released just two days before his death. But if you’re a Mehldau fan, you can remember him best from their Mehliana: Taming the Dragon album in which they fused synth-funk and progressive rock, which was carried a step further with an All-Star Trio world tour, uniting forces with guitarist John Scofield. But Guiliana comes to Akbank Jazz Festival, with a very different, purely acoustic project. In the album Family First, recorded at New York’s Bunker Studios together with his musical brothers, all tracks are composed by Guliana.
Drums : Mark Guiliana
Bass : Chris Morrissey
Saxophone : Jason Rigby
Piano : Fabian Almazan