{"id":11046,"date":"2019-04-13T16:47:24","date_gmt":"2019-04-13T23:47:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/?p=11046"},"modified":"2019-04-13T17:45:37","modified_gmt":"2019-04-14T00:45:37","slug":"hakan-toker-messes-around","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/2019\/04\/hakan-toker-messes-around\/","title":{"rendered":"Hakan Toker Messes Around"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Hakan A. Toker<\/strong>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Toker-Messing-Around-Classics-Hakan\/dp\/B07LC44CRM\">Messing Around\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6With The Classics<\/a> (Navona)<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/cover-3-e1555199018647.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-11047\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/cover-3-e1555199018647.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"344\" height=\"344\" \/><\/a>For several months since this CD arrived, I have occasionally looked at the cover photo and concluded that there must be more rewarding things to do than listen to a musician who poses upside down atop a piano giving a victory sign with his right hand and playing what may be a C-D-E triad with his left.<\/p>\n<p>Well, I finally listened, and guess what? It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an entertaining collection by a pianist with enormous technique and good time feel that often becomes outright swing. A native of Turkey with a music degree from Indiana University, Toker begins with Beethoven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Fur Elise\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6as a blues. He moves through pieces by Eric Satie, Henry Mancini, J.S. Bach, Paul Desmond, Dvor\u00c3\u00a1k and Mozart. He concludes with a 1950s pop song, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Istanbul, Not Constantinople.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Toker is impressive for his massive keyboard skill and his irreverent sense of humor. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sorry I waited so long to hear him.<\/p>\n<p>You can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t judge an album by its cover.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hakan A. Toker, Messing Around\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6With The Classics (Navona) For several months since this CD arrived, I have occasionally looked at the cover photo and concluded that there must be more rewarding things to do than listen to a musician who poses upside down atop a piano giving a victory sign with his right hand and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11047,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-11046","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-main","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11046"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11046\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}