And the Beat Goes On

In 2002, during a fit of frustration with the New York music scene, Swedish-born saxophonist and composer Ilhan Ersahin and wife Fernanda founded the East Village nightclub Nublu. And now, five years after the Avenue C hole-in-the-wall has gone from a birthplace to a home for its distinctive sound, Ersahin and company are ready to party.

To celebrate Nublu's fifth anniversary, Ersahin has enlisted 18 bands and ten DJs to perform sets over ten consecutive nights, beginning on June 15th. While this may seem like a musical overload, any night at the bar, located on Avenue C between 5th and 6th streets, entails a perpetual, beer-soaked dance marathon to the Nublu-beat. Ersahin explains, "At Nublu, when the music starts it goes, we keep the flow. Right when the bands stop the DJ takes over. There's a feeling of a long thing. It's a bit more about the trancy, spiritual thing than a performance... Every night is like an experience." And an experience is certainly guaranteed. The fifth anniversary celebration features bands like Ersahin's own Love Trio and Nublu Orchestra playing after an eclectic set of DJs, including Moby and the Brazilian Girls. As Nublu approaches its anniversary, it's clear that they're onto something. How is this venue still standing amid the fallen LES-gems Sin-é and Tonic? The answer dates back to Nublu's beginnings.

As Ersahin himself describes it, the club that now showcases some of the freshest music in Alphabet City began as a home for his own musical experimentations, some of which had already made Ersahin famous in Turkey, his father's native country. "I will never be a pop star," Ersahin explains, "but I definitely am a figure to young people [in Istanbul], bringing in new music from the West... A lot of people see me as this underground figure." With the creation of Nublu, Ersahin sought to translate his subterranean sound into an above ground haven where he could unabashedly showcase his musical identity.

Ersahin recalls the clubs formation: "At that time I started Nublu, me and the people I was surrounded with -- the musicians I was hanging out with, the people I was playing with --felt there was a scene. We didn't really fit in anywhere." The musicians Ersahin is referring to -- Jesse Murphy and Kenny Wolleson -- began playing as Love Trio. After 13 years of living in the East Village and still no place to call home, what could Ersahin and company do besides build their own?

Ersahin credits the Nublu sound to an amalgamation of influences, none more important than the East Village itself: "Everybody there is influenced by a lot of music...What we were doing was kind of in between all those things. It's kind of like our own sound. It's a New York based thing; it's an East Village thing." As much as Nublu's sound is an East Village thing, the club and its musicians, with Brazilian Girls being the lone exception, have remained on the periphery, and it's no accident.

Ersahin and those that operate Nublu intended to create a truly unique experience, one that, to this day, has been protected from both hype and commercialization. "We don't do things that are fashionable," Ersahin explains. "It's not like these beats are hip. I like to see people shaping their identity, getting into art because it is about art. It's about giving something; it's about trading and nurturing things in a scene and seeing how it blossoms and how it takes turns." The steady growth of Nublu's popularity -- as evidenced by last year's launch of Nublu Records -- can be attributed to the venue's patience and willingness to foster something unique, a process that, according to Ersahin, necessitates an eschewing of traditional advertising techniques. He explains the strategy, "We don't even list. I want it to take time. I didn't wanna be like, ‘Hey! We're a club come, come, come.' I wanted it to be an organic thing. It's about the music, so people will eventually come. I go there because it's good music. They come because they know it's going to be some kind of good live music."

Nublu Orchestra and Wax Poetic, two acts you will find both on Nublu Records and regularly performing at the club, showcase the scene's signature fluidity. With the Orchestra, you'll hear one of Ersahin's own saxophone solos wavering over a techno-inspired drum-machine beat with the supporting orchestra maintaining a free jazz feel (likely the influence of notoriously eccentric conductor and composer Butch Morris); alternately, with Wax Poetic, you'll find Bebel Gilberto or even Norah Jones' -- who was the lead vocalist for the group before exploding onto the pop-jazz scene with 2002's Come Away With Me -- vibrato-fused vocals accompanied by reverby piano and ethereal, atmospheric marimbas. If being part of Nublu means anything, it's about representing yourself through music: "What Jesse [Murphy] actually said in one interview, it's like a listening session. It's like we listen to each other to see what everyone else has to say: what's your personality, what's my personality? We're trying to find our own personality within those bands. And that's why every band is different." And that's why every night at Nublu is different.

Ersahin and the Nublu collective anticipate the challenge of safeguarding this unique scene they've created: "I feel like the energy is here and Nublu is a part of that. That's why we have to protect that originality." Expect that energy and originality at this year's fifth anniversary celebration. Ersahin, when asked if he plans to celebrate the club's sixth anniversary with twelve parties, is already thinking bigger. "Next time," he promised, "we have to do 15 days."

Visit www.nublu.net for more information about Nublu's fifth anniversary celebration.