Moe Joe, now respectfully referred to as “the first ever electric blues band in Turkey” was founded by Feramerz Ayadi, İzi Ergil and Vefa Karatay in Istanbul in 1994. Instead of mimicking other contemporary blues-rock bands which were then keen to cover the more familiar, perhaps more hackneyed, repertoire of 60’s and 70’s bands, Moe Joe chose to forge a different path by emphasizing a post-war Chicago blues repertoire.
At first Moe Joe struggled to find willing Turkish venues, but, in time, the clubs hosting their performances in various cities in Turkey became hangouts for local blues purists.
In 1996, Sarp Keskiner (vocal, guitar, harmonica) and İlhan Babaoğlu (alto and soprano saxophone) joined the band. Under their guidance, Moe Joe centered upon Chicago Southside & Westside standards, spicy Detroit style boogies, early Texas shuffles and dark Louisiana grooves.
Between 1998 and 2001, the band set the heights for the musical quality of this genre on the national scene by adding harmonica virtuoso – flautist Tuğrul Aray to its line-up and back from NYC, enter Ergin Özler to take over the drum stool aiming at to bring swinging authenticity to the sextet.
After releasing the “all originals” debut album, “Chicago Istanbul Mainline” in 2000, Moe Joe received rave reviews from national and international music media; having been interviewed and guested on various magazines, web sites, radio and TV channels.
In 2001 the band added Caribbean, Brazilian and Afro-Cuban beats into their well-established sound, while stabilizing the line up as a quintet; with addition of Özün Usta (conga, djembe, cajon). Within this context, the live recordings compiled in this album which were recorded in Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir on direct to DAT tapes and feature the diversity of a veteran Turkish blues band which is set to celebrate its 30th anniversary in 2024.
This new album is released digital only and available on all the major download and streaming platforms. Here are the links to a few popular ones:
