Tavananna

Liverpool prog fusion quartet explain how they’ve navigated their infancy, and how jazz and Turkish influences manifest themselves.

Tavananna is a four-piece prog fusion outfit from Liverpool. Founding member, vocalist and keyboardist Embiye Adali also plays keyboards with rising prog star Dominic Sanderson, sand is explaining to 'Prog' her band’s origins.

“I moved to Liverpool from Istanbul at the end of 2021” she says. “At the time, I had just finished my master’s degree in jazz in Istanbul, and I was really looking forward to collaborating with other musicians.”

Adali regularly attended jazz clubs and jam nights, which is where she met bassist Fran Mills, whose involvement with the fusion jazz group Green Tangerines really impressed her. “We played together at the jam session after their gig and I was so, so excited,” she explains. “I kept joining different jam sessions, and at one of them I met Adam [Fairclough, drummer].”

Adali says that by the summer of 2023 she was “desperate” to set up her own band, and she became a “bit bored of jazz.” She adds, “I always wanted to start a proper rock band, write my own stuff, and move forward with that. Initially, I asked Fran and they said yes, they’d be happy to collaborate.” Adali moved towards approaching Fairclough next, during Liverpool’s Africa Oye festival. “I asked Adam if he’d be interested in playing with me. He was pretty tipsy at the time and said yes without realising it!” The following morning Adali sent him the demos, but he had no recollection of the conversation. “Still, at that point he couldn’t say no!” she recalls. From there, Fairclough introduced guitarist Reiss Greenwell to the rest of the band, and the Tavananna lineup was complete.

Adali wrote some of the band’s first tracks on the bus on her way to work. “When I was writing, a devastating earthquake happened in Turkey and many people died. I wasn’t in the best mental state, and that’s how 'Blast' came to be,” she explains. Adali’s Turkish heritage also influenced the track 'Neden?' which is the only Turkish song on their debut album 'Bir'.

Adali says maintaining a band isn’t without its difficulties, especially when her time is limited as a junior doctor. “It’s really challenging because everyone has full-time jobs, but when you have the passion, you go for it even if you don’t have much time.”

Despite the blatant jazz influences, Adali says Tavananna never set out with a specific genre in mind. “Even after recording, I kept asking people what genre they thought it was, because it’s tricky,” she says. “With a jazz background in performing and education for all of us, when you try to make rock music it’s no surprise that you naturally mix and match elements you already know, without even thinking about it.”

With the quartet taking influence from Dream Theater, Tigran Hamasyan, Apocalyptica, and Turkish artist Şebnem Ferah, Adali adds that they’re not afraid to shift sounds or take a new approach. “For this album, that particular sound felt essential to express what I’d been experiencing. It needed that heaviness and intensity. In the future, if our music calls for a different genre or softer melodies, we’ll go for it.” 

- Cheri Faulkner

PROG FILE:

LINE-UP: Emiye Adali (Vocals, Keys), Reiss Greenwell (Guitar), Fran Mills (Bass), Adam Fairclough (Drums)

SOUNDS LIKE: Jazz, classical, folk, and rock combine in an unusual yet authentic and effective soundscape.

CURRENT RELEASE: 'Bir' is out now.

WEBSITE: Music | Tavananna