Jazz fans in Turkey, will most readily remember the 8th of July 1984. On that very day, hearing that Chick Corea and Steve Kujala were going to give a concert in Atatrk Cultural Centre as part of the stanbul Festival, they had raided the box offices, and tickets were immediately sold out. On the day of the concert there was an unprecedented crowd outside the ACC, and many people missed it as there were no tickets left. Chick Corea made his own surprise at the end of the concert when he brought Gayle Moran on stage. This unforgettable concert was the beginning of things to come. It was a reminder that jazz should occupy a bigger part in the stanbul Festival, and that the musical spectrum of the Festival should be extended to cover many other musical styles.

As years went by the emphasis on jazz in the stanbul Festival increased. The first real rock concerts in stanbul were held in the Open-Air Theatre as part of the stanbul Festival program. The number of concerts under the heading of jazz, rock and pop grew in number every year. Then the line was crossed in 1988 and the legendary Miles Davis presented unforgettable musical feasts in the Open-Air Theatre three nights in a row. He was followed by Dizzy Gillespie, the Modern Jazz Quartet, Stan Getz, Ornette Coleman and many others. In 1993, the number of concerts under the title Jazz/ Pop/folk had reached 14. This section itself had grown far beyond the framework of the festival. The same year, the stanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts held the first stadium concert in Turkey (Bryan Adams), and then played host to Sting and the Scorpions in the nn Stadium.

As the years went by, " jazz " also went beyond the limits of its literal meaning, and the Board of Directors of the stanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts announced that the 1st International stanbul Jazz Festival was to be held as a separate event. The festival was planned to be an activity embracing concerts of many styles of music in addition to jazz; like rock, pop, blues, reggae, new age, etc. It would surpass the boundaries of the concert sites, and question the boundary separating the people who produce music from those who consume it. In short, it would be more than a series of concerts. The result has been seven years of success with over 250 concerts by hundreds of performers and guest artists at ten different venues and clubs…A jubilant festival taking place in the very heart of the city!

One of the best organised festivals in Europe, the International Istanbul Jazz Festival, has brought renowned artists like Eric Clapton, Lou Reed, Bryan Ferry, Massive Attack, Bjrk, Deep Forest, Dead Can Dance, Loreena McKennitt, Suzanne Vega, Patti Smith, Bobby McFerrin, Randy Crawford, The Manhattan Transfer, Jan Garbarek, Keith Jarrett, Wynton Marsalis, Goran Bregovich, Joshua Redman, Brad Mehldau to Istanbul's music lovers. With its boundless energy it has become one of the most important events on the Istanbul cultural scene.