[5] As Erşahin began to teach himself to play saxophone in his teens, he knew that in order to accomplish his dreams, he had to move to the United States.
During his first ten years in the city, Erşahin studied with sax masters Joe Lovano and John Purcell, and honed his jazz skills playing at various clubs with musicians like legendary trumpeter Eddie Henderson, Larry Grenadier, Wallace Rooney, Kevin Hays, Ben Allison, Jeff Ballard, Cindy Blackman and many more.
Erşahin gained experience by leading both a trio and a quartet at Sweet Basil and began performing in international jazz festivals.
The band had developed playing at Lower East Side after-hours joints, notably the long-running Save the Robots on Avenue B.
Its sound is a snapshot of downtown NYC at that time, and the video features the band in iconic Lower East Side locations such as Tompkins Square Park.
This incarnation of Wax Poetic had a strong spread of voices, including Norah Jones, soul-jazz diva, N'Dea Davenport, Saul Williams, Marla Turner, and Turkish singer Nil Karaibrahimgil.
They released two albums on Nublu Records, "Love Trio" (2003) featuring contributions from Erşahin's longtime partner, legendary trumpeter Eddie Henderson, vocalist Marla Turner, Kenny Wollesen, Brazilian Girls bass player Jesse Murphy and DJ Logic; and "Love Trio in Dub with U-Roy," (2006.)
Deciding to record a few sessions together, they formed Our Theory with Matt Penman, a young bass player from New Zealand; at the time Wax Poetic's guitarist and drummer, Thor Madsen and Jochen Rueckert, the latter also an accomplished electronica man.
Also in 2009, Erşahin helped form I Led Three Lives, a trio in which he played saxophone and keyboards together with drummer Jochen Rueckert and bass player Juini Booth of Tony Williams and the Sun Ra Arkestra, all regulars at the Nublu club.
Their track, "House of Ahmet," from the album, "Peace Now,"(2008) was selected as Song of the Day by Washington University's WKEXP who described "the album's range of sounds – electronica, techno, jazz, funk, blues, hip hop, house, and even psychedelia – and its ability to slash through any preconceived genre restrictions and examine how far these established stylistic ranges can be pushed.
[33] The one-off combo was so well received that they toured Europe and played in America and recorded an album the following year that reunited Erşahin with French trumpeter, Erik Truffaz.
"[34] Jazzwise Magazine described Istanbul Sessions as "...a highly distinctive new sound that connects the dense modal funk of Miles Davis' Agartha group with the dervish whirl of Turkish and middle-eastern melodies and spikes it with a potent shot of dub electronics.
The rapturous response from the hometown crowd, which eventually spilled out onto the narrow streets and ancient cobblestones of the Beyoglu neighborhood, elevated the show to a plane somewhere above an ordinary Saturday night.
[39] This time round, he assembled a group of mostly local São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro musicians including Mamelo Sound System's Lurdez da Luz and Rodrigo Brandao, Thalma de Freitas, Junio Barreto, China, Kassin, Fernando Catatau and Nina Becker.
"[40] Erşahin's horn has become identified with a modal style of jazz, combining the influence of the cool Nordic sound to the minor-key strains of Istanbul and the quirky funk of the East Village, Manhattan.
Although Erşahin has performed at many of the world's largest concert halls, his affinity for the boho soul of jazz is evident in the videos posted to YouTube of him jamming by the Bosphorus.
When İlhan Erşahin opened the Nublu Club in 2002, it captured the budding synergy between hiphop turntablists, the avant-garde jazzers who were still in the Lower East Side, and DJ's and players from Europe, Jamaica, Africa and Brazil.
Artists on Nublu Records include Erşahin's bands, Love Trio, Our Theory, Istanbul Sessions, I Led Three Lives, Wonderland and Wax Poetic; electronic dance-pop acts Hess Is More, aka Danish musician Michael Hess, praised by WNYC.com for his cinematic sensibility,[46] and Kudu, the edgy Brooklyn-based trio; Turkish DJ Baris K; Brazilian band 3 Na Massa, Brazilian singer Otto and Calibro 35 from Milan, Italy.
There, he jammed alongside the likes of Sam Rivers, John Zorn, Dave Douglas, Roy Hargrove, Marcus Miller, Nicolas Payton and many more.
[48] The Sun Ra Arkestra, Robert Glasper, Junip, Erik Truffaz, Roy Ayers, Bugge Wesseltoft, Tulipa Ruiz, Mark Turner, Graham Haynes and Adam Rudolph are among the many who have attended the Festivals so far.
Erşahin told the French newspaper Liberation, who hailed him as the King of Manhattan's downtown, "Istanbul reminds me a lot of New York and São Paulo.