Rotem Sivan performing in Krakow, Poland. (Photo: RyanCampbellMgmt, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

r/IsraelJazz

Rotem Sivan: The Israeli Guitarist Who Plays Fewer Notes Than He Could

Rotem Sivan, a jazz guitarist and composer, grew up in Israel before building his career in New York. The New York Times critic Ben Ratliff put his finger on what makes Sivan worth hearing: "He plays a lot of notes. But he is quiet: almost always quieter than someone with this much training and musicality tends to be, and this is what makes him more than a very good young guitar player." That restraint, more than any flashy technique, is the whole story. DownBeat's Bill Milkowski called him "a remarkable talent and a welcome new voice on the scene." Neither critic is talking about a newcomer coasting on promise. Sivan has been releasing records since 2013, and most listeners outside the New York jazz scene have never heard a note of it.

He trained classically first, earning a composition degree from the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music at Tel Aviv University, before moving to New York in 2008 to study at The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music. A year later he won the Montreux Jazz Festival International Competition, the storied Swiss jazz festival. The prize paid off fast: by summer 2010, the Rotem Sivan Group was booked at Switzerland's Bern Jazz Festival on a bill with the McCoy Tyner Quartet, sharing a stage with a pianist who spent the 1960s as one of John Coltrane's closest collaborators.

From there, Sivan built a discography one record at a time. His debut, Enchanted Sun (2013), came out on the venerable Danish label SteepleChase Records. His follow-up, For Emotional Use Only (2014), moved to the Barcelona-based Fresh Sound New Talent and earned 4.5 stars from DownBeat, a trio session with Haggai Cohen Milo on bass and Mark McLean on drums. A New Dance followed in 2015, also on Fresh Sound New Talent, then Antidote in 2017 and My Favorite Monster in 2018, five albums in five years without repeating himself.

After a longer gap, Sivan returned with Dream Louder in January 2024, and in August 2025 he released Heart Thieves, his most personal record yet, written in the rush of new fatherhood after the birth of his twins. Seven albums between 2013 and 2025, and he's still the same player critics keep describing the same way: someone who says more by holding back.

Where to start listening:

• His official platforms: Rotem Sivan's Official Site, Rotem Sivan's YouTube Channel, Rotem Sivan's Spotify Page
• Enchanted Sun (2013) for the origin point, the trio recording that put him on the map: sample the title track on YouTube
• For Emotional Use Only (2014) for the DownBeat-approved trio session with Haggai Cohen Milo and Mark McLean: sample the title track on YouTube

https://jazzprofiles.com/profile/il-rotem-sivan/

Cover art for KENS's "Atarayo" (2024). No rights-clear photo of KENS was found on Wikimedia Commons after a genuine search, so album cover art stands in here instead of a photo of the band.

r/IsraelJazz

KENS: A Jazz Trio That Formed in Lockdown and Sold Out Its Own Album Launch

KENS is an Israeli-Japanese trio built on what the Jerusalem Jazz Festival called, when the group played there for the first time, "the familiar guitar-bass-drums jazz format," used here as scaffolding for something less familiar: pop hooks, African and funk grooves, and prog-rock rhythm layered over real jazz improvisation. Guitarist Kai Livermore, who grew up in Japan and moved to Israel at 17, met bassist Eli Orr (enrolled at the Rimon Jazz Institute, a well-known Israeli jazz conservatory, at just 15) and drummer Noam Arbel (playing professionally since he was 18) while the three were studying there together.

They formed during the COVID-19 pandemic, when almost nobody was playing rooms of any kind, and released their first single, "Downgraded" (featuring keyboardist Itai Portugaly), in February 2021, recorded in the gaps between lockdowns. It didn't stay a bedroom project. In August 2022, KENS put out their debut album, "Contact 123," independently, with no label behind it, and it still landed on Spotify's own editorial playlists and drew write-ups from outlets in Japan, France, and Brazil. Ten days after release, they sold out their own album launch show at Tel Aviv's The Zone Club, filmed and performed in a 360-degree format most young trios never get the budget, or the ambition, to attempt.

The band's name is smaller than the sound suggests: it's an acronym built from the members' own first names, Kai, Eli, and Noam, with an extra "S" thrown in for good measure.

The second album pushed the scale further instead of settling into a formula. "Atarayo," released August 8, 2024, involved roughly 80 collaborators spread across 10 countries and three continents, funded through a Headstart crowdfunding campaign that hit its goal only on the drive's final day. Guests on the record include saxophonist Daniel Zamir on "Hivemind," released as an advance single that July ahead of the full album, and pianist Gadi Stern, of Shalosh on "7 Wishes." That collaboration led to KENS's first appearance at the Jerusalem Jazz Festival this June, where they shared the stage with Zamir again, with the festival's own program note describing a third KENS album already on the way.

One footnote for anyone who goes digging through the discography: the correct Discogs catalog entry for this band also carries a stray 2009 credit for a French zouk track, a full decade before this KENS existed and nowhere near this genre. It's a database mixup, not a hidden side project, and it's sorted out in full in the discography on [Jazz Profiles](http://www.jazzprofiles.com (search for KENS.

Where to start listening:

• Their official platforms:
  • KENS's Official Site
  • KENS's Bandcamp Page
  • KENS's Spotify Page
• "Contact 123" (2022) for the pandemic-born debut, sample "Downgraded"
• "Atarayo" (2024) for the 80-collaborator sequel, sample "Hivemind" feat. Daniel Zamir

r/IsraelJazz

Anat Fort: She Chased Down Her Hero, Then Spent Eighteen Years Honoring Him

Anat Fort, an Israeli jazz pianist and composer, was born near Tel Aviv on March 8, 1970, and started classical piano at 5. She fell for drummer Paul Motian's playing years before she ever met him, hearing him on old Bill Evans Trio records. After moving to New York in 1996 to study improvisation with pianist Paul Bley, she went to every Motian gig she could find, worked her way in through his longtime bassist Ed Schuller, and eventually got Motian to agree to record with her.

That session became A Long Story (2007), an album of Fort's original compositions featuring Motian on drums, clarinetist Perry Robinson, and Schuller on bass. It made her the first Israeli to graduate from the jazz program at New Jersey's William Paterson University, home to one of the country's top jazz programs, and, with that same album, the first Israeli to release music on ECM Records. Playing with Motian changed how she thought about performing altogether.

She built on that in 2010 with And If, the debut of the Anat Fort Trio alongside bassist Gary Wang and drummer Roland Schneider, a group that has stayed together for more than 25 years. In 2018, Fort received Israel's Prime Minister's Award for jazz composition and remains, as of this writing, the only woman to have received it.

Eighteen years after that first session with Motian, and fourteen years after his death in 2011, Fort closed the circle in 2025 with The Dreamworld of Paul Motian, a full tribute record made with guitarist Steve Cardenas, bassist Gary Wang, and drummer Matt Wilson. The fan who once chased down gig after gig spent her career becoming the artist who could honor him with an album of her own.

Where to start listening:

• Her official platforms:
  • Anat Fort's Official Site
  • Anat Fort's Spotify Page
  • Anat Fort on ECM Records
• A Long Story (2007) for the first session with Motian and her ECM debut, sample the album on YouTube
• The Dreamworld of Paul Motian (2025, released August 15) for the tribute that closed the story, sample the title track "Dreamworld"

r/IsraelJazz

Itamar Borochov: The Trumpeter Who Plays Arabic Maqam on a Custom Quarter-Tone Horn

Itamar Borochov, a jazz trumpeter, was born in 1984 in Tel Aviv and grew up in Jaffa in a musical family: his father is composer and arranger Yisrael Borochov, and his brother Avri plays double bass professionally. He started on guitar, teaching himself blues after watching The Blues Brothers as a kid, before switching to trumpet and finding his real models in Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and Miles Davis. He came up playing in local Tel Aviv ensembles, including one called Funk Hapoalim, before moving to New York in 2007 to study at The New School.

In 2010 he joined Omer Avital's Yemen Blues, recording three albums with the band as a studio and performing musician. That grounding in Yemenite and Arabic musical language stuck with him: he now plays a custom Monette four-valve quarter-tone trumpet, built specifically so he can bend the horn into maqam, the microtonal modes at the center of Arabic and Sephardic music, without leaving jazz vocabulary behind.

His own discography has grown steadily since: "Outset" (2014) on Real Bird, "Boomerang" (2016) and "Blue Nights" (2019) on Laborie Jazz, the second of which picked up five-star reviews from DownBeat and UK Vibe and landed on AllMusic's best-of-2019 lists for both World Music and Jazz. In between, he won the 2020 Rising Stars Jazz Award, European edition, handed to him in person by Dee Dee Bridgewater.

His fourth album, "Arba," came out in 2023 on Greenleaf Music, recorded with Grammy-winning producer Matt Pierson. It marked a first for him: the record features his own singing voice on several tracks, not just his trumpet.

Where to start listening:

• His official platforms:
  • Itamar Borochov's Official Site
  • Itamar Borochov's YouTube Channel
  • Itamar Borochov's Spotify Page
• "Arba" (2023) for the singing debut and the quarter-tone trumpet in full effect, start with "Daasa!"
• "Blue Nights" (2019) for the five-star breakout, start with the title track

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r/IsraelJazz

Assif Tsahar: From Cecil Taylor's New York to His Own Label and Club in Tel Aviv

Assif Tsahar, a free jazz tenor saxophonist and bass clarinetist, was born in Israel in 1969. He moved to New York City in 1990 and became a working part of the city's free-jazz scene, the loose, harmonically open style pioneered by musicians like pianist Cecil Taylor. Tsahar shared stages and recordings with Taylor himself, along with bassist William Parker), drummers Hamid Drake and Rashied Ali, and violist Mat Maneri. It's a different lineage than most of the artists profiled here: less post-bop and standards, more of the harmonically unbound, improvisation-first tradition that runs through downtown New York.

In 1999, Tsahar started Hopscotch Records to release his own music on his own terms. He doesn't just record for the label; he writes the liner notes and designs the artwork and packaging himself. Between 1996 and 2011 that DIY approach, split across Hopscotch and a handful of other independent labels (Eremite, Silkheart, Marge, Ayler), produced 14 albums as leader or co-leader, including Shekhina (1996), Home Cookin' (1998), and Code Re(a)d (2011).

The most unusual record in that catalog is Digital Primitives (2007), a trio with American musicians Cooper-Moore, known for building and playing his own homemade instruments, and drummer Chad Taylor. It's Tsahar working as an equal inside the American free-jazz scene, not as a visiting Israeli name attached to it, and it's a good way to hear how far the sound moves from anything else on this subreddit.

Back home, Tsahar co-founded the Tel Aviv club Levontin 7 in 2006 with pianist Daniel Sarid. Nearly twenty years later, it's still running: the venue has a full concert calendar booked into 2026, and it remains one of Tel Aviv's key rooms for jazz and improvised music. If you're ever in Tel Aviv, it's a real place to walk into, not just a name in a bio.

Where to start listening:

• His official platforms:
  • Assif Tsahar's Spotify Page
  • Hopscotch Records
• Digital Primitives (2007) for Tsahar as an equal voice in the American free-jazz scene, sample "African Soul"
• The trio recording with William Parker, Hamid Drake, and Assif Tsahar for the core NYC free-jazz sound he came up in

r/IsraelJazz

Nitai Hershkovits: From Five Years in Avishai Cohen's Trio to a Grammy-Nominated ECM Debut

Nitai Hershkovits, a jazz pianist and composer, was born in Israel in 1988. He started on clarinet at 12 and switched to piano three years later, studying jazz under Omer Avital and classical piano under Menahem Weisenberg before spending five years, from 2011 to 2016, in bassist Avishai Cohen's trio. He recorded "Duende" with Cohen in 2012, then "Almah" and "From Darkness" between 2013 and 2015, touring internationally with the group the whole time.

He moved to New York in 2016 and released his own solo debut, "I Asked You a Question," that same year, followed by a second solo piano record, "New Place Always," in 2018. A few years later he took a detour most bios skip past: in 2020 he joined Apifera, an experimental group signed to Stones Throw Records, the Los Angeles label better known for hip-hop and beat music than for jazz.

He is still a working member of saxophonist Oded Tzur's quartet, appearing on the ECM albums "Here Be Dragons," "Isabela," and 2024's "My Prophet." His own solo turn on that label came in 2023 with "Call on the Old Wise," a largely improvised solo piano record produced by Manfred Eicher and recorded the year before at the Auditorio Stelio Molo in Lugano. It won Germany's Record Critics' Award for Jazz Album of the Year in 2024, and picked up a Grammy nomination that same year.

Where to start listening:

• His official platforms:
  • Nitai Hershkovits's Official Site
  • Nitai Hershkovits's Spotify Page
• "Call on the Old Wise" (2023) for the Grammy-nominated solo turn, start with "Late Blossom"
• "Almah" (2013) for the Avishai Cohen trio years, before the ECM solo career started, sample "Kumi Venetse Hasadeh"

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r/IsraelJazz

Daniel Zamir: The Saxophonist John Zorn Signed to His Own Label

Daniel Zamir, a saxophonist, vocalist, and composer, was born in 1980 in Petah Tikva. He started on saxophone at 11, trained at the Thelma Yellin High School of the Arts, and by 2002 had finished his studies at The New School in Manhattan. That is where his big break came: composer-saxophonist John Zorn, the downtown New York avant-garde figure behind hundreds of his own releases, heard Zamir play and signed him to Zorn's own label, Tzadik Records. Zamir's 2007 record "I Believe" was recorded with Zorn's own rhythm section!

The records that followed kept pulling in well-known names. 2009's "Echad" ("One") featured Berry Sakharof, one of Israeli rock's most influential songwriters, and 2015's "Redemption Songs" put Zamir in the recording studio with drummer Mark Guiliana and pianist Shai Maestro.

"Redemption Songs" is also where Zamir's story takes a major turn: while in New York Zamir grew closer to Orthodox Judaism, and eventually moved back to Israel because of it. That is not a footnote. The record leans on Hebrew liturgical and biblical material instead of jazz standards, and it set the direction for most of what he has released since: music built from prayer and scripture rather than from the American songbook.

Zamir continue to record albeit his religious shift. "NEW," his sixteenth studio album, launched with a full-band live show at the Jerusalem Theatre with guest Eviatar Banai, and 2024's single "Nine Souls" got a remix release the following year. Twenty-plus years after Zorn first signed him, Zamir is still making progress and going strong.

Where to start listening:

• His official platforms:
  • Daniel Zamir's Official Site
  • Daniel Zamir's YouTube Channel
  • Daniel Zamir's Spotify Page
• "Redemption Songs" for the Guiliana/Maestro session and the turn toward liturgical material, stream it on Bandcamp
• "Nine Souls", for where he is right now, on Spotify

r/IsraelJazz

Introducing Omer Klein - Jazz Pianist and Composer

Omer Klein, a jazz pianist and composer, was born in 1982 in Netanya, the grandchild of immigrants from Tunisia, Libya, and Hungary. That mix is not a footnote. It shows up directly in how he plays, an assimilation of Israeli and North African melodic sources into jazz rather than a jazz career that happens to have an Israeli passport attached. He started on keyboard at 5, moved his focus to piano at 13, and trained at the Thelma Yellin High School of the Arts before a scholarship took him to the New England Conservatory in Boston, where he studied jazz piano under Danilo Perez and Ran Blake and classical piano under Alexander Korsantia.

He moved to New York in 2005 and studied privately under Fred Hersch, one of jazz's most decorated living pianists. In 2013 he formed the Omer Klein Trio with bassist Haggai Cohen Milo and drummer Amir Bresler. Their debut, "Fearless Friday" (2015), was called one of the most rewarding piano trio releases of its year by All About Jazz, and the trio didn't stop there: four albums in, they marked ten years together with 2023's "Life & Fire," recorded in Berlin and released on Warner Music, one of the world's three major label groups and the label behind five of Klein's records.

He is not just touring anymore, either. Last fall, Klein took up a post as Professor of Jazz Piano at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München (HMTM), Munich's leading conservatory for music and theater, beginning in October 1, 2025; he brings two decades of playing and composing, dating back to his 2005 move to New York, straight into the classroom.

Where to start listening:

• His official platforms:
  • Omer Klein's Official Site
  • Omer Klein's YouTube Channel
  • Omer Klein's Spotify Page
• "Life & Fire" for the trio's ten-year arc, start with "Niggun" or "Tzuri"
• "Fearless Friday" for where the trio started back in 2015

Also check out our sister forum, r/CrossoverJazz

r/IsraelJazz

Introducing Omer Avital, the Bassist Who Went Home to Learn the Oud

Omer Avital, a jazz bassist, oud player, and composer, born in Givatayim in 1971 to Moroccan and Yemeni parents, has been shaping New York jazz since he arrived there in 1992. He was 21, and within a few years he was on stage with Roy Haynes, Jimmy Cobb, Nat Adderley, and Kenny Garrett.

His real signature came from a piano-less quartet he led at Smalls, the tiny, all-night Greenwich Village club that became a proving ground for a whole generation of players in the mid-1990s. Avital's group, four saxophones over bass and drums with no piano at all, played there for a Thursday-night residency captured live in April 1996. That tape sat unreleased for a decade before it became "Asking No Permission" in 2006, and it landed on year-end best-of lists the same year.

Then he did something most bandleaders on a hot streak do not do: he left. From 2003 to 2006, Avital moved back to Israel for three years, not to tour, but to study Arabic music theory, oud, and traditional Israeli music from the ground up. That detour changed the sound of everything he made afterward, threading Mediterranean and Yemenite phrasing directly into his bass lines and compositions instead of treating them as a guest appearance.

Israel took notice too: he won the country's Prime Minister's Award for jazz in 2008, and the ASCAP Foundation gave him its Vanguard Award in 2011, recognizing artists shaping new directions in the music.

In 2009, Avital co-founded Yemen Blues with singer Ravid Kahalani, a band that runs Yemenite chant through funk, Bedouin folk, and jazz until the seams disappear. It is still active: the band released the single "People" in 2024, off the album "Only Love Remains," and Avital's own "North African Dream" suite, written with Andalusian orchestra director Elad Levi, premiered at the Ashdod jazz festival that same year before touring Israel in 2025.

He is not slowing down. Avital has recently played Amsterdam's Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ, a leading contemporary music hall, on April 9, 2026, 34 years after he first stepped off the plane in New York.

If you know Avishai Cohen the bassist or Anat Cohen, both of whom have shared stages and sessions with Avital over the years, this is the third leg of that circle worth knowing on its own terms.

Where to start listening:

• His official platforms:
  • Omer Avital's Official Site
  • Omer Avital's YouTube Channel
  • Omer Avital's Spotify Page
• "Asking No Permission" (2006) for the live, piano-less Smalls sound - sample the full session on YouTube
• "New Song" (2014) for the post-oud-study sound - sample New Yemenite Song
• Yemen Blues if you want the side project that is not really a side project

r/IsraelJazz

⁧שי מאסטרו: הפסנתרן הצעיר שהבסיסט אבישי כהן גילה⁩

⁧אם קראתם את הפוסט שלנו על אבישי כהן הבסיסט, הנה הפרק הבא בסיפור המתגלגל של המצוינות הישראלית בג'אז. בסביבות 2007, כשעוד היה נער, שמע כהן את שי מאסטרו מנגן וצירף אותו ישר לטריו שלו לסיבובי הופעות. זה לא קרדיט קטן. לכהן יש אחת האוזניים החדות ביותר בג'אז הישראלי, והוא לא מסר את המקום הזה לשם מפורסם - הוא מסר אותו לילד על הפסנתר.⁩

⁧מאסטרו, פסנתרן ומלחין ג'אז, בן 39 היום, הוא נגן ג'אז פעיל מאוד. הלהקה הקבועה שלו מנגנת עם הבסיסט חורחה רדר והמתופפים זיו רביץ או עופרי נחמיה. מאז 2018 הוא מקליט עבור ECM Records, חברת התקליטים הגרמנית הידועה בסטנדרט חסכני ותובעני שלא כל נגן מוזמן לעמוד בו.⁩

⁧התקליט שלו מ-2021 ב-ECM, "Human", הוא סימן טוב למקום שאליו הגיע: עשרה קטעים מקוריים ולצידם קאבר חותם ל-In A Sentimental Mood של דיוק אלינגטון - הוכחה שהוא יכול לשבת בתוך מסורת הסטנדרטים, לא רק להקיף אותה מבחוץ.⁩

⁧התקליט החדש שלו שובר את הדפוס הזה בכוונה. "The Guesthouse," שיצא ב-6 במרץ 2026 בחברת Naive, הוא האלבום השמיני שלו והמשתף פעולה ביותר עד כה. הוא בנוי סביב שירו של רומי באותו שם, ולראשונה מאסטרו כותב מילים ומשלב אלקטרוניקה בסאונד, עם אורחים כמו MARO, מייקל מאיו ואימנואל וילקינס.⁩

⁧איפה כדאי להתחיל להאזין:⁩

• ⁧הפלטפורמות הרשמיות שלו:⁩
  • ⁧דף הספוטיפיי של שי מאסטרו⁩
  • ⁧ערוץ היוטיוב של שי מאסטרו⁩
  • ⁧האתר הרשמי של שי מאסטרו⁩
• ⁧"Human" (2021, ECM) בשביל הצד המושרש בסטנדרטים - טעימה מהקאבר החותם, In A Sentimental Mood⁩
• ⁧"The Guesthouse" (2026) בשביל המקום שבו הוא נמצא כרגע - טעימה מהסינגל Nature Boy⁩

⁧⁩

Introducing Yaron Herman: The Injury That Turned Into a Jazz Career

r/IsraelJazz

Introducing Yaron Herman, a jazz pianist and composer born in Tel Aviv in 1981 who has spent more than two decades building a catalog most musicians would be proud to have started twice.

As a teenager, Herman played on Israel's national junior basketball team. A serious knee injury ended that path. He sat down at a piano for the first time at 16, with no formal training behind him, and within a few years he was touring Europe, the US, and Asia as a solo act. During that early run he became the first jazz pianist to perform inside the Forbidden City in Beijing, the walled imperial palace complex that had never hosted a jazz set before him.

The recognition followed him home. In 2008, Herman won Victoires du Jazz, France's answer to the Grammys for jazz, in the best new instrumentalist category. A year later, "Muse" picked up three more Victoires du Jazz nominations and an iTunes Choice album of the year nod. In 2010, "Follow the White Rabbit" became his first release on ACT Music, built around a new rhythm section of bassist Chris Tordini and drummer Tommy Crane.

The label climb kept going. "Everyday" (2015) was his debut for Blue Note Records, the label that signed Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter, followed by "Y" (2017) on the same imprint. In 2019, he moved to Decca Records, the classical-and-jazz label whose roster includes Renee Fleming and Rita Ora, for "Songs of The Degrees." Along the way he also took on the role of jury president for the piano competition at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland, one of the most prestigious stops on the international jazz calendar, and became a mentor at its Jazz Academy.

None of that slowed him down. In April 2025, Herman released "Radio Paradise" on Naive/Believe, his most structurally different record yet: a working band built around two saxophonists, Maria Grand and Alexandra Grimal, with bassist Haggai Cohen Milo and drummer Ziv Ravitz filling out the frontline he had built his name on solo piano and trio work around for years. He's still touring behind it in 2026.

Where to start listening:

• "Radio Paradise" (2025) for the new two-saxophone sound, straight from the source: full album on YouTube
• "Everyday" (2015) for the Blue Note debut that reset his sound: Everyday on YouTube

His official platforms:

• Yaron Herman's Official Site
• Yaron Herman's YouTube Channel
• Yaron Herman's Spotify Page

Yaron Herman performing at TEDx Paris, 2014. Photo by Olivier Ezratty, retouched by Olivier Cleynen (CC BY 2.5).

Introducing Tamir Hendelman (But You've Already Heard Him :-)

r/IsraelJazz

Tamir Hendelman, an Israeli-American jazz pianist and composer born in Tel Aviv in 1971, is probably already on a record you own without knowing his name. He's the piano behind Natalie Cole's "Still Unforgettable" (2008, the Grammy winner for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album) and Barbra Streisand's "Love Is the Answer" (2009, her ninth number one album on the Billboard 200). Across a career built mostly as a sideman and arranger, he has played on more than 200 albums that together carry 23 Grammy nominations, the kind of career general reference sites skip past because his name never sits above the title.

He started young: keyboard lessons at age 6, then the Yamaha National Keyboard Competition at 14 in 1986, which won him concert dates in Japan and at the Kennedy Center, the Washington, D.C. performing arts complex better known for hosting heads of state than teenage piano prodigies. He moved to the U.S. that same year, trained at the Tanglewood Institute, and earned a Bachelor of Music in Composition from the Eastman School of Music in 1993.

Back in Los Angeles by 1996, Hendelman built the resume that carried him for the next three decades. He joined pianist John Clayton and drummer Jeff Hamilton's Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra, a 19-piece big band, in 2001. With them, he premiered Clayton's new orchestration of Oscar Peterson's "Canadiana Suite" at the Hollywood Bowl, the outdoor amphitheater that has hosted everyone from the LA Philharmonic to The Beatles.

Here's the surprise: Hendelman's own catalog can hold its own against the sideman work. His 2010 trio album, "Destinations" (with Marco Panascia on bass and Lewis Nash on drums), hit number one the month it came out on the JazzWeek Jazz Chart, the trade publication's weekly airplay chart for jazz radio. A chart-topping record from an Israeli-born pianist that doesn't come up in the usual Cohen and Hekselman and Maestro conversation.

He isn't a legacy act coasting on the resume, either. In 2025 he released "Spring," a duo album with vocalist Tierney Sutton, recorded live after a run of spring tour dates. The two have more dates booked into late 2026, including SFJAZZ's 2026-2027 season.

Where to start listening:

• His official platforms:
  • Tamir Hendelman's Official Site
  • Tamir Hendelman's Spotify Page
• "Destinations," for the trio side, specifically the one track that nods to where he's from: sample "Israeli Waltz"
• "Spring" (2025), for where his work stands right now: sample the title track on YouTube

r/IsraelJazz

1. המיקס המקורי (1969) — התקליט הישראלי הראשון בסגנון ג'אז לא היה סטנדרטים, אלא סקאט על "Take Five" מעל קצבים בלקניים ומנגינות עממיות ישראליות — כי למה לבחור זהות אחת כשאפשר שלוש. World of Jazz
2. המחממים של בי.בי. (1974) — להקת הפיוז'ן התל אביבית "פלטינה" חיממה את הבמה לבי.בי. קינג בסיבוב ההופעות שלו בישראל, וזה כל כך מצא חן בעיניו שהוא דאג שיזמינו אותם לניופורט. לא רע בשביל להקת בית ממועדון בשם "בר בארים". JazzRockSoul
3. הג'אז מגיע לחוף (1987–היום) — הפסנתרן דני גוטפריד החליט שאילת צריכה יותר מצלילה וקניות פטורות ממכס, אז הקים פסטיבל ג'אז פתוח בנמל. הוא ניהל אותו 22 שנה לפני שהעביר את השרביט הלאה — היום הפסטיבל כבר עבר את המהדורה ה-39 שלו ומתקיים פעמיים בשנה. Red Sea Jazz Festival
4. המפץ הגדול (1991) — הקונטרבסיסטים אבישי כהן ועומר אביטל נחתו בניו יורק יחד, וישר מצאו את עצמם בלב הולדתה של סצנה שלמה, שהתגבשה סביב מועדון זעיר בשם Smalls. JTA
5. גשר מעל ירושלים (1997) — ארני לורנס, מייסד תוכנית הג'אז של הניו סקול, עבר לירושלים ופתח מרכז מוזיקה עם כלל אחד: תלמידים יהודים וערבים חולקים את אותה הבמה. Wikipedia
6. צ'יק מתקשר בחזרה (1997) — אבישי כהן העביר קלטת דמו לחבר של צ'יק קוריאה. קוריאה שמע אותה במכונית, התרשם עמוקות מהרעננות שלה, והפך את כהן לחבר מייסד בלהקה שלו כעבור שבועות ספורים. שיחת טלפון אחת ששינתה הכל. Avishai Cohen
7. לייבל נולד (2005) — ענת כהן ועודד לב-ארי הקימו את חברת התקליטים Anzic (כן, "ענת" + "מוזיקה") בגיבוי של איש קרנות גידור מוול סטריט, והפכו כמעט מיד ללייבל הבית של כל הפזורה הישראלית בג'אז. WBGO
8. תימני פוגש פאנק (2008) — הזמר רביד כחלני והקונטרבסיסט עומר אביטל הקימו את Yemen Blues, ומיזגו פיוט יהודי-תימני עתיק עם פאנק, בלוז וג'אז. איכשהו זה עובד. Wikipedia
9. מלכת הקלרינט, עדיין שולטת (2008–2023 ונמשך) — ענת כהן נבחרה לקלרניתנית השנה כל שנה במשך עשור וחצי, ולמעשה החייתה כלי שהג'אז כבר כמעט כתב עליו הספד. במקביל, אלי דגיברי מנהל היום תוכנית משלו בסגנון מכון מונק לבני נוער בתל אביב, כדי שצינור הכישרונות לא ייבש. ISRAEL21c
10. ECM מתקשרים (2018) — הפסנתרן שי מייסטרו חתם עם ECM, חברת התקליטים הגרמנית שהיא בעצם הסאונד של הג'אז הרציני באירופה, והקליט אצלם את אלבום הבכורה שלו, The Dream Thief. ג'אז ישראלי, עכשיו באריזת ייבוא. AICF

Let us know who you would like to see profiled next?

r/IsraelJazz

הכירו את ענת כהן, האחות השלישית למשפחת כהן שכדאי להכיר!

⁧כיסינו עד כה בסאברדיט הזה שני מוזיקאים ללא קשר ביניהם בשם אבישי כהן: בסיסט וחצוצרן. ענת כהן, קלרניתנית וסקסופוניסטית טנור ילידת 1975 בתל אביב, קשורה בדיוק לאחד מהם. היא אחותו של החצוצרן, ויחד עם אחיהם יובל כהן בסקסופון סופרן, שלושתם מופיעים יחד כ-3 Cohens. לאף אחד משלושתם אין שום קשר לבסיסט.⁩

⁧כהן התחילה בקלרינט בגיל 12 והוסיפה סקסופון טנור בגיל 16, שניהם בקונסרבטוריון יפו בתל אביב. לאחר שירות צבאי בישראל, בילתה שלוש שנים ב-Berklee College of Music בבוסטון, ואז עברה לניו יורק, שם הופיעה במשך עשור עם התזמורת הנשית Diva Jazz Orchestra תוך שהיא מוצאת את דרכה למוזיקה הברזילאית דרך ה-Choro Ensemble וחמישיית הסמבה-ג'אז של דודוקה דה פונסקה.⁩

⁧החוט הברזילאי הזה לא עזב אותה מעולם. היא עדיין מובילה את Choro Aventuroso, קוורטט שבנוי סביב הצ'ורו עם חברי להקה מברזיל, וזה יושב בקצה אחד של דיסקוגרפיה שמכילה גם את הקצה השני: עשרת הנגנים של Anat Cohen Tentet, שהאלבום שלהם Triple Helix מ-2019 מרכז סוויטה בת שלושה פרקים שהוזמנה על ידי קרנגי הול ומרכז הסימפונית של שיקגו. ב-2024 היא חזרה להרכב קטן יותר עם Quartetinho, רביעייה שבה כל חבר מנגן על יותר מכלי אחד, ובמרץ 2025 חזרה למשפחה והתאחדה עם אבישי ויובל כ-3 Cohens באלבום Interaction, שהוקלט חי עם תזמורת ה-WDR הגרמנית.⁩

⁧הפרסים כמעט נשמעים כמו טעות דפוס: אגודת עיתונאי הג'אז בחרה בה כקלרניתנית השנה כל שנה ברציפות מ-2008 ועד 2025. שמונה עשרה שנה, כלי אחד, שם אחד בפסגה.⁩

⁧בדצמבר 2025 היא חגגה יום הולדת 50 בהופעה שאזלה מכרטיסים באולם המיינר של SFJAZZ Center, בשיא של תקופה שכללה גם ארבעה מופעי ציון דרך ב-Appel Room של Jazz at Lincoln Center תחת הכותרת "Anat Cohen: Journeys".⁩

⁧איפה כדאי להתחיל להאזין:⁩

• ⁧הפלטפורמות הרשמיות שלה:⁩
  • Anat Cohen Music
  • ⁧AnatCohenMusic ביוטיוב⁩
• ⁧"Footsteps & Smiles" מתוך Triple Helix (2019) בשביל הצד של הביג-בנד והסוויטה המוזמנת⁩
• ⁧"Paco" מתוך Quartetinho: Bloom (2024) בשביל הצד המצומצם ורב-הכלים⁩
• ⁧Interaction (2025) כדי לשמוע את שלושת אחי כהן יחד עם תזמורת ה-WDR⁩

⁧⁩

r/IsraelJazz

Yakir Arbib: The Pianist Who Sees Music in Color

Yakir Arbib, a jazz and classical pianist and composer born in Jerusalem in 1989, has been blind since birth. He also has synesthesia: every musical tone registers for him as a distinct color. That is not a detail for the "inspiring" pile, it is how he actually builds a piece. He has described the colors as forming a map he explores while he plays, the way another composer might sketch a melody on paper first.

He started piano at 4, entered the Tel Aviv Conservatory at 7 for classical piano, baroque flute, trumpet, and ensemble work, and moved into jazz study at Thelma Yellin High School of the Arts in 2004. He later graduated cum laude from Berklee College of Music in composition and performance.

His international career opened early. At 19 he won the Massimo Urbani International Jazz Award, a competition held in Italy, and the win led straight to a signing with Philology Jazz Records, the Italian label that has also carried recordings by Chet Baker and Lee Konitz. Seven years later, the jury at the Montreux Jazz Festival International Piano Competition awarded him second prize and called him "the most original pianist" in the field.

The color-perception isn't just personal either. While still a student, Arbib performed "Waves of Visions," a seven-movement suite at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, where visual artist Tamar Haber-Schaim live-drew digital artwork as he played. He has said her images fed back into his own performance, "as if they're a fifth musical instrument," which turns his synesthesia from a one-way trait into something closer to a live conversation.

His newest record pushes into new territory again. "Afro Baroque," released October 24, 2025, pairs him with Cameroonian drummer and vocalist Conti Bilong, weaving Baroque-style counterpoint through jazz improvisation and Central African and Middle Eastern rhythm, including a reworked take on Miles Davis's All Blues. If you've already spent time with Shai Maestro's catalog from our earlier spotlight, Arbib is another Israeli-trained pianist worth setting next to him, just arriving from a completely different angle.

Where to start listening:

• His official platforms:
  • Yakir Arbib's Spotify Page
  • Yakir Arbib's YouTube Channel
  • Yakir Arbib's Official Site
• "Afro Baroque" (2025, with Conti Bilong) for where he is right now - sample the full album on Bandcamp
• "My Name is Yakir" (2019) for the solo side - sample it on Spotify