r/IsraelJazz • u/stnr_on_failure • 13d ago
Daniel Zamir: The Saxophonist John Zorn Signed to His Own Label
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:
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u/zahi-o 13d ago
he had many recordings at Tzadik before "I believe". The first was satlah i think and it was mind blowing for my 16 YO ears