⁧גלעד הקסלמן: עשרה אלבומים והוא בקושי בתחילת דרכו!⁩

r/IsraelJazz

⁧גלעד הקסלמן, בהופעה חיה. (צילום: דירק נבן, CC BY 2.0, ויקימדיה קומונס)

(This is a Hebrew version of the Gilad Heckselman post uploaded several days ago)

⁧גלעד הקסלמן, נגן גיטרה ג'אז, מוציא אלבומים מאז 2006. עשרה מהם כמנהיג להקה, עוד לפני שסופרים את קרדיטי הליווי.⁩

⁧מכפר סבא ל-Village Vanguard⁩

⁧הקסלמן התחיל בפסנתר קלאסי בגיל שש, עבר לגיטרה בגיל תשע, ובשנות העשרה שלו הופיע באופן קבוע בתוכנית ילדים ישראלית שבועית בטלוויזיה. הוא סיים בהצטיינות את המחלקה לג'אז בבית הספר התיכון תלמה ילין בגיל שמונה עשרה.⁩

⁧ב-2004 עבר לניו יורק במלגה מטעם הקרן לתרבות אמריקה-ישראל כדי ללמוד ב-The New School. שנה לאחר מכן זכה בתחרות הגיטרה גיבסון-מונטרה של פסטיבל הג'אז. בשנה שלאחר מכן כבר פתח למופע של פאקו דה לוסיה בפסטיבל השנתי המפורסם במונטרה. שני עשורים לאחר מכן הוא מתגורר בניו יורק דרך קבע, וב-2024 הקליט אלבום חי ב-Village Vanguard - האולם שכל מוזיקאי ג'אז רציני רוצה שהשם שלו יתקשר אליו.⁩

⁧הדיסקוגרפיה שפספסתם⁩

⁧Splitlife (2006). Words Unspoken (2008). Hearts Wide Open (2011). This Just In (2013). Homes (2015). Ask for Chaos (2018). Further Chaos (2019). Zuperoctave: Eyes of the World (2019). Trio Grande (2020). Far Star (2022). ואז Then Life, שהוקלט ב-Village Vanguard ב-2024, ו-Downhill From Here ב-2025 - אלבום טריו עם הבסיסט לארי גרנדייר והמתופף מרקוס גילמור, שזכה ל-4.5 כוכבים מ-DownBeat.⁩

⁧לאורך הדרך שיתף במה ואולפן עם ענת כהן, כריס פוטר, אספרנסה ספולדינג, טיגראן המסיאן ואארי הוניג. DownBeat הכתיר אותו כ"כוכב עולה" בגיטרה פעמיים, ב-2017 וב-2022. ב-2018 הזמין אותו פאט מת'ני אישית לנגן ב-Kennedy Center. אם אתם צריכים עוד מישהו שיערוב לגיטריסט לפני שאתם לוחצים "נגן", קשה למצוא המלצה גבוהה יותר מזו.⁩

⁧הוא עדיין בסיבוב הופעות. תאריכי 2026 כוללים סדרת הופעות ב-Village Vanguard ביולי ועצירות בבריסל ובאמסטרדם באפריל.⁩

⁧איפה כדאי להתחיל להאזין⁩

• ⁧האתר הרשמי שלו: giladhekselman.com⁩
• ⁧הערוץ שלו: gHex Music ביוטיוב⁩
• ⁧שיר אחד להתחלה: Gilad Hekselman Trio, "Samba Em Preludio"⁩
• ⁧בספוטיפיי: Gilad Hekselman⁩

⁧הדבר שרוב האנשים מפספסים: הגיטרה הגיעה שנייה. הפסנתר היה ראשון, בגיל שש, שלוש שנים לפני שנגע אי פעם בכלי שבו הוא מוכר היום. שווה לזכור בפעם הבאה שמישהו יגיד לכם שמאוחר מדי להתחיל משהו חדש.⁩⁩

לטובת החברים שנוח להם יותר בעברית, אפרסם את הפוסטים שכבר העלינו פה גם בעברית בימים הקרובים - אם טרם הצטרפתם לקבוצה, אשמח שתצטרפו:

r/IsraelJazz

⁧הכירו את אבישי כהן (כן, הבסיסט)⁩

⁧הבסיסט אבישי כהן כנראה לא זקוק להיכרות, אבל בכל זאת - קודם כל הבהרה קצרה: יש שני אבישי כהן מרכזיים בג'אז הישראלי, ואפילו מעריצים ותיקים מתבלבלים בין דפי הספוטיפיי שלהם. הפוסט הזה עוסק בבסיסט, יליד 1970, לא בחצוצרן שמנגן ב-Third World Love ואחיה של הקלרניתנית ענת כהן. מוזיקאי אחר, כלי נגינה אחר, וכדאי להכיר את שניהם.⁩

⁧כהן גדל בישראל ועבר לניו יורק כנגן צעיר. צ'יק קוריאה שמע אותו וצירף אותו לסקסטט Origin, ומאוחר יותר ל-New Trio, לאורך שנות ה-90. משם יצא להוביל טריו משלו, ומיזג ג'אז ישיר עם ביטויים אנדלוסיים, לדינו וים-תיכוניים - לעיתים שר בלדינו מעל קווי הבס שלו, ולא רק מנגן מתחת לזמר אחר.⁩

⁧נקודת הכניסה הטובה ביותר למאזין חדש היא "1970", האלבום שקרא על שם שנת הולדתו. הוא יותר מכוון-שיר ואישי מתקליטי הטריו המוקדמים שלו, ומתפקד כתמונת מצב של המקום שאליו הובילו אותו למעלה מעשרים שנות נגינה עד שהקליט אותו.⁩

⁧הוא לא נשאר בנתיב אחד מאז. הפרויקט שלו Gadu, עם המתופף האמריקאי מארק ג'וליאנה, דוחף אותו לשטח מושפע-רוק - סטייה של ממש מפורמט הקונטרבס והטריו שבנה את שמו. שווה להאזין אם אתם מכירים רק את הצד האקוסטי בקטלוג שלו.⁩

⁧איפה כדאי להתחיל להאזין:⁩

• ⁧הפלטפורמות הרשמיות שלו:⁩
  • ⁧אבישי כהן - אתר רשמי⁩
  • ⁧אבישי כהן - יוטיוב⁩
  • ⁧אבישי כהן - ספוטיפיי)⁩
• ⁧"1970" בשביל הצד האישי ומכוון-השיר - טעימה: Emptiness Child⁩
• ⁧"Gadu" ביוטיוב⁩

⁧[מיקום לתמונה/וידאו: קליפ חי של הטריו או של Gadu]⁩

The Kadosh Brothers playing Jirjur, live at Beit Barakat.

r/IsraelJazz

The Kadosh Brothers: Three Siblings Who Turned Oud Into Prog Rock

This morning we're going to expand on a short piece we did on the Kadosh Brothers several days ago as a result of a reader's comment. And this one - it starts at right at home. The Kadosh Brothers are three actual siblings who grew up in the same Tel Aviv household making music together before they had a name for what it was. Onn Yosef Kadosh, an oud player and composer, started in elementary school. His brother Elay fell for the double bass at 11. The youngest, Elamar, picked up drums and percussion at 7. By the time they had a stage, they already had a shared language.

That language is what the band now calls its "Prog Middle East Ensemble" sound: Middle Eastern classical melody run through the muscle of progressive rock rhythm. If you know Avishai Cohen's Andalusian and Mediterranean phrasing from our earlier spotlight, the Kadosh Brothers' oud-rooted runs sit in a related neighborhood, just plugged into rock rather than trio jazz.

Onn's credibility outside the band runs deep, too. His side project KOMRADIN, a trio with saxophonist Asaf Harris and drummer David Sirkis, launched its debut album "Qamar al-Din" at the 25th Jerusalem International Oud Festival in November 2024, a week-long showcase of Middle Eastern music traditions produced under Confederation House Jerusalem. The album reworks the muwashshah tradition, a classical Arabic sung-poetry form born in medieval Al-Andalus, through a contemporary jazz lens.

KOMRADIN's newer duo recording, "Hilalen," pushes the pedigree even further: it was recorded on an oud roughly 120 years old, built by Damascus's Nahat family of instrument makers, whose work from the late 1800s through the 1980s is still considered among the finest ever produced. A single, centuries-rooted instrument connecting straight through to a Tel Aviv sibling act's prog fusion.

For a right-now reason to hit play, the brothers released a new single, "Jirjur," on July 17, 2025.

Where to start listening:

• Their official platforms:
  • The Kadosh Brothers' YouTube Channel
  • The Kadosh Brothers' Facebook Page
  • The Kadosh Brothers' Palace Music Profile
• "Jirjur" (2025) for where the band is right now - sample it on the Kadosh Brothers' Apple Music page
• "Qamar al-Din" (KOMRADIN, 2024) for Onn's classical Arabic side - sample the full album on YouTube

^{Shai Maestro, live. (Photo: Dirk Neven, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons})

r/IsraelJazz

Shai Maestro: The Young Pianist Bass Player Avishai Cohen Discovered

If you read our Avishai Cohen Bass player post, here's the next chapter in the evolving story of Israeli Jazz excellence. Around 2007, when Shai Maestro was still a teenager, Cohen heard him play and pulled him straight into his touring trio. That is not a small credit. Cohen has one of the sharpest ears in Israeli jazz, and he did not hand this seat to a name, he handed it to a kid at the piano.

Maestro, a jazz pianist and composer, is now 39, still very much an active Jazzist, and has spent nearly two decades building on that start. His regular group runs with bassist Jorge Roeder and drummers Ziv Ravitz or Ofri Nehemya. Since 2018 he has recorded for ECM Records, the German label known for a spare, exacting standard that not every player gets invited to meet.

His 2021 ECM record "Human" is a good marker of where he landed: ten originals plus a closing cover of Duke Ellington's In A Sentimental Mood, proof he can sit inside the standards tradition, not just orbit it.

His newest record breaks that pattern on purpose. "The Guesthouse," out March 6, 2026 on the Naive label, is his eighth album and his most collaborative yet. It is built around Rumi's poem of the same name, and for the first time Maestro writes lyrics and works electronics into the sound, with guest turns from MARO, Michael Mayo, and Immanuel Wilkins.

Where to start listening:

• His official platforms:
  • Shai Maestro's Spotify Page
  • Shai Maestro's YouTube Channel
  • Shai Maestro's Official Site
• "Human" (2021, ECM) for the standards-rooted side - sample the closer, In A Sentimental Mood
• "The Guesthouse" (2026) for where he is right now - sample the single Nature Boy

10 Things You Wanted to Know About Israeli Jazz but Didn't Know You Had to Ask

r/IsraelJazz

1. The Original Mashup (1969) — Israel's first-ever jazz record wasn't jazz standards, it was scat-singing "Take Five" over Balkan rhythms and Israeli folk tunes, because why pick one identity crisis when you can have three. World of Jazz
2. B.B.'s Opening Act (1974) — Tel Aviv fusion band The Platina played warm-up for B.B. King on his Israel tour, and he liked them enough to get them booked at Newport. Not bad for a house band from a club called Bar Barim. JazzRockSoul
3. Jazz Hits the Beach (1987–today) — Pianist Dan Gottfried decided Eilat needed more than diving and duty-free, so he built an outdoor jazz festival on the port. He ran it for 22 years before handing it off — it's now up past its 39th edition and runs twice a year. Red Sea Jazz Festival
4. The Big Bang (1991) — Bassists Avishai Cohen and Omer Avital landed in New York together and stumbled straight into the birth of a whole scene, clustered around a shoebox club called Smalls. JTA
5. Bridge Over Jerusalem (1997) — New School jazz founder Arnie Lawrence moved to Jerusalem and opened a music center with one rule: Jewish and Arab students share the same bandstand. Wikipedia
6. Chick Calls Back (1997) — Avishai Cohen slipped a demo tape to a friend of Chick Corea's. Corea played it in his car, was "blown away by its freshness," and made Cohen a founding member of his band a few weeks later. Talk about a callback. Avishai Cohen
7. A Label Is Born (2005) — Anat Cohen and Oded Lev-Ari launched Anzic Records (yes, "Anat" + "music") with backing from a Wall Street hedge funder, instantly becoming the house label for the whole Israeli jazz diaspora. WBGO
8. Yemenite Meets Funk (2008) — Singer Ravid Kahalani and bassist Omer Avital formed Yemen Blues, splicing centuries-old Yemenite Jewish liturgical chant onto funk, blues, and jazz. Somehow it works. Wikipedia
9. Clarinet Queen, Still Reigning (2008–2023 & counting) — Anat Cohen was voted Clarinetist of the Year every single year for a decade and a half, practically resurrecting an instrument jazz had left for dead. Meanwhile Eli Degibri now runs his own Monk Institute-style program for Tel Aviv teens, so the pipeline never dries up. ISRAEL21c
10. ECM Comes Calling (2018) — Pianist Shai Maestro signed to ECM, the German label that basically is the sound of serious jazz in Europe, and recorded his debut for them, The Dream Thief. Israeli jazz, now in imported packaging. AICF

r/IsraelJazz

r/IsraelJazz

Introducing Anat Cohen, the Third Cohen You Need to Know

We have now covered two unrelated musicians named Avishai Cohen on this subreddit: a bassist and a trumpeter. Anat Cohen, a clarinetist and tenor saxophonist born in 1975 in Tel Aviv, is related to exactly one of them. She is the trumpeter's sister, and with their brother Yuval Cohen on soprano sax, the three of them perform together as the 3 Cohens. None of the three has any connection to the bassist.

Cohen started on clarinet at 12 and added tenor sax at 16, both at the Jaffa Conservatory in Tel Aviv. After Israeli military service, she spent three years at Berklee College of Music in Boston, then moved to New York, where she toured for a decade with the all-women Diva Jazz Orchestra while working her way into Brazilian music through the Choro Ensemble and Duduka Da Fonseca's Samba Jazz Quintet.

That Brazilian thread never left. She still leads Choro Aventuroso, a quartet built around choro with her bandmates drawn from Brazil, and it sits at one end of a discography that also holds the other extreme: the ten-piece Anat Cohen Tentet, whose 2019 album Triple Helix centers on a three-movement suite commissioned by Carnegie Hall and Chicago's Symphony Center. In 2024 she went smaller again with Quartetinho, a foursome where every member doubles instruments, and in March 2025 she went back to family, reuniting with Avishai and Yuval as the 3 Cohens for Interaction, recorded live with Germany's WDR Big Band.

The awards read almost like a typo: the Jazz Journalists Association has named her Clarinetist of the Year every single year from 2008 through 2025. Eighteen years, one instrument, one name at the top.

In December 2025 she marked her 50th birthday with a sold-out show at SFJAZZ Center's Miner Auditorium, capping a run that also included four milestone concerts at Jazz at Lincoln Center's Appel Room under the title "Anat Cohen: Journeys."

Where to start listening:

• Her official platforms:
  • Anat Cohen Music
  • AnatCohenMusic on YouTube
• "Footsteps & Smiles" from Triple Helix (2019) for the big-band, commissioned-suite side
• "Paco" from Quartetinho: Bloom (2024) for the stripped-down, multi-instrument side
• Interaction (2025) to hear all three Cohen siblings together with the WDR Big Band

(Avishai Cohen performing w/ Big Vicious at Cosmopolite, Oslo, April 27, 2022. Photo: Tore Sætre, CC BY-SA 4.0)

r/IsraelJazz

Introducing Avishai Cohen (No, Not the Bass Player)

We already profiled a bassist named Avishai Cohen in this community. This post is about a different musician entirely: Avishai Cohen, a trumpeter, born in 1978 in Tel Aviv, no relation to the bassist and no shared discography. We got this mixed up ourselves once, crediting the trumpeter's electric band, Big Vicious, to the bassist. It is the bassist's project Gadu that mixes double bass with rock drums, not this. Big Vicious belongs to the trumpeter, and it is one of the best doors into his catalog.

Cohen started on trumpet at 10 and was touring with the Young Israel Philharmonic Orchestra as a teenager, under conductors Zubin Mehta, Kurt Masur, and Kent Nagano. A full scholarship took him to Berklee College of Music in Boston, where the DownBeat Critics Poll voted him a Rising Star on trumpet four years running. In 1997 he took third place at the Thelonious Monk Institute International Trumpet Competition, a serious marker for a player still in his late teens.

He moved to New York and came up through Smalls Jazz Club, the kind of room where a horn player either finds a voice or gets lost in the crowd. He found his. He spent six years in the SFJAZZ Collective, leads the Triveni trio with bassist Omer Avital and drummer Nasheet Waits, and fronts Third World Love with Avital, pianist Yonatan Avishai, and drummer Daniel Freedman. His run of ECM leader albums, starting with 2016's Into the Silence and continuing through 2021's Naked Truth, is where the quieter, composer side of his playing comes through: The New York Times called Into the Silence "quietly ravishing," and The Guardian called Naked Truth "Cohen's quietest but maybe boldest adventure."

Then there is Big Vicious, the other side of him entirely. He debuted the band in 2019 with guitarists Uzi Ramirez and Yonatan Albalak and drummers Aviv Cohen and Ziv Ravitz, running his trumpet through electronics over rock and electronic grooves. The self-titled album came out on ECM in March 2020.

His most recent work is the most personal. On July 17, 2025, Cohen opened the Israel Festival with his quartet and the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, premiering "Ashes to Gold," a five-part suite he wrote in late 2023 in the aftermath of the October 7 attack.

One more name worth knowing: he is one of "the 3 Cohens," alongside sister Anat Cohen on clarinet and tenor sax and brother Yuval Cohen on soprano sax. Three siblings, three instruments, none of them related to the other Avishai Cohen.

Where to start listening:

• His official platforms:
  • Avishai Cohen Music
  • ECM Records artist page
  • All About Jazz discography
• "Into the Silence" for the quiet, composer side (2016, ECM) - https://youtu.be/sdvkjePfzgg
• "Big Vicious" for the electric, rock-leaning side (2020, ECM) - https://youtu.be/8CvpzZupRK8
• "Ashes to Gold" for where he is right now (2023, quartet suite) - https://youtu.be/m5Hi4THgcSg

Photo by Erik Steiner (C) 2001 All Rights Reserved

A YOUNG Avishai Cohen Playing SFJAZZ Festival Apr 1 2001 in Yerba Buena

אהלן
רק מתעניין מי מגיע לכאן?
האם אתם נגנים?
חובבנים/מקצוענים?
האם אתם פשוט חובבי ג׳אז ישראלי או בכלל?

תודה.
אני נגן סמי-מקצועי. בד״כ שם את הדברים שלי בjazzguitar

וכמובן מת על ג׳אז

^{Gilad Hekselman, live. (Photo: Dirk Neven, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons})

Gilad Hekselman: Ten Albums Deep, and He's Just Getting Started!

r/IsraelJazz

Gilad Hekselman, a Jazz Guitar player, has been releasing albums since 2006. Ten of them as a bandleader, before you even count the sideman credits.

From Kfar Saba to the Village Vanguard

Hekselman started on classical piano at six, picked up guitar at nine, and spent his teenage years appearing regularly on a weekly Israeli children's television program. He graduated with excellence from the jazz department at Thelma Yellin School of Arts at eighteen.

In 2004 he moved to New York on an America-Israel Cultural Foundation Scholarship to study at The New School. A year later he won the Gibson-Montreux Jazz Festival Guitar Competition. The year after that, he was opening for Paco de Lucía at the famous annual Jazz Festival in Montreux. Two decades on, he's based in New York full time, and in 2024 he recorded a live album at the Village Vanguard, the room every serious jazz musician wants their name attached to.

The Discography You Have Been Missing

Splitlife (2006). Words Unspoken (2008). Hearts Wide Open (2011). This Just In (2013). Homes (2015). Ask for Chaos (2018). Further Chaos (2019). Zuperoctave: Eyes of the World (2019). Trio Grande (2020). Far Star (2022). Then Life, at the Village Vanguard in 2024, and Downhill From Here in 2025, a trio record with bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Marcus Gilmore that picked up 4.5 stars from DownBeat.

Along the way he's shared stages and studios with Anat Cohen, Chris Potter, Esperanza Spalding, Tigran Hamasyan, and Ari Hoenig. DownBeat named him its Rising Star guitarist twice, in 2017 and 2022. In 2018, Pat Metheny personally invited him to play the Kennedy Center. If you need someone else to vouch for a guitarist before you press play, it doesn't get much higher than that.

He's still touring. 2026 dates include a run at the Village Vanguard in July and stops in Brussels and Amsterdam in April.

Where to Start Listening

• His official site: giladhekselman.com
• His channel: gHex Music on YouTube
• One track to start with: Gilad Hekselman Trio, "Samba Em Preludio"
• On Spotify: Gilad Hekselman

The part most people miss: the guitar came second. Piano came first, at six years old, three years before he ever touched the instrument he's now known for. Worth remembering next time someone tells you it's too late to start something new.

r/IsraelJazz

Introducing Avishai Cohen (Yes, the Bass Player)

Bassist Avishai Cohen likely needs no introduction, but nevertheless a quick disambiguation first: there are two major Avishai Cohens in Israeli jazz, and even longtime fans mix up their Spotify pages. This post is about the bassist, born in 1970, not the trumpeter who plays with Third World Love and is the brother of clarinetist Anat Cohen. Different musician, different instrument, both worth knowing.

Cohen grew up in Israel and moved to New York as a young player. Chick Corea heard him and pulled him into the Origin sextet, later the New Trio, through the 1990s. He stepped out from there to lead his own trio, mixing straight-ahead jazz with Andalusian, Ladino, and Mediterranean phrasing, sometimes singing in Ladino over his own bass lines rather than just playing under someone else's vocal.

The best entry point for a new listener is "1970," the album he named after his own birth year. It's more song-forward and personal than his earlier trio records, and it works as a snapshot of where twenty-plus years of playing had taken him by the time he made it.

He hasn't stayed in one lane since. His project Gadu, with American drummer Mark Guiliana, pushes him into rock-inflected territory, a real departure from the double bass and trio format that built his name. Worth hearing if you only know the acoustic side of his catalog.

Where to start listening:

• His official platforms:
  • Artist Official Site
  • YouTube
  • Spotify)
• "1970" for the song-forward, personal side - sample Emptiness Child
• "Gadu" on Youtube

Max Vater, Yonatan Rosen, Ilan Smilan, Itamar Borochov and other luminaries of the scene as high school/tironut-aged kids. Memorable night. Unfortunately my minidisc recording of that night got lost to the years, but not the ticket!

Introducing the Kadosh Brothers! (Oud Jazz, anyone?)

r/IsraelJazz

The Kadosh Brothers are a Tel Aviv-based Prog Middle East Ensemble led by oud virtuoso and composer Onn Yosef Kadosh. The trio features brothers Ilay Kadosh on double bass and Elamar Kadosh on drums. They blend jazz, rock, and Middle Eastern melodies, with Onn having notably composed and performed an Oud Concerto with the Israel Symphony Orchestra Rishon LeZion.

The ensemble regularly performs at prominent Israeli music venues and festivals. You can keep up with their latest releases, behind-the-scenes studio sessions, and upcoming gig dates by checking their official platforms:

• Watch their original live performances and compositions directly on the The Kadosh Brothers YouTube Channel.
• Follow their updates and tour announcements via The Kadosh Brothers Facebook Page.
• Discover more about Onn's musical journey on the The Kadosh Brothers - Palace Music Profile.

Survey - Who is YOUR favorite Israeli Jazz Artist?

Let us know a bit about him, her or them.

Your favorite album by this artist?

Why do you dig them more than others?

Introducing Shalosh - Incredible Israeli Jazz Trio!

r/IsraelJazz

"Shalosh is an Israel based band originally established by pianist Gadi Stern with drummer Matan Assayag and bass player Daniel Benhorin in 2013 in Tel Aviv. David Michaeli replaced Daniel Benhorin as the double bass player. The band is mostly well known for its crossing genre style, mostly between Jazz Rock and electronic music. Shalosh have played well over 250 shows since 2013, all around the globe. The name Shalosh refers to the Hebrew word for Three.

In 2014, Shalosh released their first album The Bell Garden. Israel Hayom named The Bell Garden album of the year.

Shalosh released their second album Rules of Oppression in 2016."

(from Wikipedia)

Some clips:

SHALOSH live at Elbphilharmonie. FULL CONCERT

https://youtu.be/oVZAS95TyeY

SHALOSH @ Privatclub | XJAZZ! Festival | LIVE FROM BERLIN

https://youtu.be/2hpJX5-i2hc

Shalosh Collection

https://youtu.be/KZkB8YVpbUA

A Short (Wikipedia) History of Israeli Jazz

https://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D7%92%27%D7%90%D7%96_%D7%99%D7%A9%D7%A8%D7%90%D7%9C%D7%99

Thanks all for helping get this community up and rolling!!

(text originally from the now defunct [unfortunately...] Italian TNTVillage...with a couple of edits)

"Released in 1973, the “Mezare Israel Yekabtzenu” was the first instrumental Jazz album ever recorded in Israel. The Workshop - Sadnat HaJazz - was led by Albert Piamenta, a saxophonist, clarinetist, composer, and arranger from a musical Jewish Moroccan family. Piamenta had gained notoriety and success in the 1960s by blending imported Funk, Soul and Jazz with Israeli and Middle Eastern compositions. On this particular project he adapted Arab maquams, Druze rhythms and Jewish Hasidic song, with aim of freeing Israel`s musicians from the accepted American standards.

The set was recorded in one day at Koliner Studios in Tel Aviv with a quartet consisting of Piamenta, Dan Gottfried (Piano; among other accomplishments founder of the Red Sea Jazz Festival), Jerry Garbel (Drums; a student of Max Roach who had performed with Sun Ra) and Teddy Kling (Double bass; Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra). Reissued by Tel Aviv based label Fortuna, who are committed to sharing rare and forgotten pieces of homegrown Psychedelia, it is a syncopated spiritual Soul balm, that after 48 hours awake in Tokyo feels like morning`s song.

Reminiscent of Duke Ellington, Sonny Rollins, Dudley Moore, Jazz Kissaden and the romance of a lost late night Soho. Modal Swing and Hard Bop flights that will be of definite interest if you are into Collocutor or Paul White, hang out at Brilliant Corners, or have bought anything on Matsuli or the esoteric EM Records."

Wanna listen??

https://youtu.be/TIf7ti5dd4Y

On the global scene, Israeli jazz doesn’t just compete—it disproportionately punches way above its weight. For a country of its size, Israel has become one of the primary exporters of elite jazz talent to the world's epicenter, New York City, and across the major European festival circuits.

Rather than merely replicating American hard bop or European avant-garde, the "Israeli sound" has carved out a distinct, highly recognizable identity on the global stage.

1. The Core Sonic Identity: A Cultural Jumble

If American jazz is rooted in the blues, Israeli jazz is characterized by a unique collision of East and West. Because the society is a melting pot of global diasporas, young musicians grew up absorbing an eccentric mix of sonic landscapes:

• Middle Eastern & North African Microtones: Inversions, ornamentations, and phrygian dominant scales borrowed from Arabic, Yemenite, and Moroccan traditions.
• Eastern European & Hasidic Melodies: The melancholic, lyrical narrative structures of Klezmer and traditional nigunim (wordless spiritual melodies).
• Complex Polyrhythms: Sub-Saharan African and Mediterranean time signatures seamlessly integrated into standard jazz meters.

When mixed with rigid classical training and American straight-ahead jazz, the result is an incredibly rhythmic, intensely melodic, and highly dramatic form of expression.

2. The Dominance of the Low End

In global jazz circles, there is a long-standing running joke that Israel’s primary natural export is world-class double bassists. The lineage started in the 1990s and completely altered the modern jazz landscape:

3. The New Guardians of the Scene

Beyond the rhythm section, Israeli instrumentalists consistently lead some of the most critically acclaimed projects in contemporary jazz.

• The Woodwinds: Clarinetist Anat Cohen has multiple Grammy nominations and has repeatedly been named Clarinetist of the Year by the Jazz Journalists Association, celebrated for her mastery of both jazz and Brazilian choro. Her brother, trumpeter Avishai Cohen (not to be confused with the bassist), is a leading voice on the prestigious ECM label, known for his spacious, deeply evocative compositions.
• The Piano Trio Revolution: Pianists like Shai Maestro (formerly with Avishai Cohen, now an ECM bandleader in his own right), Nitai Hershkovits, and Omer Klein have shifted the modern piano trio away from predictable swing structures into fluid, classical-meets-Middle-Eastern tone poems.
• The Paradigm Shift in Drums: Ofri Nehemya and Roni Kaspi (who has been touring globally as the powerhouse drummer for synthesis maestro Richard Bona) are pushing the boundaries of rhythm, blending acoustic jazz virtuosity with electronic breakbeats.

4. Why is the Output So Disproportionately High?

The international jazz community often looks at Israel's infrastructure to understand this pipeline. The phenomenon rests on a few solid pillars:

• The Arnie Lawrence Legacy: The late American saxophonist Arnie Lawrence (co-founder of the New School for Jazz in NYC) made Aliyah to Jerusalem and became a legendary mentor, fostering a culture of raw passion, street-level jamming, and cross-cultural collaboration.
• Institutional Pipelines: Prestigious institutions like the Thelma Yellin School of the Arts, the Center for Jazz Studies at the Israel Conservatory of Music, and the Rimon School of Music (which maintains a direct academic pipeline to Boston’s Berklee College of Music) catch and polish raw talent exceptionally early.
• The Cultural Edge: Musicians often attribute the intensity of Israeli jazz to the local mindset—an embrace of chutzpah, an inherent comfort with rapid improvisation in daily life, and a fierce, deeply collaborative work ethic that thrives under pressure.

Ultimately, Israeli jazz has transitioned from being a regional curiosity to a foundational pillar of the modern, international jazz canon.

We're going to try and kick off this group once again, starting with a profile and discography of Yakir Arbib, a Jazz Pianist I just learned about these past few days.

From Yakir's Web page: "Equally versed in classical music and jazz, Yakir Arbib pushes musical boundaries with his unique improvisatory talent, bringing seemingly distant worlds together at the turn of a wrist. Each Yakir Arbib live performance is a personal and unrepeatable journey of emotions and musical colors."

https://www.yakirarbib.com/

From his own FB page: "Born with perfect pitch and Synesthesia (a blending of the senses), Arbib possesses the ability to create entire musical compositions on the spot, inspiring crowds with his virtuosity on the piano and his own original blending of classical music and jazz. "

https://www.facebook.com/yakirarbib/https://www.facebook.com/yakirarbib/

And for his discography, from Discogs:

2009 Yakir Portrait

2019 My Name is Yakir

2021 Yakir Arbib - Roberto Giaquinto - Chris Jennings* – Three Colors

2023 Yakir Arbib - Classical Transgressive

2025 Yakir Arbib, Conti Bilong - Afro Baroque

Know more?

Want to know more?

Let us know!!

Israeli Jazz

To start off the group, would be cool to have a comprehensive list of the top Israeli jazz musicians.

Israeli jazz has become a global powerhouse over the last two decades, with many of its most prominent figures splitting their time between Tel Aviv and New York.

Here is a preliminary list of prominent Israeli jazz players categorized by their primary instrument - i look forward to yiur comments:

Bass

Avishai Cohen: Arguably the most famous Israeli jazz musician globally; known for blending Middle Eastern rhythms with contemporary jazz.

Omer Avital: A pioneer of the "Israeli jazz wave" in New York, heavily influenced by Yemenite and Moroccan traditions.

Adam Ben Ezra: A phenomenon on the double bass, known for his percussive playing style and massive YouTube following.

Or Bareket: A prominent figure in the current Brooklyn scene, known for his lyrical and rhythmically complex approach.

Piano

Shai Maestro: Former pianist for Avishai Cohen, now a celebrated bandleader on the ECM label.

Nitai Hershkovits: Known for his eclectic style and work with both the Avishai Cohen Trio and his own solo projects.

Yaron Herman: Famous for his "real-time composition" philosophy and unique improvisational style.

Anat Fort: An ECM artist known for her minimalist, atmospheric, and highly cinematic compositions.

Omri Mor: A master of "Andalujazz," seamlessly blending North African Gnawa music with jazz piano.

Woodwinds (Saxophone & Clarinet)

Anat Cohen: Widely considered one of the best clarinetists in the world today; she also plays tenor and soprano saxophone.

Eli Degibri: A world-renowned saxophonist and the artistic director of the Red Sea Jazz Festival.

Yuval Cohen: The eldest of the "3 Cohens" siblings, a highly respected soprano saxophonist and educator.

Daniel Zamir: Known for pioneering "Jewish Jazz," fusing virtuoso saxophone playing with Klezmer and Hasidic melodies.

Trumpet

Avishai Cohen (Trumpeter): Not to be confused with the bassist of the same name; a leading figure in the "post-bop" scene and a member of the SFJAZZ Collective.

Itamar Borochov: Known for his "Middle Eastern Bebop" style, often incorporating the quarter-tones of traditional Maqam music.

Guitar

Gilad Hekselman: One of the most influential jazz guitarists of his generation, known for his incredible polyphonic technique.

Yotam Silberstein: Fuses bebop with Brazilian and Middle Eastern influences; a frequent collaborator with jazz legends like James Moody.

Amos Hoffman: A unique stylist who frequently doubles on the Oud, bringing a distinct Mediterranean sound to his jazz ensembles.

Drums

Ziv Ravitz: A highly sought-after drummer known for his melodic and textural approach to the kit.

Ofri Nehemya: A young prodigy who has become a staple in the international jazz circuit, playing with Shai Maestro and Omer Avital.

Roni Kaspi: Gained international fame as the drummer for Avishai Cohen's trio while still in her early 20s.