Jazz Articles about Assif Tsahar

Assif Tsahar: In Between the Tumbling a Stillness

by Mark Corroto
March 22, 2019

As the saying goes, In Between The Tumbling A Stillness, recorded in 2015 in Tel Aviv, “comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb." Saxophonist Assif Tsahar, who sticks to tenor throughout, opens “In Between" like a lion, if that lion were Albert Ayler. The 35-minute piece draws from the fire music of the 1960s, propelling forward with an energy that is indefatigable. Credit to bassist William Parker and drummer Hamid Drake. The dynamic duo ...

Assif Tsahar / William Parker / Hamid Drake: In Between the Tumbling a Stillness

by Karl Ackermann
February 20, 2019

Israeli saxophonist/clarinetist Assif Tsahar has deep roots in the free-jazz genre, having played with Cecil Taylor, Butch Morris, Peter Kowald, Fred Anderson, Ken Vandermark, Herb Robertson, Cooper-Moore, and many others. Among his other associations are two albums with bassist William Parker, Sunrise in the Tone World (AUM Fidelity, 1995) and Mass for the Healing of the World (Black Saint, 1998), and a European release with Hamid Drake, Live At Glenn Miller Cafè, Soul Bodies, Vol. 2 (Ayler Records, 2002). Parker ...

Assif Tsahar, Gerry Hemingway, Marc Dresser: Code Re(A)d

by Alberto Bazzurro
December 18, 2014

Ogni tanto fa piacere imbattersi in lavori che mostrino di raccogliere con la dovuta coerenza filologica (che non vuol dire riciclo mani e piedi) la lezione del free jazz storico. È quanto accade in questo bell'album, che riunisce una volta di più una coppia ritmica (chiamiamola così, per comodità) in sella ormai da una trentina d'anni (ricordiamo quanto meno lo storico quartetto braxtoniano completato da Marilyn Crispell), affiancandola al quarantacinquenne tenorista (e in due brani, “Oblique Interpretations" e “Applied Syntax," ...

Assif Tsahar / Cooper-Moore / Chad Taylor: Digital Primitives

by Jeff Stockton
August 3, 2007

Digital Primitives, with Chad Taylor on drums, expands the sonic landscape Assif Tsahar and Cooper-Moore carved out with drummer Hamid Drake on Lost Brother (Hopscotch, 2006) by removing a few of the typical saxophone trio tracks and replacing them with more in the way of fuzz, distortion and over-modulation. Not that this band is in need of exotic touches, since Cooper-Moore seems to have set aside his piano virtuosity and reapplied it to his own homemade instruments, including the bows ...

Assif Tsahar - Cooper Moore - Chad Taylor: Digital Primitives

by AAJ Italy Staff
April 19, 2007

La collaborazione datata anche se intermittente fra il sassofonista israeliano Assif Tsahar e gli statunitensi Cooper Moore e Chad Taylor sforna un lavoro di innegabile freschezza comunicativa, che si regge su una progettualità tanto semplice quanto vincente. In tutto l'arco del CD lo spettro sonoro, la struttura dei brani e la relazione fra i tre improvvisatori perseguono la diretta semplicità propria della musica folk più arcaica e genuina. La sonorità degli insoliti ed originali strumenti a corda di Moore sembra ...

Assif Tsahar / Tatsuya Nakatani / KJLA String 4tet: Solitude

by Jeff Dayton-Johnson
May 6, 2006

Solitude, a set of fairly free jazz by multi-reeds player Assif Tsahar, unobtrusive percussionist Tatsuya Nakatani and string quartet, is surprisingly easy to listen to, but difficult to assess. Each time a group creates a performance like this, they're attempting to create a language from whole cloth. Free jazz is demanding because it's teaching us a language we don't know, using only that language. When it's successful, as in this case, it's strangely beautiful, of course.

Then again, how do ...

Assif Tsahar / Cooper-Moore / Hamid Drake: Lost Brother

by Eyal Hareuveni
February 3, 2006

As its name implies, Lost Brother is about familiarity and musical intimacy. The first collaboration between Israeli reed man Assif Tsahar and Chicago drummer Hamid Drake was named Soul Bodies (Vol. 1, Ayler, 2001), and the musical bond between Tsahar and Cooper-Moore began when Tsahar guested in William Parker's In Order to Survive, where Cooper-Moore played the piano. The relationship continued when Tsahar released several of Cooper-Moore's recordings on his Hopscotch label, culminating with two enchanting duets (America, 2003; Tells ...