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A Conversation with Itai Kriss

by UDEiGWE
Itai Kriss's new album, Telavana, beautifully combines latin and middle eastern rhythms and melodies in the most uncontrived way possible, highlighting the excellent musicianship of all the players involved. Telavana features Itai Kriss on flute, Michael Rodriguez on trumpet, Cesar Orozco on piano, Or Bareket on bass, Marcos Lopez on percussion, Dan Aran on drums, Yosvanny Terry on shekere, and Tamer Pinarbasi on qanun. Join me and Itai as we talk the album and ...
Continue ReadingItai Kriss and Telavana: Itai Kriss and Telavana

by Dan Bilawsky
A good seven thousand miles separate the Middle East and the Caribbean, but are they truly that far apart? With flutist Itai Kriss and his band, Telavana, spanning the two, that distance seems to vanish. Kriss, a native Israeli, has spent the past fifteen years immersed in the scene in his adopted home of New York. There, he's involved himself in straight ahead sounds, Latin jazz circles, the salsa scene, Afro-Cuban projects, and a good number of ...
Continue ReadingDida Pelled: A Missing Shade of Blue

by C. Michael Bailey
Guitarist and vocalist Dida Pelled previous Red Records release, Dida Pelled: Plays and Sings (Red Records, 2011) was one of my pics for Best-of-the-Year in 2011). That recording was so refreshingly organic that it has remained in my listening rotation since that time. Pelled snuck in a self-produced Modern Love Songs (2015) between Plays and Sings and the present A Missing Shade of Blue. It is as exceptional as the first recording. That said, expectations for A Missing Shade of ...
Continue ReadingItai Kriss: The Shark

by Dan Bilawsky
New and/or notable flute voices in jazz don't seem to come around very often. While scores of saxophonists double on this instrument, very few players that enter the jazz trenches are pure flautists, through and through. When a musician makes the decision to focus solely on an instrument like the flute, they might be narrowing their opportunities, but that risk sometimes yields rewards, and this would seem to hold true in the case of flautist Itai Kriss. His choice of ...
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