Home » Jazz Articles » Ofri Nehemya
Jazz Articles about Ofri Nehemya
Ofri Nehemya: Time Traveler
by Neil Duggan
This is the debut album from Israeli drummer and composer Ofri Nehemya. It features compositions written over a decade ago that have developed and evolved over the intervening years as his influences widened and his career took flight. As a 17-year-old Nehemya joined Israeli saxophonist Eli Degibri quartet before moving to play on a global tour with bassist Avishai Cohen. His next move was to New York, where he recorded albums with Omer Avital before a collaboration with ...
Continue ReadingRon Magril: Inspired
by Neil Duggan
This is the second album as leader from Israeli guitarist & composer Ron Magril. It follows on from his debut, Until Now (Ubuntu Music, 2022). That album featured a hard-bop quartet. Inspired finds Magril in an organ trio setting, paying tribute to his musical heroes, Wes Montgomery and Grant Green. All eight tracks on the album are Magril originals, showcasing his distinctive voice as both a composer and electric guitarist. The inspiration behind the opener, “Playing for Wes," ...
Continue ReadingOmri Mor / Yosef-Gutman Levitt: Melodies of Light
by Mike Jurkovic
It is quite rare in a culture and society driven by autocrats, hits, likes, blogs and podcasts, that recordings as ethereal, yet born of the ageless earth, as Melodies of Light come around to release us from the daily ugly. Spontaneous music of this hypnotic, mysterious beauty and elusive grace give us pause to reflect on where we are, individually and collectively, and to seek a better way. It haunts. It comes at the listener from some timeless ...
Continue ReadingYosef Gutman Levitt: Upside Down Mountain
by Jerome Wilson
Yosef Gutman Levitt's acoustic bass guitar serves as the lead instrument on this album. The music he plays with his trio here is full of simple melodic beauty and draws from several folk traditions. This work has a sparse, contemplative joy which bears kinship to the recordings of Ralph Towner. Levitt shows an eloquent command of his instrument, running down insistent folkish melodies alongside Omri Mor's sympathetic piano and Ofri Nehemya's basic drum rhythms on “Wedding Song" and ...
Continue ReadingShai Maestro: Human
by Mike Jurkovic
That pianist Shai Maestro dreams music is an understatement: With an intense romanticist's heart, he also plays in said dream state. And it is re-affirming to know that, after the hellish year the world has been dragged kicking through, that we can all dream too. Human dreams broadly with sunrises, sunsets and all the vulnerability in-between. Amid his steadfast and quick-witted rhythm section-- drummer and fellow Israeli Ofri Nehemya and Peruvian bassist Jorge Roede--Maestro adds the equally impassioned ...
Continue ReadingShai Maestro: Human
by Chris May
After paying his dues with Avishai Cohen, with whose Trio he recorded four well received albums, pianist Shai Maestro cut loose on his own, debuting with Shai Maestro Trio (Laborie) in 2013. Human is Maestro's sixth own-name album and his second on ECM, followingThe Dream Thief in 2018. The new disc is elegant, expansive, emotionally charged and beautiful. It contains ten Maestro originals and one cover, a playful version Duke Ellington's “In A Sentimental Mood." This time ...
Continue ReadingOmer Avital Qantar: New York Paradox
by Edward Blanco
Israeli bassist and composer Omer Avital and his group Qantar, offer their second album, New York Paradox, producing a musical sound in a unique, splashy and audacious style which is quite riveting. The uniqueness here extends to the members of this quintet who have formed a special bond which is quite evident when they are performing. All five players are Israeli-born and live in the Bed-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. For Avital, this is his twentieth-plus recording as leader ...
Continue Reading
