Oded Tzur

“You will not hear anything more beautiful today.”

– Télérama, France

New York saxophonist Oded Tzúr has ushered in a new era for his instrument by giving it a whole new voice — one that is described by The Guardian as a “unique tenor sax whisper”. Often recalled by the artist as a 10-year leap of faith, this complete reimagining of the instrument has established him as a torchbearer of Spiritual Jazz. His music is more than a conversation, states the New York City Jazz Record: “It is an interactive prayer".

My Prophet

By Oded Tzur

Label: ECM Records
Released: 2024
Track listing: Epilogue; Child You; Through a Land Unsown; Renata; My Prophet; Last Bike Ride in Paris.

James Brandon Lewis: For Mahalia With Love (Expanded Edition)

by Chris May
February 22, 2024

Not since Oded Tzur's Isabela (ECM, 2022) has a comparably exalted tenor saxophone-led album come along, not until For Mahalia, With Love. Vaultingly great jazz and deep solace for the soul, For Mahalia, With Love was released in late 2023. An annual cycle for albums of this quality is actually a sufficiency, for there is enough ...

Ingi Bjarni Skúlason: Farfuglar

by Chris May
January 4, 2024

Appropriately enough for an album on NXN, a subsidiary of classical label Naxos, which only relatively recently diversified into jazz, the Icelandic pianist Ingi Bjarni Skúlason's Farfuglar spans both traditions. Is it classical? Is it jazz? Both? Neither? Check the YouTube below and decide for yourself. Whatever it may be, Skúlason's music is ...

Belgrade Jazz Festival 2023

by Martin Longley
December 21, 2023

Dom Omladine / MTS Dvorana Belgrade, SerbiaOctober 24-29, 2023 Following the financial turbulence of 2022's Belgrade Jazz Festival, this year's edition, the 39th, resounded with a sturdier sureness, getting back to a confident momentum. Its programme was as reliably impressive as ever, particularly in the quality of its international bookings. We ...

Makaya McCraven At Barbican Centre

by Chris May
November 15, 2023

Makaya McCraven with London Contemporary Orchestra Barbican Centre, Main Hall In These Times London November 11, 2023 Jazz, said Whitney Balliett in 1958, is the sound of surprise. The New Yorker critic, who passed in 2007 but remains one of jazz literature's most felicitous writers, was describing jazz ...

Rhythms Meet Algorithms: Sparks Fly When Jazz Musician Oded Tzur Partners With Engineer Vansh Makh

by David Bruggink
June 6, 2023

Jazz and mobile apps may not be typically mentioned in the same breath, but saxophonist Oded Tzur, celebrated by All About Jazz for a string of albums merging jazz with Indian classical music, is changing that perception. Vansh Makh, a Bay area-based engineer, joined forces with Tzur to create Timeseer, described as “the first and only ...

Anders Lønne Grønseth & Multiverse: Inner View

by Chris May
May 23, 2023

Since George Russell published his influential Lydian Chromatic Concept Of Tonal Organization in 1953, other jazz musicians have attempted to reforge the theoretical construct of their music--with varying degrees of success and including some egregiously posturing examples of b.s. which bring to mind Hans Christian Andersen's salutary story The Emperor's New Clothes. One ...

A Few More of My Favorite 2022 Jazz Things, Part 1

by Ludovico Granvassu
January 28, 2023

Twelve months have gone by so fast, and so much has happened... At the beginning of the year we were still under various degrees of lockdown or social distancing, now we have a war, weather patterns and a financial situation that are crazier than ever. One positive thread through these months, however, has been the relentless ...

Rebecca Nash, Oded Tzur, Elvin Jones, Designers and Other New Releases

by Ludovico Granvassu
January 21, 2023

Tributes to Leonard Cohen and Martin Denny, young saxophonone mavericks, unerthed gems and elegant arrangements in this week's edition of Mondo Jazz. Happy listening! Playlist Ben Allison “Mondo Jazz Theme (feat. Ted Nash & Pyeng Threadgill)" 0:00 Leonhart Brass Band “Snake Oil" Snake Oil—Single (Mighty Eye) 0:16 Host talks 2:47 Marco Cappelli's ...