Yosef Gutman Levitt: Shir Yedidot

There is a restive, Christmas-time sound of new hope and expectations running throughout Shir Yedidot that is hard to fathom at first, given that the repertoire moves effortlessly from Chabad nigunim (Hasidic wordless melodies) into original compositions.  It is as if the gifted trio—leader/bassist Yosef Gutman Levitt, pianist and ECM recording artist Yonathan Avishai  (Joys and Solitudes, 2019; with trumpeter Avishai Cohen Playing The  Room, 2019) and oudist Yagel Haroush. Haroush also adds depth and texture playing the kamancheh (Persian bowed instrument) and ney (end-blown wood flute). The players seem to have set out to exclaim all the joy in all our voices and how those voices together radiate out to each other. Over days, over years, over centuries.

Adorned with prayer and tears from two millennia, the spiritual jazz of Shir Yedidot is an especially beautiful music given mankind's scourges, cruelties, and universal triumphs. Aided and abetted by cellist Yoed Nir, percussionist Yshai Afterman, and Levitt's frequent creative partner and coproducer reedist Gilad Ronen, each track—be it the spectral transparency of "Nigun Gaaguim;" the Southern gospel of "Vehacoahim" or Levitt's yearning original "Burning Fire"—creates a prayerful atmosphere and sanctuary in which we can seek asylum. Cut from a traditional Moroccan melody as old as the sand itself, "Ya Lach Nafshi" unfolds with quiet confidence, endowing both listener and player with a calm, both ancient and modern, as it closes the mystery of "Ya Lach Nafshi."

Released on Levitt's own Soul Song label, on which he has released such other soul absorbing works as The World and Its People (2024) and Why Ten?, his 2024 duet with renowned guitarist Gilad Hekselman,

Shir Yedidot should not go unheard and unappreciated.

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