Tel Aviv Rooftop

Kutiman live As a Pessah present I wanted to upload two amazing music videos that have been circulating recently. Apart from being superb musically and visually, both are uplifting in that they involve so many musicians from so many different countries. They also both use carefully blended performances of music to tie everyone together. The musicians, who have never seen each other, are linked either actively or by the producer to one another. Everyone is in a different place yet everyone is doing the same thing in perfect synch. It's probably that aspect that gives the viewer that uplifted feeling. The multiculti mix also enriches in ways that would be impossible in an ordinary production. Since blogger won't let me upload the videos from you-tube, I'll just give the links and hope for the best. The first is by an Israeli musician Ophir 'Kutiman' Kutiel who, after after months hunched over a computer in Tel Aviv emerged blinking into the sunshine to announce that ...

Omer Avital Been especially busy and ignoring my blog commitments but not my commitment to listening to some live music from time to time. As luck would have it Thirld World Love were playing on Thursday night at Levontin 7 , a funky , fringey performance place and bar in the now trendy Gan Ha- chashmal (Electric Garden) area. Thirld World Love are bassist Omer Avital , trumpeter Avishai Cohen , pianist Avishai Cohen and drummer/percussionist Daniel Freedman. The first three are Israelis who live or lived in New York while Daniel is a New Yorker who got sucked into the Israeli Jazz milieu there. All are virtuoso jazz players. Omer can make the double bass sing (and played a long solo in which he made it sing like an oud ), Avishai's lyrical trumpet is as clear as a bell, Daniel is a wonderfully talented and knowledgeable percussionist and Yonatan is a quirky , brilliant pianist. As TWL their music is often based on African and Middle Eastern rhythms that get the ...