Credits
Oded Tzur, Tenor Saxophone
Nitai Hershkovits, Piano
Petros Klampanis, Bass
Johnathan Blake, Drums
All compositions by Oded Tzur.
Recorded by Stefano Amerio at Auditorio Stelio Molo in Lugano, Switzerland, September 2021. Produced by Manfred Eicher.
Cover photo by Sebastião Salgado.
Isabela
ECM Records 2022
Top 10 Best Jazz Albums Of 2022 — John Fordham, The Guardian
A Thrilling New Saxophone Colossus
Exquisite, tender lyricism, composed and improvised, is punctuated by carefully controlled crescendos of full-throated vocalized passion. It is an intoxicating, uplifting combination from an idiosyncratic stylist leading a marvellously empathetic band (…) a perfect little masterpiece. — Chris May, All About Jazz
Oded Tzur was levitating Friday night. And us with him.
Exceptional grace and elegance — Jean-Claude Vantroyen, Le Soir (BE)
Marvelous — Morgan Enos, JazzTimes
It is difficult to put into words just how majestic this album is (…) this has to be one of the label’s finest releases in the last decade or so — Mike Gates, UK Vibe
This is a bewitching session (…) A gem in the playbook of doing more with less — John Fordham, Jazzwise (UK)
Spiritual power — Marco Mangiarotti, Il Giorno (IT)
Fabulous — Roberto Peciola, Il Manifesto (IT)
You’d be hard pressed to find a saxophonist with a more beautiful sound than Oded Tzur — Trouw (NL)
Breathtakingly beautiful — Gijsbert Kamer, De Volkskrant (NL)
Effortless musicianship and vivid imagination — Matt Micucci, Jazziz
Bears the intensity of a love letter — Stefan Hentz, Jazzthing (DE)
A moving album-portrait — Hannah Schmidt, Zeit (DE)
Magical. Oded Tzur remains the master of the soft tone. — Rolf Thomas, Jazzthetik (DE)
Poetic — Oliver Hochkeppel, Sueddeutsche Zeitung (DE)
This is an album of small miracles and spellbinding moments (…) A high water mark for ECM in the new decade — David Bruggink, All About Jazz
Oded’s fourth album as a leader is a culmination of his entire musical journey in the form of a love letter. After releasing Here Be Dragons in 2020, the bandleader began a composition project that would draw on the concept of Raga, the Indian system of melodic structures, as a platform for musical portraiture. Each of the compositions on Isabela highlights a different aspect of the same Raga, while the title track itself is its centerpiece.
Indian musicians often describe a Raga as an abstract personality, even a god or a goddess, with which the musician connects at the moment of playing. Like a person, a Raga is an infinite set of possibilities rather than a strict narrative: a world in which countless melodies can exist, all pointing back to the same source.
During the composition process Oded also delved deeper into the Blues and considered the space his own music occupies on the axis between American and Indian classical music. His rediscovery of Delta Blues artists inspired in him a personal interpretation of the genre as a type of Raga, its own universe that’s at once infinite and unmistakable. Isabela is the saxophonist’s attempt to weave a thread through the fabric of his musical influences, a fabric that is uniquely diverse, by telling the story of one individual person.
Credits
Oded Tzur, Tenor Saxophone
Nitai Hershkovits, Piano
Petros Klampanis, Bass
Johnathan Blake, Drums
Recorded by Stefano Amerio at Auditorio Stelio Molo in Lugano, Switzerland, June 2019. Produced by Manfred Eicher.
Here Be Dragons
ECM Records 2020
Manfred Eicher has produced many albums for his ECM label that are now regarded as jazz classics over the last 50 years. Some have taken time to be recognised as such, others have emerged with ‘classic’ written all over them. Oded Tzur’s Here Be Dragons is in the latter category. Masterfully conceived, impeccably executed – Stuart Nicholson, Jazz Wise (UK)
Then something extraordinary happens. Tzur’s journey arrives at… Elvis Presley. The aching melody of “Can’t Help Falling in Love,” unadorned, fits perfectly into the spiritual landscape of this album and beautifully concludes it. Tzur is right. Ragas are universal. – Thomas Conrad, Jazz Times (US)
A Genius Saxophonist – François Delétraz, Le Figaro (FR)
No Choice But To Fall In Love – Louis-Julien Nicolaou, Telerama (FR)
An Outstanding Improviser – FIP Radio (FR)
Beautiful – Andrew Flanagan, NPR (US)
A Master Raconteur – Karl Ackermann, All About Jazz (US)
Hugely Bracing and All Encompassing – Mike Jurkovic, All About Jazz (US)
Power and Beauty – J.D. Considine, DownBeat Magazine Editors’ Picks (US)
Gorgeously Moody – Jim Motavalli, New York City Jazz Record (US)
Strikingly Poetic – Filipe Freitas, Jazz Trail (US)
As If Every Note Was A Choice Of Life – Anders Pihl, Lira (SE)
A School Of Listening – Roland Spiegel, Bavarian Classic Radio (DE)
A Soulful Masterpiece Of Silence – Ulrich Steinmetzger, Freie Presse (DE)
Ingenious Sound Inventor On Tenor Sax – Jazz Echo Magazine (DE)
Incredible Tenderness – Peter Füssl, Kulter (AT)
So Subtle And, In Its Gentle Vulnerability, So Daring – Mischa Andriessen, Trouw (NL)
Exquisite Jazz – Haruki Tambo, Musica Terra (JP)
A Rarity In Modern Jazz – Thom Jurek, All Music
Deep Understanding Of The Blues – Phil Freeman, The Wire (UK)
Can Only Be Described As Exquisite Music Making – Nick Lea, Jazz Views (UK)
A Beautiful Musical Concept Perfectly Realised – Peter Bacon, London Jazz News (UK)
Here Be Dragons is Oded Tzur’s debut on the legendary record label ECM, released on February 14, 2020. Listen and pre-order the album here.
Charlie Haden, Keith Jarrett, Pat Metheny, Chick Corea, Mark Turner, András Schiff, Zakir Hussain and Jack DeJohnette are but a few of the world renowned artists that have recorded for ECM, and the label’s 50-year history is universally acknowledged as a defining pillar of modern jazz.
Of special note are some of Hariprasad Chaurasia’s recordings on the label, which in the early 2000’s were instrumental in Tzur’s discovery of his future teacher.
‘Here Be Dragons’ (HIC SVNT DRACONES in the original Latin) was an inscription indicating unexplored territories on old maps. Tzur composed the album for a new quartet, featuring Nitai hershkovits on piano, Petros Klampanis on bass (also appearing on Tzur’s previous albums) and Johnathan Blake on drums.
Recorded in June 2019 at Auditorio Stelio Molo in Lugano, and produced by Manfred Eicher, the album is issued as Tzur embarks on an international tour.
Watch the album’s teaser below. Listen and pre-order Here Be Dragons here.
Credits
Oded Tzur, Tenor Saxophone
Shai Maestro, Piano
Petros Klampanis, Bass
Ziv Ravitz, Drums
Recorded by Julien Bassères at Studio de Meudon,
France, October 5, 2016
And by David Stoller at The Samurai Hotel Recording Studio, New York, October 19, 2016
Mixed and mastered by Ziv Ravitz
Translator’s Note
Enja Records 2017
The Coltrane Quartet of the 21st Century – CD Journal, Japan
A Volcano on the Ocean Floor – Carlo Wolff, Downbeat Magazine (US)
Oded Tzur is one of the great musical thinkers of our time – Wolf Kampmann (DE)
If music has the potential to tell stories, saxophonist Oded Tzur proves himself one of the jazz world’s premier storytellers on Translator’s Note – Dan Mcclenaghan, All About Jazz (US)
#3 Best Album of the Year – Jazz Thing Critics Poll (DE)
In the way that Coltrane found the deepest possible kinship to religious devotion in a record like “A Love Supreme,” Tzur is finding a kinship just as deep and just as simple in essence with poetry and storytelling. The result is music of extraordinary power and beauty and, hallelujah, stunning 21st century originality. – Jeff Simon, Buffalo News (US)
It does not happen every day that one is seized from the first note by an album that will release us only at its own time without sparing us a second to accomplish something else. – Louis-Julien Nicolaou, Les Inrockuptibles (France)
We arrived at this album by chance. We leave it profoundly changed. – David Koperhant, Jazz News (FR)
One of the best albums of the year, to date. – Karl Ackermann, All About Jazz (US)
A new type of swing – Rinus van der Heijden (NL)
You have to hear and see it to believe it! – Louis Obbens (NL)
Melodic structures of sublime beauty – Reiner H. Nitschke, Fono Forum (DE)
An exceptional tenor saxophone talent – Martin Laurentius, Jazz Thing, (DE)
Translator’s Note, Tzur’s second album as a leader, was released in May 2017 by Enja Records.
The album is both a departure from and a continuance of Like a Great River, the quartet’s debut, which was released in 2015 and received rave reviews around the world.
Before recording Like a Great River, Oded went through a long process of studying Indian classical music. “In a way, the album was an attempt to explore whether the contents of that tradition can be applied to the jazz scene of 2015 New York” says the saxophonist, “whether a raga can be placed on top of a moving bass and still adhere to its rules of melodic movement. And whether that would make sense.”
As the quartet continued to perform its music around the world, Tzur has gained a better understanding of these traditions and their internal dialogue. “The similarities are nuanced and hidden deep under the surface, but uncovering them is well worth the effort” he continues, “As Joseph Campbell had put it: ‘Myths are public dreams; dreams are private myths’. Music is a private dream made public.”
Watch the first track of the album, Single Mother, below.
Credits
Oded Tzur, Tenor Saxophone
Shai Maestro, Piano
Petros Klampanis, Bass
Ziv Ravitz, Drums
Recorded by Jim Anderson at Avatar Studios
New York City, March 26, 2014
Mixed by Ziv Ravitz
Mastered by Alan Silverman
Like A Great River
Enja Records 2015
A discovery – Alex Dutilh, Radio France
Masterpiece! – Bernhard Jugel, German National Radio
Tzur and his colleagues are definitely on to something – Peter Margasak, Downbeat Magazine
Quietly moves your soul – George Harris, Jazz Weekly
Oded Tzur enters the international Jazz scene as a musical storyteller – Concerto (Austria)
Themes of heightened melodic beauty, leading to a flowing river of narrative improvisations – Jazz Thing (Germany)
In roughly 10 years of studying Indian classical music, Oded’s musical aesthetics were dramatically redefined. The work he started by sliding between the notes of the saxophone, developing techniques that allow for more microtonality on the instrument, were coupled – upon arriving in New York – with the attempt to ‘slide’ between different musical traditions. With Petros Klampanis, Ziv Ravitz and Shai Maestro, the members of the Oded Tzur Quartet, a joint adventure began to take shape. The ensemble’s commitment to that undefinable creative space between Indian classical music and Jazz, both improvisation based traditions, quickly became its defining factor. The quartet performed in and around New York for two years before finally going into the studio to record the fruits of their work. The result, Tzur’s first album as a leader, was released on the prestigious German label Enja Records in April 2015.