ASAF HARRIS - Walk Of The Ducks
Ubuntu Music UBU0109
Asaf Harris - tenor saxophone; Nitzan Bar - guitar; Guy Moskovich - piano; Omri Hadani - bass; David Sirkis - drums
Asaf Harris is a very accomplished Isralei saxophone player and composer and this is his debut recording: a series of all original tunes, composed in response to various significant life events from the personal (breaking up with a girlfriend) to the universal (the COVID pandemic). He’s studied in New York at the famous New School and it shows: this is a set of very contemporary tunes, but with an accessible melodicism tempering the complexity. The opening ‘Helen Court’ really shows Harris’ strengths - the moment when his saxophone enters is a revelation, his sound dramatic and full-toned and fizzing with passionate intensity. The band are excellent as well, as convincing on the powerfully fusion-y “The Gate Keeper” as on the more restrained but equally intense ‘Reconnecting”. Guy Mosckovich’s romantic, impressionistic piano and rhodes is a great foil for Nitzan Bar’s abrasive guitar and the bass and drum team are on point throughout, powering through these superbly dramatic compositions. The title track has a very Romantic era euro-classical feel to the melody and Harris’ touchstones are rock and classical as much as jazz, but the quintet are so well balanced that the character remains coherent. Harris is such a terrific saxophonist - listen to him fly on soprano on the title track - that we might sometimes wish for less fusion dramatics and more free-flowing improvisation but there’s no mistaking the quality of the talent on display here.
Reviewed by Eddie Myer
Ubuntu Music UBU0109
Asaf Harris - tenor saxophone; Nitzan Bar - guitar; Guy Moskovich - piano; Omri Hadani - bass; David Sirkis - drums
Asaf Harris is a very accomplished Isralei saxophone player and composer and this is his debut recording: a series of all original tunes, composed in response to various significant life events from the personal (breaking up with a girlfriend) to the universal (the COVID pandemic). He’s studied in New York at the famous New School and it shows: this is a set of very contemporary tunes, but with an accessible melodicism tempering the complexity. The opening ‘Helen Court’ really shows Harris’ strengths - the moment when his saxophone enters is a revelation, his sound dramatic and full-toned and fizzing with passionate intensity. The band are excellent as well, as convincing on the powerfully fusion-y “The Gate Keeper” as on the more restrained but equally intense ‘Reconnecting”. Guy Mosckovich’s romantic, impressionistic piano and rhodes is a great foil for Nitzan Bar’s abrasive guitar and the bass and drum team are on point throughout, powering through these superbly dramatic compositions. The title track has a very Romantic era euro-classical feel to the melody and Harris’ touchstones are rock and classical as much as jazz, but the quintet are so well balanced that the character remains coherent. Harris is such a terrific saxophonist - listen to him fly on soprano on the title track - that we might sometimes wish for less fusion dramatics and more free-flowing improvisation but there’s no mistaking the quality of the talent on display here.
Reviewed by Eddie Myer
