The Village (Jazz&People)
Yotam Silberstein
Released December 2, 2016
DownBeat Four-and-a-Half-Star Review
YouTube:
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kneNa1oh2C_tLv6HeqsYPNmfOck0JFpZg
Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/album/0mgKf70HUT1Vtd33ySEGsg?si=ZK26m2fwQRiUzb24yv9P2g
About:
At the head of an all-star quartet, the Israeli musician based in New York for the past twelve years confirms his place as a major player in the flourishing renaissance of the jazz guitar. With an album that brings together Lennie Tristano and Jacob do Bandolim , whose elegant swing is colored with Argentinian milonga and Brazilian choro. At the heart of the “global village”, the revelation of a new great!
“The Village, the title of the album, has a double meaning. It harkens back to New York, and the Greenwich Village neighborhood, which has been my artistic home for over a decade. But it also refers to the fact that our world has become a “global village” which, thanks to social networks and the Internet, gives access to musical forms and musicians from all over the planet. This album is the translation of my personal encounter with these different traditions, these sounds and these instrumentalists who inspired me, taught me and broadened my horizon through my travels and my tours.”
Yotam Silberstein
For the fifth album under his name, Yotam Silberstein has chosen a format, the quartet, which puts his guitar in the foreground and highlights the extent of his improvisation skills. Accompanied by a trio with whom he has played regularly in the past, and which constitutes an international benchmark rhythm section long associated with saxophonist Joshua Redman – pianist Aaron Goldberg (co-producer of the album), double bassist Reuben Rogers and drummer Gregory Hutchinson- he offers the example of a major instrumentalist. His articulation is fluid, his touch as agile as it is precise, his relaxation at all times. Nomadic by his inspirations, his playing reveals an assurance specific to the great guitarists in the lineage of Grant Green, Kenny Burrell or Jim Hall, who seek the right note rather than the spectacular effect. The advent of a major guitarist, spotted with James Moody, Roy Hargrove and Monty Alexander.
Track Listing:
1. Parabens (Yotam Silverstein) 4:11
2. Milonga Gris (Carlos ‘Negro’ Aguirre) 5:33
3. Nocturno (Yotam Silverstein) 7:00
4. The Village (Yotam Silverstein) 8:20
5. Stav (Yotam Silverstein) 5:16
6. Fuzz (Yotam Silverstein) 7:04
7. Albayzin (Yotam Silverstein) 6:07
8. Changes (Yotam Silverstein) 5:43
9. O Vôo da mosca (Jacob do Bandolim) 5:11
10. October (Yotam Silverstein) 6:37
11. Lennie Bird (Lennie Tristano) 3:39
Personnel:
Yotam Silberstein: guitar
Aaron Goldberg: piano
Reuben Rogers: bass
Gregory Hutchinson: drums
Recorded January 10, 2015, at Acoustic Recording, Brooklyn, New York
Engineered by Michael Brorby
Mixed & mastered by David Arlington
Photography: Gulnara Khamatova & Andrei Matorin
Graphic design: Olivier Linden
Produced by Yotam Silverstein
Co-produced by Aaron Goldberg & Klaus Mueller
Executive producer: Vincent Bessières
Review:
The first notes from guitarist Yotam Silberstein and the first of his eight compositions are so excitingly different that they almost certainly will grab most listeners and hold them for the album’s hour-long duration. Silberstein is a member of the wave of Israeli musicians who in the past decade have come to the United States and enjoyed success and acclaim. With The Village, we have the pleasure to hear a marvelous, distinctive guitarist who settled in New York in 2005. Silberstein honed his skills playing and studying with a number of major American players in his homeland and in New York, and that experience has helped him make informed choices in sidemen, which here include pianist Aaron Goldberg, bassist Reuben Rogers and drummer Greg Hutchinson. The band’s rapport is impressive. Everything the musicians play sounds right: Goldberg soloing, comping, playing in unison with Silberstein; Rogers offering accompaniment and brief, clear breaks; Hutchinson providing power and subtlety. The music is an intriguing combination of folk, modern jazz and solemn, moving classical. But Silberstein chose a surprise ending for his album, Lennie Tristano’s happy “Lennie Bird.”
Bob Protzman (DownBeat)
