Saxophonist and composer Ohad Talmor follows up his album Long Forms with the Ohad Talmor Newsreel Sextet (Intakt CD 341) – a trio recording with his closest musical friends in Brooklyn: guitarist Miles Okazaki and drummer Dan Weiss. Ohad Talmor is the very definition of a cosmopolitan artist, holding three passports – American, Swiss and Israeli – while being based in the polyglot borough of Brooklyn, New York. Although mentored by the late, great altoist Lee Konitz, Talmor has musical obsessions that range far and wide. From iconic tenor saxophonists like Sonny Rollins and Wayne Shorter to such disparate European composers as Bruckner and Ligeti to theintricacies of Hindustani classical music.
Talmor has taken this album’s title, Mise en Place, from a French phrase often used to refer to the preparation and organization of all ingredients and implements ahead of cooking although, more pertinently, it’s also a colloquial French term for rhythmic accuracy in jazz. A fluent, precise “time feel” is a prime trait of his trio with Okazaki and Weiss. The trio plays as one, lithe and muscular. “Despite the technical demands of these pieces,” Talmor says, “our goal is to eschew stock licks, to really listen, to really improvise – to always be in the moment with the music.”
1. Kamali
2. Mixo Mode 19
3. Shymal Bose Chakradar
4. Pairs
5. Theme and Variations
6. Wise One
7. Rupak Tukra
8. Back of the Plane
9. After the Rain
Ohad Talmor: Tenor Sax
Miles Okazaki: Guitar
Dan Weiss: Drums
Compositions by Ohad Talmor (SUISA) except “Wise One” and “After the Rain” by John Coltrane (Jowcol BMI).
Recorded January 8, 2020, at SEEDS, Brooklyn, NY. Mixed and
mastered by Katsuhiko Naito, Brooklyn, August 2021.
Cover art: AvikArt Design.
Graphic design: Jonas Schoder.
Liner notes: Bradley Bambarger.
Produced by Ohad Talmor and Intakt Records, Patrik Landolt, Anja Illmaier, Florian Keller.
Published by Intakt Records.
