March 28, 2024

Yotam Ben-Or interview

Yotam Ben-Or joins me on episode 107. Yotam is a chromatic player who attended the Tel-Aviv Music Conservatory, making a name for himself on the Israeli music scene before winning a scholarship to study at The New School for Jazz in New York, age 21. Although predominately a jazz player, Yotam is keen to emphasise the diverse range of genres this encapsulates, including world music and South American influences on his music. Yotam has previously released two albums under his own name, w...

Yotam Ben-Or joins me on episode 107.

Yotam is a chromatic player who attended the Tel-Aviv Music Conservatory, making a name for himself on the Israeli music scene before winning a scholarship to study at The New School for Jazz in New York, age 21.

Although predominately a jazz player, Yotam is keen to emphasise the diverse range of genres this encapsulates, including world music and South American influences on his music. Yotam has previously released two albums under his own name, with a third coming out in 2025. Many of the songs on these albums are composed by Yotam as he helps to push the chromatic in new and exciting directions.

Links:
Yotam's website:
https://www.yotambo.com/

Videos:
Yotam Ben-Or Quartet live at Festival da Jazz St. Moritz:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GI9HM6NqCY

Satla song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lv6zOhUKa6o

MiLiM song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tGBXF0nHw4

Live at Carnegie Hall:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wmKRaXdW9A

Live in Switzerland:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GI9HM6NqCY

Podcast website:
https://www.harmonicahappyhour.com

Donations:
If you want to make a voluntary donation to help support the running costs of the podcast then please use this link (or visit the podcast website link above):
https://paypal.me/harmonicahappyhour?locale.x=en_GB

Spotify Playlist:
Also check out the Spotify Playlist, which contains most of the songs discussed in the podcast:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5QC6RF2VTfs4iPuasJBqwT?si=M-j3IkiISeefhR7ybm9qIQ

Podcast sponsors:
This podcast is sponsored by SEYDEL harmonicas - visit the oldest harmonica factory in the world at www.seydel1847.com or on Facebook or Instagram at SEYDEL HARMONICAS

Support the show

01:42 - Based in New York, but is from Israel and has a Belgian mother

02:06 - Does Belgian heritage explain affinity to the chromatic? (Due to Toots Thielemans link)

02:37 - The status which Toots Thielemans is held in Belgium

03:40 - Yotam started playing age 11, and was taught by his uncle, initially on piano but soon discovered his love of the chromatic harmonica

04:19 - Continues to play piano now, using the instrument to compose, but chromatic is main instrument

04:36 - Doesn’t see a strong similarity between piano and chromatic, thinking of them separately as he plays them

05:31 - Played alto saxophone at in middle school and high school as no teachers for chromatic available, but from age 18 chromatic was main instrument

06:16 - Also plays some percussion to help with other music genres interested in

06:30 - When recording with jazz quartet, plays chromatic and some piano

06:57 - Also has a singer songwriter project where Yotam also does some singing

07:12 - Deliberations EP has five songs with Yotam singing in Hebrew

07:47 - Went to the Tel Aviv Conservatory of Music, which has a collaboration with The New School in New York

08:12 - Received a scholarship to move to New York where he was able to formally study the chromatic harmonica

08:56 - Won scholarship for New School in New York through an audition held in Tel Aviv

09:19 - How Yotam has found the music scene in New York

09:32 - How got into playing jazz and the dream to play and live in New York

10:57 - Also deeply into other styles beyond jazz, such as Cuban music

11:33 - Yotam’s song ‘Astar’ has influences from Venezuela, where the pianist from the band is from

12:08 - The shift in time signature in the song Star

13:17 - Other South American players who have been on the podcast and how that music works so well on chromatic

13:44 - Received some mentoring from Gregoire Maret

15:06 - Yotam has lived in New York since 2014, but travelled to other places during that time, including Mexico, Israel and Europe

15:56 - Now more permanently based in New York and the number of great musicians who live there

16:35 - Mainly playing in New York at present but has a manager in Europe to arrange gigs

17:38 - Locations played in Europe

17:55 - First album Yotam appears on is with the Jupiter Group, the best young Israeli jazz, when Yotam was still a student

19:30 - Formed own band in 2015, from International players who met at The New School in New York

20:55 - First album under own name is Sitting On A Cloud, released in 2018, all original compositions by Yotam

21:22 - Yotam approaches composing by playing the piano and singing the melodic phrases, later translating those to chromatic

22:00 - Often selects the key of the piece to one which works well on the chromatic

22:30 - Only uses chromatic in the key of C, although is considering using other keys too

23:54 - Interplay with keyboard and chromatic on the Viva Hermoto Pascoal song on Sitting On A Cloud album

24:18 - Uses an octave pedal on the song Ebb and Flow and other effects Yotam uses

24:53 - Modern sound to Yotam’s compositions comes from different flavours of jazz

25:21 - Influences on his music come from singer songwriters from native Israel and also classical music

26:08 - Has learnt classical pieces on the chromatic but no recordings of them yet

28:02 - New York brought a vast world of rhythm to Yotam’s attention, which he incorporates into his music

29:20 - Speak Love song which has multiple harmonicas, recorded by Yotam

30:59 - Loose Pace is three songs Yotam was commissioned to record for a video

31:59 - Second album, released in 2022: Endless Deliberations, made up of one EP of instrumentals and one EP of vocals sung by Yotam

33:56 - Satla is an instrumental from the Endless EP

34:24 - Forza Roma is another song from the Endless EP, written after playing a gig in Rome when the football team Roma defeated Barcelona and people were on the streets celebrating

35:36 - New album currently in development, being released in 2025, with a working title of ‘Trying’

38:32 - Kafka song may have drawn inspiration from Toot’s song Bluesette

39:11 - Still adding some other musicians onto the album before releasing it in 2025

40:04 - Recorded a song on diatonic but he doesn’t really play the instrument

40:57 - When composing songs, decides the chord structure, the melody, and then leaves room for improvisation

42:13 - Has performed in prestigious venues including: Carnegie Hall, the Lincoln Center and The Blue Note

43:21 - Won first prize in the Rostov International Jazz competition in 2013

44:00 - 10 minute question

44:48 - Typical practise routine involves working on current repertoire, including learning the song on the piano then the harmonica, learning the melody and the chords

45:33 - Learns some conga rhythms on the harmonica

45:53 - Transcribing parts on to the harmonica from every instrument, with melodic instruments like trumpet and saxophone, and also singers and piano

48:20 - Chromatic of choice is the Suzuki Sirius 56 (14 hole) and why likes 14 hole

48:50 - Doesn’t like the sound of the lower notes on the 16 hole

49:04 - Trumpet and flute has notes lower than middle C, which are missing on a 12 hole chromatic, particularly the low G

49:42 - Used to play the Hohner 64 (16 hole) when younger

50:03 - The transition to 14 hole has been challenging at times

50:33 - Hasn’t tried the DM48 midi chromatic, but would like to

51:04 - Embouchre is puckering

51:21 - Thinks of himself as a musician and not a harmonica player and something which the world of harmonica is missing somewhat

53:54 - For live playing uses SM58 or a condenser Sennheiser mic

54:50 - For recording uses his own Neumann TLM102 combined with a Shure SM7B

55:32 - If recording in a studio likes the combination of a large condenser and a ribbon mic (to add some darkness to the sound)

56:07 - Future plans is release of album in 2025, and currently gigging in New York and plans to tour Europe in October 2024 and touring new album in Spring of 2025

56:52 - Yotam is currently thirty years old, so lots to come from him in the future

WEBVTT

00:00:00.258 --> 00:00:02.600
Yotam Ben-Or joins me on episode 107.

00:00:04.581 --> 00:00:17.013
Yotam is a chromatic player who attended the Tel Aviv Music Conservatory, making a name for himself on the Israeli music scene, before winning a scholarship to study at the New School for Jazz in New York, age 21.

00:00:17.173 --> 00:00:29.385
Although predominantly a jazz player, Yotam is keen to emphasise the diverse range of genres this encapsulates, including world music and South American influences on his own music.

00:00:29.826 --> 00:00:35.713
Yotam has previously released two albums under his own name, with a third coming out in 2025.

00:00:36.414 --> 00:00:42.883
Many of the songs on these albums are composed by Yotam, as he helps to push the chromatic in new and exciting directions.

00:00:46.106 --> 00:00:48.590
This podcast is sponsored by Zeidel Harmonicas.

00:00:48.990 --> 00:00:58.350
Visit the oldest harmonica factory in the world at www.zidel1847.com or on Facebook or Instagram at Zidel Harmonicas.

00:01:33.058 --> 00:01:35.359
Hello, Yotam Ben-Or, and welcome to the podcast.

00:01:36.061 --> 00:01:36.962
Hello, hello.

00:01:36.981 --> 00:01:38.462
Neil, how are you?

00:01:38.924 --> 00:01:40.786
Thanks so much for joining today, Yotam.

00:01:40.825 --> 00:01:47.091
So you're now based in New York, but I think you've had quite an interesting journey to get to New York.

00:01:47.132 --> 00:01:48.453
So let's explore that first.

00:01:48.493 --> 00:01:51.996
I think you were born in Israel, but to Belgian parents.

00:01:52.057 --> 00:01:52.477
Is that right?

00:01:53.158 --> 00:01:54.019
Almost correct.

00:01:54.400 --> 00:01:57.563
Only my mom is Belgian, and I was born in Israel.

00:01:57.602 --> 00:02:00.025
My dad is Israeli.

00:02:00.706 --> 00:02:02.049
Yeah, and I grew up in Israel.

00:02:02.090 --> 00:02:04.837
And I moved to New York when I was 21.

00:02:06.141 --> 00:02:06.543
Great.

00:02:06.582 --> 00:02:08.527
So your mother was from Belgium.

00:02:08.808 --> 00:02:10.073
So you're a chromatic player.

00:02:10.293 --> 00:02:10.653
Correct.

00:02:11.415 --> 00:02:14.405
Does that explain the chromatic, the two's connection?

00:02:14.465 --> 00:02:15.086
Is there something there?

00:02:15.127 --> 00:02:15.848
Well...

00:02:16.289 --> 00:02:36.306
I wouldn't say that I started playing the harmonica because I am half Belgian, but definitely I started playing at a young age, and obviously Toots is the model for chromatic harmonica players, and I definitely liked the idea that he's Belgian and I'm Belgian as well.

00:02:36.866 --> 00:02:37.387
Great, yeah.

00:02:37.747 --> 00:02:44.507
I mean, it might just be interesting just to cover from someone who has at least got Belgian heritage about, you know, what does Toots mean in Belgium?

00:02:44.546 --> 00:02:47.414
I think he, you know, he's a huge name there, isn't he?

00:02:47.836 --> 00:02:48.698
Oh, yeah, absolutely.

00:02:48.799 --> 00:02:49.379
Toots is...

00:02:50.177 --> 00:03:01.067
is is a huge name obviously in the jazz world worldwide and belgians are very proud of the fact that yeah that he's from there

00:03:01.768 --> 00:03:16.039
yeah because i think obviously like you say in the jazz world he's very well known but obviously as harmonica players we all revere him of course but you know for a for an actual country to see a harmonica player as one of the real you know heroes that's uh must be quite a novel situation these days

00:03:16.320 --> 00:03:17.322
yeah yeah that's true

00:03:17.762 --> 00:03:24.592
yeah and of course when when he died a few years ago there was lots of 100 birthday celebrations a few years ago, weren't there, to celebrate that all around Belgium.

00:03:24.633 --> 00:03:27.098
Yeah, so a real well-known figure in Belgium,

00:03:27.157 --> 00:03:34.813
yeah.

00:03:40.481 --> 00:03:44.247
So I understand you started playing at the age of 11, and you were taught by your uncle.

00:03:45.228 --> 00:03:47.931
Yeah, something like that, 10, 11, and I went.

00:03:48.111 --> 00:03:53.377
My uncle is a music teacher, primarily piano.

00:03:54.058 --> 00:04:01.087
At schools also, elementary school, and he's doing a lot of things related to teaching music.

00:04:01.669 --> 00:04:05.674
And I went to take some piano lessons with him when I was about 10 years old.

00:04:06.593 --> 00:04:10.177
And he started playing harmonica at that time, just for fun.

00:04:10.217 --> 00:04:11.419
He liked this instrument.

00:04:11.900 --> 00:04:14.842
And then he gave me harmonica, and I really liked it.

00:04:15.443 --> 00:04:15.963
And I just...

00:04:16.704 --> 00:04:17.925
It stuck, you know?

00:04:17.966 --> 00:04:22.331
So did you carry on playing piano, and do you still play piano now?

00:04:22.850 --> 00:04:25.093
I do play some piano, yes.

00:04:25.494 --> 00:04:26.995
I write music on the piano.

00:04:27.576 --> 00:04:32.882
I'm far from being a virtuoso on the piano, and I'm not like a...

00:04:33.377 --> 00:04:36.182
I'm a professional pianist, but I can play piano, yeah.

00:04:36.903 --> 00:04:42.031
So what about that similarity between the chromatic and the piano?

00:04:42.091 --> 00:04:44.435
It's laid out in a very similar linear fashion.

00:04:44.475 --> 00:04:47.559
Do you think of them in similar sort of ways because of that?

00:04:48.199 --> 00:04:50.923
No, I'm not thinking about the harmonica as a piano.

00:04:51.285 --> 00:04:54.108
I'm thinking about the harmonica as a harmonica and the piano as a piano.

00:04:54.817 --> 00:05:02.264
And sometimes people ask me when I think about the notes, if I think about the piano or a harmonica.

00:05:02.303 --> 00:05:04.086
It depends.

00:05:04.146 --> 00:05:06.788
Sometimes I think about it as a piano.

00:05:07.249 --> 00:05:08.509
I imagine the piano.

00:05:08.550 --> 00:05:10.091
Sometimes I imagine the harmonica.

00:05:10.692 --> 00:05:15.855
Clearly, one major difference is the ability to play many different chords on the piano that you can't play on a chromatic chord.

00:05:15.875 --> 00:05:16.637
Right, exactly.

00:05:16.716 --> 00:05:17.978
That's another thing.

00:05:18.519 --> 00:05:35.355
There are plenty of chromatic players who do play piano and maybe went from piano to chromatic or or vice versa so yeah it does seem to be a definite connection between the two so yeah but fantastic yeah so do you play any other instruments besides piano and chromatic harmonica

00:05:35.875 --> 00:06:01.963
so first of all when I went to when I started middle school I went to a music school and I had to pick up another instrument not the harmonica because because it's not there were no teachers for harmonica etc so I played saxophone alto saxophone when I was in middle school and high school And I always kind of kept on playing the harmonica, but not at school, not in ensembles.

00:06:03.605 --> 00:06:09.812
But slowly, I kind of brought it back to be my main instrument.

00:06:10.232 --> 00:06:14.216
And when I was 18, I was already barely touching the saxophone.

00:06:14.257 --> 00:06:16.038
I was mainly playing harmonica.

00:06:16.819 --> 00:06:18.882
And I also played some percussion.

00:06:19.362 --> 00:06:30.444
Yeah, that's another instrument that some congas, some cajon, that are helping me to study different types of music that I'm interested in.

00:06:30.882 --> 00:06:36.451
But when you're recording your albums and then playing with others, are you playing just the chromatic these days?

00:06:37.012 --> 00:06:42.302
So I have a quartet, like a jazz quartet that I play with mainly.

00:06:42.343 --> 00:06:50.877
So when I play with the quartet, yes, I play the chromatic harmonica and then there's a piano player, there's a bass and drums and some drums.

00:06:51.009 --> 00:07:11.838
guests here and there but in each of my albums there's a couple songs that i play the piano and besides that i also have like more of a singer-songwriter project in which i write the songs and and i play piano and i sing and play some harmonica sometimes i also record some percussion

00:07:12.482 --> 00:07:17.247
Great, yeah, so on your Deliberations EP, there's quite a lot of vocals on there.

00:07:17.267 --> 00:07:18.889
I think there's five songs with lyrics, isn't it?

00:07:18.928 --> 00:07:20.911
And that's sung in Hebrew, so that's you singing, is it?

00:07:21.312 --> 00:07:22.673
Yeah, it's me singing on this.

00:07:23.213 --> 00:07:25.357
You know, very nice, fine voice you've got there, too.

00:07:25.416 --> 00:07:27.079
And the Hebrew sounds very beautiful.

00:07:29.040 --> 00:07:41.702
And the earth and the sky and the people And you, O God, on the seventh day The Lord who made So

00:07:43.004 --> 00:07:53.456
going back to your development and your early life of playing, so I understand that you went to the Tel Aviv Conservatory for music, and that's where you studied after high school?

00:07:54.137 --> 00:08:06.209
Yeah, when I was about 18 I moved to Tel Aviv and I went to, there's a conservatory there that has a collaborative program with the New School in New York.

00:08:06.658 --> 00:08:08.661
So I did two years there.

00:08:08.701 --> 00:08:09.923
Actually, three.

00:08:09.983 --> 00:08:12.228
I kind of spread two years over three years.

00:08:12.247 --> 00:08:21.105
And then I got a scholarship to move to New York and study and finish my bachelor degree at the New School in New York.

00:08:21.762 --> 00:08:22.142
Great.

00:08:22.163 --> 00:08:28.795
And were you able to study the chromatic at the school there, or did you have to play the piano and saxophone, as you've said?

00:08:28.836 --> 00:08:36.410
Yeah, there I was already playing harmonica, and they had to accept it.

00:08:38.114 --> 00:08:46.846
Yeah, because it's a familiar story with other people I've spoken to that it can be a challenge to, like you say, get teachers for the chromatic and to get it accepted onto these courses.

00:08:47.506 --> 00:08:51.032
No, I had some teachers and none of them were harmonica players.

00:08:51.131 --> 00:08:56.158
Obviously, I studied with saxophone players, piano players, etc.

00:08:56.619 --> 00:08:58.380
And so you won a scholarship, as you say.

00:08:58.461 --> 00:09:00.965
So what did you have to do for that?

00:09:00.985 --> 00:09:02.787
An audition.

00:09:03.368 --> 00:09:06.932
They came to do some auditions in Tel Aviv.

00:09:07.841 --> 00:09:13.769
And they decided to give me a scholarship, which helped a lot, made it possible for me to come to New York.

00:09:14.490 --> 00:09:15.010
So fantastic.

00:09:15.030 --> 00:09:16.013
So you're a jazz player.

00:09:16.033 --> 00:09:18.034
You've mentioned you've got a jazz quartet.

00:09:18.075 --> 00:09:20.979
So New York is the mecca of jazz, right?

00:09:20.999 --> 00:09:24.923
So what was that like moving to New York and going to study jazz there?

00:09:24.943 --> 00:09:27.267
And now you're a performing jazz musician there, right?

00:09:27.707 --> 00:09:27.988
Yeah.

00:09:28.509 --> 00:09:32.033
So I started playing jazz in middle school.

00:09:32.673 --> 00:09:38.941
At first, when I started playing music and harmonica, I didn't know anything about jazz.

00:09:39.601 --> 00:09:46.549
My dad had one record, like a compilation of Louis Armstrong and Lafayette Gerald and some singers.

00:09:46.591 --> 00:09:51.035
That was pretty much it, what I knew about jazz.

00:09:51.615 --> 00:09:59.306
And then, yeah, I went to middle school and there I met some friends that were playing jazz and I started getting into it.

00:09:59.841 --> 00:10:26.514
checking it out listening to it playing it with friends and then i also started hearing you know stories about new york and the the clubs in new york the like smalls and the jazz gallery and uh blue note obviously and etc and the players that live in new york and a lot of Israeli musicians that lived or live in New York.

00:10:27.356 --> 00:10:31.845
And it became like, you know, some kind of a dream to go to New York and see all of this.

00:10:32.767 --> 00:10:37.316
And then when I got the scholarship of it, it was big.

00:10:37.375 --> 00:10:44.188
I was very, very happy that I'll get to go to New York and see all of this in real life.

00:10:44.833 --> 00:10:48.158
And then I moved to New York, and I was very disappointed.

00:10:48.217 --> 00:10:48.778
No, I'm kidding.

00:10:48.798 --> 00:10:49.960
I wasn't disappointed.

00:10:51.181 --> 00:10:56.886
But I came here, yeah, and I got to hear all those incredible musicians.

00:10:57.206 --> 00:11:10.120
By the way, in jazz and not just in jazz, since moving to New York, I got very deep into other styles of music, which I was also a little bit into before I moved to New York.

00:11:10.841 --> 00:11:14.525
Rumba, for example, Cuban rumba, which I...

00:11:14.881 --> 00:11:57.793
really really love and and I'm studying this music and playing it and here in New York people forget that so jazz it's true that jazz is was developed a lot in New York but salsa for example is another style of music that was really born in New York so for example in a star You can hear there's the pianist in my band.

00:11:57.854 --> 00:12:02.219
His name is Gabriel, Gabriel Chakarhi, and he's from Venezuela.

00:12:02.778 --> 00:12:07.683
And he exposed me to a lot of music from Venezuela, rhythms like joropo and merengue.

00:12:08.485 --> 00:12:18.976
And for example, you can hear in A Star, there's this part in the middle that I'll get a little bit into technicalities or like specifics about the music.

00:12:19.037 --> 00:12:21.740
There's a part there, there's like two phrases.

00:12:21.779 --> 00:12:23.822
So the song is in 3-4.

00:12:24.193 --> 00:13:16.174
most of it and then there's this part that is like the B section is in 5-4 but it's two phrases of five three bars of five four so three bars of five four you can also divide it into five bars of three four and so i kind of played around with this and incorporated this rhythm called joropo which is in three four and and we started playing it with this rhythm in this part So that's an example of a style of music that I started listening to and studying and incorporated it into my music.

00:13:17.336 --> 00:13:26.445
Yeah, and I've talked to various players and chromatic players from South America, for example, talking about Choro music, and it just sounds so beautiful on the chromatic.

00:13:26.465 --> 00:13:28.206
So it just works so well, doesn't it?

00:13:28.246 --> 00:13:31.350
So you're that sort of Latin South American influence.

00:13:31.370 --> 00:13:32.190
Absolutely, yeah.

00:13:32.210 --> 00:13:32.270
I'm

00:13:32.350 --> 00:13:35.714
very much into a lot of music from Brazil also.

00:13:36.418 --> 00:13:37.620
Shoro is from Brazil.

00:13:38.881 --> 00:13:39.243
So great.

00:13:39.283 --> 00:13:43.570
So yeah, as you say, you're in New York now and you're after studying there.

00:13:43.649 --> 00:13:48.077
So I understood you got some mentoring from Gregoire Moray.

00:13:48.619 --> 00:13:58.335
Yeah, Gregoire is a mentor, friend, helped me a lot with a lot of things musically and beyond personally.

00:13:58.414 --> 00:13:59.817
And he's someone...

00:14:00.354 --> 00:14:07.566
I really appreciate and grateful for his help and directions that he gave me.

00:14:08.366 --> 00:14:10.070
Yeah, I met him actually in Israel.

00:14:10.571 --> 00:14:13.775
The first time I met him I was about maybe 17.

00:14:14.456 --> 00:14:17.142
He came to Israel to perform at the jazz festival.

00:14:17.953 --> 00:14:21.658
And I took a lesson with him, and since then I stayed in touch with him.

00:14:22.278 --> 00:14:25.982
And when I moved to New York, I got to spend more time with him.

00:14:26.023 --> 00:14:29.145
We actually at some point lived on the same block.

00:14:29.807 --> 00:14:38.296
That's great to hear, because I imagine the chromatic harmonica world in New York might be quite small, so it's good to hear that he's happy to share that with you.

00:14:38.735 --> 00:14:43.861
Yeah, Gregoire was very generous with me, and still...

00:14:44.354 --> 00:14:46.136
generous and opened

00:14:46.157 --> 00:14:59.096
his

00:14:59.116 --> 00:14:59.216
heart.

00:14:59.236 --> 00:15:00.078
Yeah, no, fantastic.

00:15:00.099 --> 00:15:01.581
Yeah, no, I've had Greg on the podcast.

00:15:01.600 --> 00:15:02.162
Yeah, great guy.

00:15:02.182 --> 00:15:03.844
And I've seen him play live a couple of times.

00:15:04.325 --> 00:15:04.785
That's cool.

00:15:04.826 --> 00:15:05.287
In London.

00:15:05.326 --> 00:15:06.388
So, so great.

00:15:06.427 --> 00:15:08.831
So you, so you moved to New York, I think you said in 2014.

00:15:09.192 --> 00:15:09.854
Yeah.

00:15:10.145 --> 00:15:19.681
yes was it so yeah so yeah you've been there 10 years now so you're well established on the scene what's life like as a chromatic player largely on the on the new york scene

00:15:20.101 --> 00:16:09.407
yeah yeah it's um new york is a is a very tough place i i moved here in almost 10 years ago and there were some for example during the pandemic i kind of left about a year i was barely here in New York and then for actually quite a while since the pandemic until about a year ago I was in and out of the city a lot I went to Mexico also to play and study there and I was in Israel I was in Europe quite a lot I was upstate New York but eventually I came back here you know since I've been here quite a while I've been I know a lot of people and I get to play gigs and to teach also a lot.

00:16:10.048 --> 00:16:21.505
You know, when I said jokingly that I was disappointed, obviously it's not true, but when you live here for a while, it just becomes a place, you know?

00:16:21.525 --> 00:16:27.754
It's just a place with a lot of great musicians that live here.

00:16:28.296 --> 00:16:28.917
And actually...

00:16:29.889 --> 00:16:32.312
maybe too many great musicians.

00:16:32.793 --> 00:16:33.712
Competitive, yeah.

00:16:34.033 --> 00:16:34.293
Yeah,

00:16:34.374 --> 00:16:35.235
very competitive.

00:16:35.575 --> 00:16:40.860
Do you mainly now play around New York or do you go outside of New York much to play as well?

00:16:41.639 --> 00:16:46.563
This winter, like for a few months, I'm mostly here in New York.

00:16:47.024 --> 00:16:54.812
For a while I was trying to travel as much as possible, go play in Europe, in Mexico, outside of New York, in the US, go to Israel.

00:16:55.491 --> 00:17:34.782
It became a little too much and so now there's a period it's been yeah a few months that I'm mostly here in New York yeah playing gigs in the city and around the city but I'm still traveling sometimes I go to Europe I'm working with a manager now in Europe that is we also recorded a new album that he kind of co-produced with me that he like initiated the idea of of recording it, and he's helping us to get some gigs in Europe.

00:17:35.684 --> 00:17:36.125
Yeah, great.

00:17:36.145 --> 00:17:37.647
Whereabouts will you be playing in Europe?

00:17:38.148 --> 00:17:38.890
Where in Europe?

00:17:38.950 --> 00:17:45.040
I've been playing in Germany quite a lot, in Switzerland, in Belgium sometimes.

00:17:45.622 --> 00:17:50.589
Italy, we played quite a few times in Italy, even though we didn't go back there in a while.

00:17:51.270 --> 00:17:52.894
Hungary, yeah.

00:17:53.026 --> 00:17:55.048
Well, get into your recording career now.

00:17:55.150 --> 00:17:58.635
So the first album I've got you down is with the Jupiter Group.

00:17:58.675 --> 00:18:05.467
And this was part of, well, so it's an album of the best young Israeli jazz and recorded in 2013.

00:18:23.458 --> 00:18:28.042
So was this when you were still a student and was this, you know, part of your studies or?

00:18:28.903 --> 00:18:31.046
Yeah, that was still in Israel.

00:18:31.086 --> 00:18:46.123
Avishai Cohen, the bass player, which some people might know, he decided to put together this album that was made of like four bands, I think, that he chose in Israel.

00:18:46.143 --> 00:18:50.807
And one of them was this band that I was a part of called Jupiter.

00:18:51.528 --> 00:18:51.970
We were...

00:18:52.673 --> 00:18:56.719
playing gigs and working for about two years, I would say.

00:18:56.759 --> 00:19:00.844
And then everyone moved to different places in the world.

00:19:00.903 --> 00:19:03.907
The bass player is actually, his name is Alon Nier.

00:19:04.387 --> 00:19:07.471
He's also the bass player in my quartet nowadays.

00:19:07.491 --> 00:19:11.236
And yeah, but everybody kind of moved all over.

00:19:11.997 --> 00:19:19.006
Yeah, also some good recordings on there, picked out one called Jupiter.

00:19:19.026 --> 00:19:19.165
Jupiter

00:19:30.786 --> 00:19:33.087
And then you formed your own band in 2015.

00:19:34.028 --> 00:19:36.551
So this is when you were obviously in New York.

00:19:36.731 --> 00:19:39.074
So you had your bass player across with you from Israel.

00:19:39.815 --> 00:19:41.836
Were the rest of the guys based in New York?

00:19:42.196 --> 00:19:42.617
Yeah.

00:19:42.998 --> 00:19:48.584
So it was Alon on bass and Gabriel, which I mentioned, on piano.

00:19:48.624 --> 00:19:50.766
He's from Venezuela.

00:19:51.366 --> 00:19:52.247
We met in New York.

00:19:52.307 --> 00:19:55.130
We started the new school at the same time.

00:19:55.170 --> 00:19:58.173
The drummer, the first drummer was...

00:19:59.170 --> 00:20:06.199
David Jimenez, he's a Dominican drummer that I met at the New School as well.

00:20:06.219 --> 00:20:13.688
Then actually the first album was recorded with Ofri Nehemia, incredible drummer from Israel.

00:20:13.728 --> 00:20:21.198
And then there was another Israeli drummer, his name is Noam Israeli.

00:20:21.730 --> 00:20:25.777
with whom we recorded the second album, most of it.

00:20:26.337 --> 00:20:29.522
Ofri is actually on one of the tracks in the second album as well.

00:20:30.704 --> 00:20:36.934
And then we played for some times with an Argentinian drummer called Franco Pina, incredible drummer.

00:20:37.395 --> 00:20:48.594
And now in the past couple years, we've been playing with another Alon, Alon Benjamini, on drums that is also based in New York, but he is originally from Israel.

00:20:48.897 --> 00:20:53.323
Yeah, so a very international flavor as a guest reflecting New York, right?

00:20:53.383 --> 00:20:55.645
So I know the great musicians go in there, yeah.

00:20:55.865 --> 00:21:01.271
So talking about your first album, I think in 2018 is Sitting on a Cloud.

00:21:01.452 --> 00:21:01.772
Yeah.

00:21:01.792 --> 00:21:03.855
Yeah, that's the first one you released under your own name.

00:21:03.954 --> 00:21:05.958
So this is all original compositions by you?

00:21:06.438 --> 00:21:12.986
Correct, yeah.

00:21:13.006 --> 00:21:13.086
Yeah.

00:21:21.986 --> 00:21:22.729
Yeah, fantastic.

00:21:22.749 --> 00:21:25.598
So how do you go about composing?

00:21:25.638 --> 00:21:28.087
You say earlier on you use a piano for that.

00:21:28.147 --> 00:21:29.753
How does that work with a chromatic?

00:21:29.974 --> 00:21:31.740
What's your thinking process?

00:21:32.193 --> 00:21:35.999
Yeah, mostly I write on the piano and I sing.

00:21:36.038 --> 00:21:47.895
Sometimes I would play everything on the piano, but often I would sing and comp myself on the piano and find different parts on the piano and sing.

00:21:47.955 --> 00:21:55.967
And since I cannot play the harmonica and the piano at the same time, because I need my hand, I sing and play the piano.

00:21:56.007 --> 00:21:57.868
And then I just learn...

00:21:58.690 --> 00:22:26.752
the music on the harmonica, I would like pick maybe the key, usually according to what will sound good on the harmonica, like the key, like in terms of the range, not necessarily the key, like, yeah, like just based on the range, if, you know, the lowest note is this or that, or what will sound better on the harmonica in terms of, you know, to play in the middle or high

00:22:26.834 --> 00:22:26.874
or...

00:22:27.298 --> 00:22:30.520
And are you usually playing a C chromatic in the key of C?

00:22:30.942 --> 00:22:33.984
Yeah, I play only the chromatic in the key of C.

00:22:34.505 --> 00:22:46.958
Even though I am interested in trying out the chromatic in different keys, because there are certain things that you cannot do if you want to.

00:22:47.438 --> 00:22:55.125
You play with a singer, for example, that sings a song in E, and there are certain things that you cannot do in E.

00:22:55.650 --> 00:23:26.529
that you could do and see for example there's for example a song by uh javan brazilian singer composer that stevie is playing on it's called samurai And he's playing a harmonica in a different key.

00:23:27.211 --> 00:23:38.743
I'm not sure which key actually, but I know because I learned what he's playing and he's just playing like different trills and stuff like that, that you cannot do in this key.

00:23:39.325 --> 00:23:39.525
Yeah.

00:23:39.944 --> 00:23:47.473
Like if you play the, you know, the chromatic in C and I think the song is in E, you cannot...

00:23:47.905 --> 00:23:51.695
play the things that he's playing if you're using a chromatic harmonica in C.

00:23:52.156 --> 00:23:52.679
Yeah, no, great.

00:23:52.699 --> 00:23:55.045
So this is a great first album you've made then.

00:23:55.105 --> 00:24:04.190
So there's quite a lot of interplay with this sort of keyboard synthesizer, like on the Vito, Emerto, Paschal, and...

00:24:18.594 --> 00:24:23.041
And then on the song Ebb and Flow, it sounds like you may be using an effect on the chromatic.

00:24:23.061 --> 00:24:25.826
You do this sort of bend on the chromatic, and it sounds like you've got...

00:24:25.948 --> 00:24:27.089
Are you using an effect on there?

00:24:27.109 --> 00:24:28.251
Yes, in octaver.

00:24:36.185 --> 00:24:42.557
Ebb and Flow

00:24:43.778 --> 00:24:48.951
Yeah, I do use some octavers, some flangers sometimes, chorus.

00:24:49.593 --> 00:24:52.219
I like to add those things here and there.

00:24:53.021 --> 00:24:53.342
Great.

00:24:53.402 --> 00:24:56.128
And your music sounds, you know, it sounds very modern.

00:24:56.642 --> 00:24:58.684
and, you know, not traditional jazz.

00:24:58.704 --> 00:25:01.288
So you definitely brought a modern take on it, I think.

00:25:01.348 --> 00:25:02.810
Is that something you've tried to do?

00:25:03.131 --> 00:25:21.237
I think that jazz also, when we say jazz, it's like maybe what you think about is more straight ahead, like swing, which I'm playing, but it's not the only thing that I do.

00:25:22.097 --> 00:25:32.692
And coming from Israel, and being exposed to, I would say, the main music that I grew up with is singer-songwriters.

00:25:32.731 --> 00:25:40.201
There's a great composer in Israel called Mati Caspi, and there's a band called Kavert, for example.

00:25:40.221 --> 00:25:44.467
A lot of singer-songwriters that I listen to.

00:25:44.507 --> 00:25:47.009
And then classical music.

00:25:47.425 --> 00:25:59.586
Yeah, I would say that the very first music that I was exposed to was classical music through a good friend of my family called Ronnie Porat, who's a conductor.

00:26:00.407 --> 00:26:03.173
We used to go to his concerts as kids.

00:26:03.894 --> 00:26:05.297
So that was something that was...

00:26:06.369 --> 00:26:07.313
exposed to

00:26:07.353 --> 00:26:11.905
Did you spend some time learning classical music on the chromatic guitar?

00:26:12.166 --> 00:26:22.599
Yeah, I'm definitely learning some pieces on the chromatic harmonica the cello suites that I really like Bach Yeah, mostly Bach, I would say.

00:26:22.660 --> 00:26:28.145
I got to some Telemann, I remember I learned, but like Baroque.

00:26:28.626 --> 00:26:30.828
But no recordings of classical yet?

00:26:31.169 --> 00:26:34.732
No, yeah, maybe one day I will record

00:26:34.772 --> 00:26:35.074
it.

00:26:35.534 --> 00:26:42.000
But yeah, definitely see the value in learning the technique and the discipline of the classical music to help.

00:26:42.201 --> 00:26:50.109
Yeah, and to study classical music in general in order to learn harmony, mostly learning Bach.

00:26:50.529 --> 00:26:59.207
on the piano some inventions some chorals yeah to like study the harmony

00:26:59.606 --> 00:27:26.855
So I also noticed on the Sitting on the Cloud album on the song Leanne it's a great example of you playing a really beautiful melodic line and that's something which is really strong in your playing as well I think Yeah Is that

00:27:26.875 --> 00:27:27.538
something you're

00:27:27.558 --> 00:27:28.000
aiming for?

00:27:28.422 --> 00:27:29.064
Yeah, definitely.

00:27:29.183 --> 00:27:32.777
All of my music is singable.

00:27:32.998 --> 00:27:36.169
The melodies are very lyrical.

00:27:53.122 --> 00:28:00.693
By the way, I'm Israeli and also my mom, for example, is a huge fan of Jacques Brel, the Belgian singer.

00:28:02.076 --> 00:28:17.058
And then I moved to New York and I was exposed to this vast world of rhythm from Africa via Central and South America.

00:28:17.078 --> 00:28:21.065
A lot of African-American music, actually.

00:28:21.857 --> 00:28:34.680
that I always try to study more and get deeper into and incorporate these elements into my music.

00:28:35.721 --> 00:28:40.128
Like you mentioned, Viva Hermeto Pascual, for example, from my song.

00:28:40.730 --> 00:28:47.039
It's in 7, 7-4, but there's some kind of Cuban music.

00:28:47.361 --> 00:28:51.637
There's the strong beat is on the four.

00:28:52.097 --> 00:28:54.861
It's like, they call it the big four.

00:28:54.941 --> 00:29:03.270
So in this song, in Meta Pascual, there's like a big seven, kind of.

00:29:03.832 --> 00:29:04.692
It's like a...

00:29:05.012 --> 00:29:15.964
It's like this emphasis on the last beat before the one.

00:29:16.930 --> 00:29:19.854
Yeah, so this is an example.

00:29:20.976 --> 00:29:24.101
Yeah, so going through a few more of your recordings then.

00:29:24.141 --> 00:29:28.847
So you released what is down as a single on Spotify called Speak Love.

00:29:28.867 --> 00:29:31.071
There seems to be two harmonicas on this song.

00:29:31.152 --> 00:29:32.313
Is that right?

00:29:32.333 --> 00:29:34.997
And is that you playing with someone else or is it you doing both?

00:29:36.420 --> 00:29:39.664
Yeah, it's more than two actually.

00:29:39.684 --> 00:30:14.150
It's like I record a few takes and then I just mix between takes at the same time a little bit like in um and too high stevie wonder inspired by this

00:30:15.617 --> 00:30:16.979
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00:30:59.180 --> 00:31:03.785
He released a single with three songs on called Loose Pace.

00:31:04.224 --> 00:31:11.354
That was actually like an EP, like three tracks, but it's like music for video.

00:31:11.713 --> 00:31:21.979
And so they basically commissioned it for me to record three solo harmonica in different moods.

00:31:40.450 --> 00:31:46.311
I don't really include this CD in my discography, for example.

00:31:46.332 --> 00:31:52.012
I like it, there's some things that I like about it, but it's very specific.

00:31:52.385 --> 00:31:54.528
for this purpose.

00:31:55.449 --> 00:31:59.092
But it was interesting for me to do it, to just record solo harmonica.

00:31:59.372 --> 00:32:07.838
So your second main album then, it was split in two, I think I mentioned earlier, and you had the Endless EP, which has five songs which are harmonica instrumentals.

00:32:08.119 --> 00:32:10.602
Well, they're instrumentals, not just harmonica instrumentals.

00:32:10.862 --> 00:32:17.468
And then you've got the other part of the EP, which is the Deliberations one, the one we mentioned earlier on with the vocals in Hebrew.

00:32:17.528 --> 00:32:22.291
So yeah, this was released in 2022, so pretty recent.

00:32:22.352 --> 00:32:39.704
I actually worked on this album as one piece, Endless Deliberations, and it was a period in my life that I just had many, many contemplations, musically and personally, and I...

00:32:40.385 --> 00:33:06.729
contemplated so much about how to release this music and I recorded some of the songs a few times and it was not pleasant it takes a lot of energy to contemplate and this is how I decided to call it Endless Deliberations I was thinking also about contemplations but I decided that deliberations deliberations is more of like a discussion between people, right?

00:33:07.189 --> 00:33:29.950
and I eventually decided to split it in two, Endless, which is instrumental, and then the last song, the fifth song in this EP is called The End, and I am not playing harmonica on it, I play piano, and some vocals, and guitars there, and there's another vocalist.

00:33:38.913 --> 00:33:50.207
And then the second half of it, the liberations, is five songs in Hebrew that I sing and play piano in most of them, not all of them.

00:33:50.708 --> 00:33:56.314
Some of them are with the quartet, and then the rest is me playing piano.

00:33:56.815 --> 00:33:57.214
Yeah, great.

00:33:57.234 --> 00:34:06.164
And so you released a song, another one is a single, called Sattler.

00:34:06.405 --> 00:34:06.685
Sattler

00:34:18.594 --> 00:34:23.724
Well, Satla is a part of Endless, the instrumental EP.

00:34:24.164 --> 00:34:28.934
And then there's a song called Forza Roma, which is a Latin-Italian influence.

00:34:29.675 --> 00:34:35.628
Yeah, there's definitely some Latin influences on this one.

00:34:35.668 --> 00:34:40.317
And I wrote this one after we were in Rome.

00:34:40.929 --> 00:34:48.119
We were we were playing some gigs in Italy and we were in Rome Also alone again along the bass player.

00:34:48.199 --> 00:35:13.646
We were staying at our friend's place and Francesco drummer and Rome the team the the football team won against Barcelona so people were partying in the streets, very hard, and everybody was screaming, Forza Roma, Forza Roma, it means the power to roam.

00:35:14.427 --> 00:35:20.976
And then, yeah, I was inspired by this that night and wrote this song called Forza Roma.

00:35:24.021 --> 00:35:24.222
Forza Roma

00:35:36.641 --> 00:35:53.001
And now you've got a new album coming out soon, and you've kindly let us have a sneak preview and provided some, I think, not final cuts yet, so a couple of clips I'll play, the clips I'll use on here, not quite the master cuts yet, but yeah, it'd be good to hear some of those.

00:35:53.021 --> 00:35:56.164
Yeah, so when's this one coming out, and tell us about this one.

00:35:57.967 --> 00:36:00.811
Right now, I'm calling it trying.

00:36:00.831 --> 00:36:03.494
It might change.

00:36:04.481 --> 00:36:21.338
But right now I'm calling it Trying, and it's an album that, like I mentioned before, also René, my manager with whom I work in Europe, he encouraged me to write this album.

00:36:21.358 --> 00:36:29.686
And he booked a short tour for us in Europe and two days of recording to record the music.

00:36:30.286 --> 00:36:32.248
And it's kind of the first time that I...

00:36:32.961 --> 00:36:38.471
didn't have the music ready when I already had the dates for the recording.

00:36:38.831 --> 00:36:43.137
So we had the dates and I had to write a bunch of new music.

00:36:43.739 --> 00:36:48.507
So I wrote quite a few new songs for this album.

00:36:49.088 --> 00:37:32.132
There are also a couple older songs on it like some stuff that i wrote in the past that i never recorded and decided to include in this album and also for the first time we are playing on this album songs that that are not my compositions one of them is called merengue by gabriel the piano player Merengue, also I mentioned it before, is a rhythm from Venezuela in 5-8.

00:37:32.172 --> 00:37:38.539
And this song is in this rhythm, Merengue, Venezuelano.

00:37:39.340 --> 00:37:46.567
And another composition of an incredible Argentinian composer called Carlos Aguirre.

00:37:46.606 --> 00:37:52.474
And the song, the composition of his that we recorded is called Milonga Gris.

00:37:53.634 --> 00:37:55.201
And the rest are my compositions.

00:37:55.822 --> 00:37:56.385
Great stuff.

00:37:56.425 --> 00:37:56.626
Yeah.

00:37:56.746 --> 00:37:57.751
And yeah, there's some good ones.

00:37:57.811 --> 00:37:58.635
Triangulation.

00:37:58.655 --> 00:37:59.699
I enjoyed that one.

00:38:14.402 --> 00:38:17.827
I noticed Kafka, who was a Czech writer, isn't he?

00:38:17.867 --> 00:38:23.657
So I was hearing some similarities to Bluzet, the melody on Kafka.

00:38:23.737 --> 00:38:25.641
Have I picked that out right?

00:38:25.740 --> 00:38:25.820
I

00:38:28.326 --> 00:38:29.286
never thought about it.

00:38:29.947 --> 00:38:33.494
Kafka is mainly based on this bass line that I wrote.

00:38:33.755 --> 00:38:40.085
This is, for example, one of my oldest songs that I decided to include in this album.

00:38:45.570 --> 00:38:58.231
Yeah, no, great.

00:38:58.271 --> 00:38:59.835
So yeah, when's this one coming out?

00:39:00.556 --> 00:39:04.181
This one is planned to come out in the beginning of 25.

00:39:04.802 --> 00:39:09.891
So in like, somewhere between January and March of 2025.

00:39:11.297 --> 00:39:13.280
Okay, right, so yeah, you've still got some work to do.

00:39:13.599 --> 00:39:15.983
Are you still recording it, or is it just all the mixing?

00:39:16.923 --> 00:39:44.139
There's still, we're going to have a special guest on one of the songs, Lars Danielsson, he's a bass player and composer and incredible, incredible musician, that is going to record on one of the songs, Ballad for Daniel, and there's one song called on which we have a singer singing Essi Kwanzaa.

00:39:44.701 --> 00:39:51.153
The song is called Trying, which I'm actually still contemplating if to include in this album or not.

00:39:51.835 --> 00:39:53.539
And that's it pretty much, yeah.

00:39:54.661 --> 00:39:56.605
Most of it is ready, I would say, like 90%.

00:39:57.505 --> 00:40:33.025
well yeah it sounded great so yeah let's get some yeah a sneak preview on here but yeah enjoy the looking forward to that one coming out i noticed also um you know talking about you playing a little bit of diatonic so i've picked one song out of you playing uh diatonic it's on the loose pace that that's the one that was the three you had to record for the videos right so um but it does demonstrate you're playing some some diatonic on monica so The song's called Can Try.

00:40:33.065 --> 00:40:35.168
So is that you trying some diatonic harmonica?

00:40:35.489 --> 00:40:36.010
Exactly.

00:40:36.751 --> 00:40:38.114
This is exactly what it is.

00:40:38.635 --> 00:40:47.851
Because I wouldn't call myself, you know, I know some great diatonic harmonica players that can really play this instrument and make it sound good.

00:40:47.871 --> 00:40:51.557
And I wouldn't consider myself one of them.

00:40:52.260 --> 00:40:53.001
But I had to...

00:40:53.762 --> 00:40:55.784
to do it, and so I gave it a try.

00:40:57.266 --> 00:41:07.202
So when you're doing the albums and you're composing them, are you improvising on most of it, or are you writing out most of your own parts, what you're going to play, how do you approach playing them on the chromatic?

00:41:08.123 --> 00:41:22.224
Most of them have a solo, so my compositions are, there's a form and there's obviously a lot of written material, and usually there's a part for a solo.

00:41:22.882 --> 00:41:25.807
Yeah, usually it's a part of the song.

00:41:26.268 --> 00:41:39.657
There's the song, we play the melody, and then what I like, some songs have just one solo part on which everybody or whoever is soloing is soloing over this part, but...

00:41:40.161 --> 00:41:43.710
Most of my songs have different parts for soloing.

00:41:44.050 --> 00:41:55.298
So maybe the piano will improvise over the A section, and then there will be a harmonica solo over the B section, and then those solos are improvised.

00:41:55.539 --> 00:41:56.181
Yeah, it's just...

00:41:56.802 --> 00:41:57.242
a

00:41:57.262 --> 00:41:57.603
solo.

00:41:57.862 --> 00:42:02.188
So you're composing the chord structure and the melodies and then improvising the solos.

00:42:02.228 --> 00:42:02.969
Exactly, yeah.

00:42:02.989 --> 00:42:13.003
There's a structure, there's chords, there's a rhythm, and this is what we improvise over and try to mess it up a little bit.

00:42:13.184 --> 00:42:13.304
And

00:42:14.184 --> 00:42:18.070

Yotam Ben-Or interview

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