Daniel Zamir & Nitzan Bar

Review:

This is the one hundred forty-third in a series of special Jazz on the Tube reviews of live stream performances.

Support live music – even when it’s streamed!

Daniel Zamir, who is from Israel, started playing the saxophone when he was 11, graduated from the Thelma Yellin High School of Arts and moved to New York where he attended the New School.

He recorded three albums for John Zorn’s Tzadik label where he mixed together jazz with his Jewish/Israeli heritage; Zamir has since moved back to Israel, largely specialized on the soprano sax, and appeared at many festivals.

Nitzan Bar, who is also based in Israel, is an outstanding young jazz guitarist who has worked with the Israel Jazz orchestra and in recent times has frequently teamed up with Zamir.

Their set of soprano sax-guitar duets (a June 29, 2020 LiveStream from Tel Aviv), which becomes a trio with the addition of an excellent keyboardist on a few numbers, is full of folk melodies, virtuosity, mellow tones, and exciting interplay between the two (and sometimes three) musicians who are all quite talented and original stylists.

– Scott Yanow