New Directions
QFTF - QFTF 152
ALBUM INFO
Released: September 27, 2019
Label: QFTF
Catalogue: QFTF 152
Format: Studio album
Recorded: 2015–2016
Location: Bardo Studios, Ramat Gan, Israel
Sound engineer: Bill Tsur
Mastered by: Yoram Vazan
Photography: Itamar Doweck & Noa Zeni
Cover collage & design: Asher Arnon
PERSONNEL
Alon Farber — soprano saxophone
Hagai Amir — alto saxophone
Oded Meir — trombone
Gadi Lehavi — piano (tracks 1, 7, 8)
Tomer Bar — piano (tracks 2–6, 9)
Assaf Hakimi — contrabass
Dani Benedikt — drums
Special guest:
Joca Perpignan — percussion (tracks 2–5, 9)
ABOUT THE ALBUM
New Directions grew out of a long creative process that began after Optimistic View. The album explores different rhythmic, harmonic and melodic structures from piece to piece, with the four-part New Directions Suite at its center. Much of the suite is built from a nine-note scale organized around three tonal centers, while the three-horn writing often develops through independent melodic lines rather than traditional chord voicings. Influenced by artists including Booker Little, Art Blakey, Dave Douglas and Brad Mehldau, the album marked a deliberate search for new colors and compositional possibilities within Hagiga’s sound.
PRESS & REVIEWS
ELI DEGIBRI
“New Directions is a well-crafted CD… the writing is original and smart, balanced and thoughtfully aware of each individual band member.”
— Eli Degibri
Translated from Dutch
JAZZ’HALO
“The compositions are colorful, illuminated by the sextet’s sonic palette and subtle rhythmic breaks. A lovely discovery: resolutely modern and original jazz.”
— Claude Loxhay
Translated from French
JAZZ’HALO
“Farber gives his bandmates room to develop without pushing himself to the foreground. The result is dynamic, colorfully shaded arrangements beyond banal formulas.”
— Ferdinand Dupuis-Panther
Translated from German