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Assif Tsahar

Assif Tsahar (born Israel, June 11, 1969) is an Israeli tenor saxophonist and bass clarinetist. He has lived in New York City since 1990.

He has performed with Cecil Taylor, Butch Morris, William Parker, Mat Maneri, Hamid Drake, Peter Kowald, Susie Ibarra, Rashied Ali, Warren Smith, Wilbur Morris, Le Quan Ninh, John Tchicai, Fred Anderson, Rob Brown, Roy Campbell, Gerald Cleaver, Agusti Fernandez, Ken Vandermark, Kent Kessler, Joe Daley, Herb Robertson, Cuong Vu, Chris Jonas, Ori Kaplan, Oscar Noriega, Alex Harding, Steve Swell, Cooper-Moore, and Tom Abbs

In 1999 he founded Hopscotch Records.

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Album Review

Assif Tsahar: In Between the Tumbling a Stillness

Read "In Between the Tumbling a Stillness" reviewed by Mark Corroto


As the saying goes, In Between The Tumbling A Stillness, recorded in 2015 in Tel Aviv, “comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb." Saxophonist Assif Tsahar, who sticks to tenor throughout, opens “In Between" like a lion, if that lion were Albert Ayler. The 35-minute piece draws from the fire music of the 1960s, propelling forward with an energy that is indefatigable. Credit to bassist William Parker and drummer Hamid Drake. The dynamic duo ...

5
Album Review

Assif Tsahar / William Parker / Hamid Drake: In Between the Tumbling a Stillness

Read "In Between the Tumbling a Stillness" reviewed by Karl Ackermann


Israeli saxophonist/clarinetist Assif Tsahar has deep roots in the free-jazz genre, having played with Cecil Taylor, Butch Morris, Peter Kowald, Fred Anderson, Ken Vandermark, Herb Robertson, Cooper-Moore, and many others. Among his other associations are two albums with bassist William Parker, Sunrise in the Tone World (AUM Fidelity, 1995) and Mass for the Healing of the World (Black Saint, 1998), and a European release with Hamid Drake, Live At Glenn Miller Cafè, Soul Bodies, Vol. 2 (Ayler Records, 2002). Parker ...

2
Album Review

Assif Tsahar, Gerry Hemingway, Marc Dresser: Code Re(A)d

Read "Code Re(A)d" reviewed by Alberto Bazzurro


Ogni tanto fa piacere imbattersi in lavori che mostrino di raccogliere con la dovuta coerenza filologica (che non vuol dire riciclo mani e piedi) la lezione del free jazz storico. È quanto accade in questo bell'album, che riunisce una volta di più una coppia ritmica (chiamiamola così, per comodità) in sella ormai da una trentina d'anni (ricordiamo quanto meno lo storico quartetto braxtoniano completato da Marilyn Crispell), affiancandola al quarantacinquenne tenorista (e in due brani, “Oblique Interpretations" e “Applied Syntax," ...

249
Album Review

Assif Tsahar / Cooper-Moore / Chad Taylor: Digital Primitives

Read "Digital Primitives" reviewed by Jeff Stockton


Digital Primitives, with Chad Taylor on drums, expands the sonic landscape Assif Tsahar and Cooper-Moore carved out with drummer Hamid Drake on Lost Brother (Hopscotch, 2006) by removing a few of the typical saxophone trio tracks and replacing them with more in the way of fuzz, distortion and over-modulation. Not that this band is in need of exotic touches, since Cooper-Moore seems to have set aside his piano virtuosity and reapplied it to his own homemade instruments, including the bows ...

74
Album Review

Assif Tsahar / Tatsuya Nakatani / KJLA String 4tet: Solitude

Read "Solitude" reviewed by Jeff Dayton-Johnson


Solitude, a set of fairly free jazz by multi-reeds player Assif Tsahar, unobtrusive percussionist Tatsuya Nakatani and string quartet, is surprisingly easy to listen to, but difficult to assess. Each time a group creates a performance like this, they're attempting to create a language from whole cloth. Free jazz is demanding because it's teaching us a language we don't know, using only that language. When it's successful, as in this case, it's strangely beautiful, of course.

Then again, how do ...

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Album Review

Assif Tsahar / Cooper-Moore / Hamid Drake: Lost Brother

Read "Lost Brother" reviewed by Eyal Hareuveni


As its name implies, Lost Brother is about familiarity and musical intimacy. The first collaboration between Israeli reed man Assif Tsahar and Chicago drummer Hamid Drake was named Soul Bodies (Vol. 1, Ayler, 2001), and the musical bond between Tsahar and Cooper-Moore began when Tsahar guested in William Parker's In Order to Survive, where Cooper-Moore played the piano. The relationship continued when Tsahar released several of Cooper-Moore's recordings on his Hopscotch label, culminating with two enchanting duets (America, 2003; Tells ...

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Multiple Reviews

Assif Tsahar: Lost Brother & Solitude

Read "Assif Tsahar: Lost Brother & Solitude" reviewed by Jerry D'Souza


Assif Tsahar/Cooper-Moore/Hamid Drake Lost Brother Hopscotch 2006

Variety spices this collaboration between three musicians whose creativity takes the music to delightful and exciting heights. There is never a dull moment; even in the calm of their expositions comes a centrifugal force that fills the compositions with intense dynamism.

Assif Tsahar is a bold, authoritative player who never loses the opportunity to take a leap into the unknown. Even as he does, he knows when ...

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"One of the great new talents in New York" (Time Out New York)

"This recording (the Hollow World) extends Tsahar's responsibility for some of the most exciting improvised music currently being created" (Signal to Noise)

"The Aylerian tenor can speak in tongues as articulately as anyone can these days- it's a thrill when abstraction is truly compelling " (Village Voice)

"Few young jazz players generate the kind of buzz among New York cognoscenti that tenor saxophonist Assif Tsahar, have over the past couple of years. ...through shifts in register and tonal quality, Tsahar has a knack for creating the illusion that he is playing more than one instrument- This is some of the least dense and frenetic free jazz to come out of New York, and some of the most emotionally affecting. " (Jazziz)

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Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

In Between the...

Hopscotch Records
2018

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Code Re(A)d

Hopscotch Records
2014

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Digital Primitives

Hopscotch Records
2007

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Solitude

Hopscotch Records
2006

buy

Lost Brother

Hopscotch Records
2006

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Lost Brother

Ayler Records
2005

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Videos

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