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Amit Friedman

Saxophonist and composer Amit Friedman is among the leading musicians in the Israeli jazz scene.

Freidman's music is rooted in the jazz tradition and incorporates elements of world music and especially Middle Eastern music.

The catchy compositions, which blend sophistication and simplicity, communicate with a wide range of audiences. Often, following a performance, one hears the comment, "I don't like jazz and this music really touched me".

In 2012 Friedman released his debut album "Sunrise" on the American record label Origin Records. The album is comprised wholly of original material performed by a jazz sextet of top musicians as well as string quartet.

The album received ample airtime and enthusiastic reviews in Israel and the US and ranked at the top of jazz album lists in leading US magazines. "Sunrise" was the top selling jazz album in 2012 in Israel and its title track entered the list of "most played songs" in the popular 88FM radio station.

On Last September, Friedman released his second album, "Long Way To Go" which continues in the musical vein of "Sunrise". His sextet is joined by three guest singers for original and fresh collaborations – Claudia Acuna (Chile-USA), Ravid Kahalani (Yemen Blues) and Tamar Eisenman (New York).

Friedman performs and records regularly with first rate musicians from Israel and abroad.

He has also collaborated with Israel's leading pop musicians and spent three years playing and musical directing the band in the successful late night TV show, "Tonight with Lior Shlein".

Alongside his work as an instrumentalist, composer and arranger, Friedman is highly active as an educator, working to advance jazz among young people.

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5
Album Review

Amit Friedman: Home at Last

Read "Home at Last" reviewed by Jack Bowers


Once upon a time, jazz, an American creation, was confined for the most part within its borders. But that was once upon a time. Today, any barriers that once kept jazz within a prescribed realm have long since vanished, and the music Americans once embraced as their own has flourished around the world, performed with increasing awareness and dexterity by artists who have built upon the patterns created in the land of its birth to weave colorful and charming tapestries ...

51
Album Review

Amit Friedman Sextet: Sunrise

Read "Sunrise" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan


This seems to be shaping up as the year of the “Sunrise." Two outstanding sets by that name have been released in 2012: one by the Masabumi Kikuchi Trio on ECM Records, the other a self-produced gem by the Indo/American chamber ensemble, Karavika. Israeli saxophonist Amit Friedman makes it a triptych with his own Sunrise, on Seattle's Origin Records.Friedman has a knack for memorable melodies enmeshed in sophisticated and lively arrangements. On the title tune (which opens the ...

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Unconditional Love

Origin Records
2021

buy

Home at Last

Origin Records
2021

buy

I Ain't Got Nothin'...

Fresh Sound Records
2018

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Long Way To Go

Dot Time Records
2016

buy

Sunrise

Origin Records
2012

buy

Home at Last

From: Unconditional Love
By Amit Friedman

You Must Go

From: Sunrise
By Amit Friedman

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