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Oran Etkin

Oran Etkin grew up playing jazz and began studying with George Garzone at age 14. He studied classical clarinet as an undergraduate and received a Masters in Jazz Performance at the Manhattan School of Music, where he studied with Dave Liebman and Dave Krakauer among others. His unique voice on the clarinets and saxophone has contributed to numerous Jazz, African, Klezmer, Brazilian, traditional New Orleans and Classical groups in the US and abroad.

On Oran's upcoming CD on Motema Music, he is joined by Malian Griot musicians such as Balla and Meckane Kouyate and Abdoulaye Diabate as well as grammy award winning artists Lionel Loueke and John Benitez. His duo with Malian guitarist/vocalist Abdoulaye Diabate, in which Oran's bass clarinet is prominently featured, offers a more intimate context to explore the interweaving lines and improvisational nature of this music. Oran also leads a quintet with Jason Marsalis, Fabian Almazan, Garth Stevenson and Curtis Fowlkes.

A strong believer in the importance of music education, Oran is on the faculty of the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music. He has also developed a new method for teaching music to 2-6 year olds that he has implemented with over 400 young students.

Oran has performed at the Blue Note, Central Park SummerStage, Joe's Pub, the United Nations and numerous other venues in the US, Europe, Africa, the Caribbean and the Middle East. He has recorded with musicians including Wyclef Jean and Frank London.

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6
Album Review

Oran Etkin: What's New? Reimagining Benny Goodman

Read "What's New?  Reimagining Benny Goodman" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky


Those looking to preview some of the most interesting jazz offerings due to arrive in any given year know that New York's Winter Jazzfest is the place to do it. For more than a decade, this annual January happening has had its finger on the pulse of the jazz world, giving the press, the fans, and curious jazz newcomers an opportunity to hear the best of what's around and the best of what's to come. The 2015 ...

2
Album Review

Oran Etkin: Gathering Light

Read "Gathering Light" reviewed by Vincenzo Roggero


Due compagni di viaggio d'eccezione come Nasheet Waits e Ben Allison, due ospiti (in realtà membri più che attivi del quintetto) altrettanto prestigiosi come il “Jazz Passanger" Curtis Fowlkes e il chitarrista Lionel Loueke, ed ecco che il clarinettista, sassofonista, compositore, didatta di origine israeliana Oran Etkin scodella un secondo lavoro da leader di tutto rispetto. Gathering Light è un riuscito esempio di crossover, di differenti culture musicali che si armonizzano grazie ad una verve improvvisativa di ...

4
Bailey's Bundles

Jazz Quanta May

Read "Jazz Quanta May" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey


Oran Etkin Gathering Light Motema 2014 Multi-reedist Oran Etkin gathers his scattered points of inspiration from the whole of the Eastern Hemisphere and a good bit of the Western one. Etkin's main horn is the bass clarinet...not completely unheard of, Eric Dolphy played a mean one, but one heard infrequently enough that it remains almost a novelty. Etkin opens Gathering Light with Ki Narto Saboo's “Gambang Suling," his bass clarinet reaching eastward ...

5
Album Review

Oran Etkin: Gathering Light

Read "Gathering Light" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky


Multi-reedist Oran Etkin's first album--Kelenia (Motema Music, 2009)--fused Malian sounds and Jewish music with jazz. Its follow-up--Wake Up, Clarinet! (1-2-3-4 Go, 2010)--was geared toward kids. Now, for round three, Etkin has cast his net over a huge portion of the globe, pulling together, arranging, and morphing musical ideals he's encountered while touring through Asia, Israel, and portions of Europe. Gathering Light is a gloriously global musical mélange that finds Etkin in good company, creating alternately gripping and ...

220
Album Review

Oran Etkin: Kelenia

Read "Kelenia" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian


Exposure to traditional African music is limited in the western hemisphere so it is always a pleasant surprise when a recording is released, especially when it is a solid, well above average effort. Clarinetist and saxophonist Oran Etkin has fused Malian music with elements of improvisation and jazz in his debut, Kelenia. This is not just mere pastiche but a successful melding of musical genres into a work that maintains a strong traditional identity while solidly remaining ...

353
Album Review

Oran Etkin: Kelenia

Read "Kelenia" reviewed by Martin Gladu


As the open air arias of grilling cicadas and bustling barbecues mix in with the distant thumping of convertibles to announce the new solstice, what better than a hot, mellifluously ornate African chant to brush off what is left of spring and get everyone in a festive mood?The cause of celebration? Summer, of course. But also “Yekeke," an oasis of a song to kick off the festivities to the lively African jazz concoctions of clarinetist Oran Etkin's group, ...

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1

Event

Newport Festivals Foundation Kids Concert: Bari Koral + Oran Etkin’s Timbalooloo

Newport Festivals Foundation Kids Concert: Bari Koral + Oran Etkin’s Timbalooloo

Source: Carolyn McClair Public Relations

Newport Festivals Foundation Continues Tradition of Bringing Great Music to Generations of Fans at Second Annual Family Concert Wednesday, July 30, 6:00 pm, at Fort Adams State Park FREE TO THE PUBLIC NEWPORT, RI – If you ask the Newport Jazz Festival and Newport Folk Festival staff what they like about the festivals, no doubt each and every one will get around to talking about the excitement of watching young people enjoy, share and eventually grow up to love music. ...

1

Recording

Motema Music To Release Gathering Light From Oran Etkin, Featuring Ben Allison, Nasheet Waits, Lionel Loueke & Curtis Fowlkes

Motema Music To Release Gathering Light From Oran Etkin, Featuring Ben Allison, Nasheet Waits, Lionel Loueke & Curtis Fowlkes

Source: Jason Byrne, Red Cat Publicity

Motema Music To Release GATHERING LIGHT From ORAN ETKIN Featuring Ben Allison, Nasheet Waits, Lionel Loueke & Curtis Fowlkes To be released April 8, 2014 US & Europe CD Release tour including NYC CD Release Party at Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola at Jazz At Lincoln Center on May 12! Inspired by tours in Indonesia, China, Japan, Israel and Europe, Oran Etkin's brilliant new album, Gathering Light,to be released on Motema Music on April 8, 2014, and featuring Oran Etkin-bass clarinet, Ben ...

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Award / Grant

Motema's Gregory Porter and Oran Etkin Get Grammy Nods

Motema's Gregory Porter and Oran Etkin Get Grammy Nods

Source: GoMedia PR

Gregory Porter' s Debut, Water, Receives GRAMMY® Nomination as Best Jazz Vocal Album Clarinetist Oran Etkin's Track, “Unique Monique," Included on Album Nominated in Best Spoken Word Album for Children Category A scant six months after the release of his debut album, Water, Gregory Porter has been nominated in the Best Jazz Vocal Album category of the 53rd Annual Grammy® Awards. Porter has received raves internationally for Water, which cracked the JazzWeek Top 10 radio chart shortly after its May ...

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Recording

Oran Etkin - Wake up Clarinet! (2010)

Oran Etkin - Wake up Clarinet! (2010)

Source: Something Else!

By Mark Saleski She put on Stevie Wonder's “Living For The City" and then asked us to call out the instruments that we heard. I don't really remember how we all did, but that moment has always stayed with me. An actual music class in middle school. It wasn't just about clefs and notes and all of that either. It was about actual music. Music that was current, vibrant, and important. Oh, how things have changed. Music and art classes ...

162

Recording

Oran Etkin's 'Wake Up, Clarinet' Video and New CD

Oran Etkin's 'Wake Up, Clarinet' Video and New CD

Source: Chris M. Slawecki

Oran Etkin, an internationally acclaimed jazz/world artist and composer whose NYC based music classes for children are endorsed by Harvey Keitel, Naomi Watts and Liev Schreiber, will release Wake Up, Clarinet! on his new Timbalooloo label (September 14, Motema Music /Allegro-NewSound distribution). The CD features performances by Jason Marsalis and Charenee Wade and is enhanced with a video of Etkin and his band performing live in concert.

Wake Up, Clarinet! is the first family release for Etkin, who was a ...

163

Recording

Clarinetist Oran Etkin Shares A World Of Musical Journeys In New Release For Kids: Wake Up Clarinet!

Clarinetist Oran Etkin Shares A World Of Musical Journeys In New Release For Kids: Wake Up Clarinet!

Source: GoMedia PR

Enhanced CD Featuring Etkin's Timbalooloo Method Will Be Released on Motema Music on September 14th CD Release Concerts for Wake Up Clarinet, as well as Performances by Etkin's Group Kelenia, Scheduled Throughout 2010 ..."really really remarkable... he has touched both of our boys' lives." --Naomi Watts and Liev Schreiber “Oran Etkin makes music from all over the world accessible and fun for children to listen to and learn about. From the age of two, our son was talking about Herbie ...

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Recording

Oran Etkin to be Featured on Putumayo Kids "Jazz Playground" CD

Oran  Etkin to be Featured on Putumayo Kids "Jazz Playground" CD

Source: GoMedia PR

Motema Music Recording Artist Also Wins Independent Music Award for Kelenia as “Best World Beat" CD Oran Etkin, the Israeli-born, New York-based clarinetist whose 2009 Motema Music release, Kelenia, was hailed by the New York Times as “ebullient," and by the All Music Guide as setting “a new standard for world music in the decade of the 2000's," has much to celebrate in the new year. Last week, his critically acclaimed debut recording, Kelenia, was awarded the Independent Music Award ...

191

Recording

Oran Etkin Featured as windowsmedia.com Emerging Artist

Oran Etkin Featured as windowsmedia.com Emerging Artist

Source: GoMedia PR

Clarinetist and saxophonist Oran Etkin, whose debut CD, Kelenia, has been earning rave reviews from the likes of the New York Times, the Village Voice and the Boston Globe, has been selected as an Emerging Artist on Windowsmedia.com.

Windowsmedia.com is the digital media web resource available from the popular Windows Media Player, and features games, and video fun, as well as hot news from the entertainment industry.

As a Windowsmedia.com Emerging Artist, Oran joins the ranks of such up and ...

120

Recording

Oran Etkin Bridges Bamako and Brooklyn on Kelenia

Oran Etkin Bridges Bamako and Brooklyn on Kelenia

Source: GoMedia PR

Clarinetist/Saxophonist's Motma Music Debut, Featuring Lionel Loueke, John Benitez, and Malian Musicians, To Be Released on June 9

Through a decade of work in the many musical worlds that harmoniously coexist in New York, 29 year old Oran Etkin has cultivated a singular voice that brings together elements of modern jazz with traditional African and Israeli music. Kelenia, his debut recording on Motma Music, features his working group of Malian, Israeli and American musicians, along with guest appearances by vocalist ...

“...a composer of eminent individuality. [Oran Etkin] is also an extraordinary performing musician, who is a soul and mind in search of ultimate truth in aesthetics. He is a profoundly moral, socially responsible man.” — Dr. Yusef Lateef

Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

What's New? ...

Motéma Music
2015

buy

Gathering Light

Motéma Music
2014

buy

Wake Up Clarinet!

Motéma Music
2010

buy

Kelenia

Motéma Music
2009

buy

Videos

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