Call On The Old Wise Nitai Hershkovits

• 1 The Old Wise 02:48
• 2 Enough To Say I Will 03:14
• 3 Mode Antigona 02:16
• 4 Of Trust and Remorse 02:47
• 5 Intermezzo No.3 02:25
• 6 Majestic Steps Glow Far 04:13
• 7 Dream Your Dreams 04:00
• 8 Placid In Africansque 03:52
• 9 Mode Brilliante 01:14
• 10 Single Petal Of A Rose 03:29
• 11 A Rooftop Minuet 03:48
• 12 Late Blossom 03:28
• 13 Intermezzo No.4 01:46
• 14 In Satin 01:26
• 15 This You Mean To Me 02:56
• 16 Of Mentorship 01:52
• 17 For Suzan 01:49
• 18 River Wash Me 02:49
• Total Runtime 50:12

Info for Call On The Old Wise

Call on the Old Wise is Nitai Hershkovits’ first record for ECM, presenting his powerful pianistic ingenuity in a largely improvised solo setting. Nitai’s improvisations unfold like compositions being created in real-time: “It’s like I’m playing with several periods of music at once, but in a sort of augmented-reality-environment,” states Nitai. “To me the album is like a journey taking you through multiple varying experiences in the blink of an eye. Like jumping through frames holding different pictures or looking through windows to different worlds.” Call on the Old Wise follows Isabela and Here Be Dragons, where Nitai has been heard as a member of Oded Tzur’s quartet.

The album is partially dedicated to Nitai’s former piano teacher Suzan Cohen, with whom he studied in Jerusalem and who according to Nitai is the mentor to whom the term ‘wise’ in the record’s title alludes. The pieces “The Old Wise”, “Of Mentorship” and “For Suzan” refer directly to her. But Nitai draws from wide-reaching influences, ranging from his work in jazz contexts and cutting-edge contemporary explorations to his background in classical music. This immaculate balance of idioms gives rise to an abundance of colours and timbres, explored by a pianist, who has successfully forged his very own voice as improviser and shape-designer.

In his approach to improvisation, he notes, shapes and textures set the direction for the development of material: “I don’t want to be confined to any specific key or time signature, but rather leave the freedom to continually re-evaluate things in real-time and see them from a new perspective over and over again. That’s also why I tried to go into the session with as few preconceived ideas as possible.” In light of this spontaneous sense of creation, it is striking how completely formed many of the miniaturesque designs on the album unfurl. Nitai mentions inspirations as seemingly disparate as Chick Corea and Russian composers Rachmaninoff and Scriabin guiding him in the process.

Recorded at the Auditorio Stelio Molo in Lugano in 2022, the specific acoustic properties of the studio too play into the fabric of Nitai’s musical developments, as did his exchanges with producer Manfred Eicher. Nitai: “In the studio very few words are spoken. With Manfred, it’s like there’s another musician in the room, reflecting, reacting and reshaping the music in the moment.” Call on the Old Wise is a testimony to Nitai Hershkovits’s unique inventiveness as well as an essential addition to ECM’s celebrated line of solo piano recordings.

Nitai Hershkovits, piano

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Booklet for Call On The Old Wise