Arba (2023)
"As we know by now, Dave Douglas makes only quality choices for his label roster. Borochov and his quartet stand tall among them."
-Jim Haynes, MAKING A SCENE (USA)
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"A cogent blend of jazz harmonies and Arabic musical traditions all shaded in his own deep tone of blue.★★★★½ " BEST OF 2023
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"Masterfully realized intercultural jazz"
-Mike Lormanno, THE RHYTHM OF STUDY (USA)
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​"With Arba, trumpeter Itamar Borochov confirms he is a force to be reckoned with."
-Marco Cangiano, NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD (USA)
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"An arresting fusion of Middle Eastern sonorities and Western acoustic jazz." -TEXTURA (USA)
"Music with a haunting lyricism and quiet power."
-Jerome Wilson, ALL ABOUT JAZZ (USA)
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"[Borochov’s] tone is tender and meditative throughout... silhouettes of sound.” -George W. Harris, JAZZ WEEKLY (USA)
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"Itamar Borochov is a master synthesist, making cross-cultural musical connections, and winning admirers across the globe."
-JAZZWISE MAGAZINE feature (UK)
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"Evoking the melodicism of Miles Davis and possessing a wonderful tone that is at once breathy and dark, Borochov has an amazing ability to launch suddenly from soft whispers into soaring upper-octave explorations...a highly accomplished work." -Tom Spargo, JAZZ JOURNAL (UK)
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"Borochov is a spectacular trumpeter with a voice that’s distinctly his own, and unites the sounds of Israel, the Middle East, North Africa and American jazz music into a beautiful and seamless whole."
-Adam Sieff, LONDON JAZZ NEWS (UK)
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"Stunning sounds here from Itamar Borochov. The Jaffa born trumpeter has put together an album of 9 compositions inspired by Sephardic music heard in his local synagogue and by absorbing the characteristic maqams modal sounds pervasive throughout.★★★★" -MARLBANK (UK)
"The leader’s trumpet playing is as powerful and impassioned as his singing...As an instrumentalist Borochov had already done much in terms of creating a sound of his own, his use of vocals on this current album, in conjunction with his increasingly distinctive trumpet playing, has resulted in something unique. ★★★★" -Ian Mann, THE JAZZ MANN (UK)
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"Borochov draws primarily from the ‘Maqam’, which is a microtonal modal system from the Middle east, and he investigates its possibilities on a Monette four-valve quarter-tone trumpet while maintaining a highly melodic approach... Borochov demonstrates his natural versatility as a new gen. jazzman, as bustling free-bop bursts from the hypnotic theme to ‘Bayat Blues and a more pastoral folk/singer-songwriter idiom on closing tracks ‘Truth’ and ‘Farewell’." -Selwyn Harris, JAZZWISE MAGAZINE (UK)
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"I think the biggest and most obvious difference is the use of my voice on this record, which is featured as another lead melody colour, and a way of expression for me." -LONDON JAZZ NEWS interview (UK)
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"We can't resist the swaying melodies of the trumpeter, nor the moments of poetic tenderness or the intensity of certain passages in profound intimacy." -Jean-Pierre Goffin, JAZZMANIA (Belgium)
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★★★★ -LE SOIR (Belgium)
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"A song has no genre,It can be perceived in different ways, like a multidimensional holographic event. It can work as a traditional
Middle Eastern chant, as a jazz tune, as a singer-songwriter piece. I try to write music that you can see from different angles, with the song at the center" -Interview by Dietmar Terpstra, JAZZISM MAGAZINE (Belgium)
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-RADIO GRK Best of 2023 (Belgium)
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"Borochov's trumpet playing is wonderfully soulful. The music of the Middle East and North Africa always shines through in his jazz phrasing, and he creates his very special sound with his hymn-like melodies, an unmistakable feel for moods, spiritual, intense moments and a band leader who sings hauntingly alongside his fantastic trumpet playing."
-Christoph Giese NRW JAZZ (Germany)
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"This album soothes and captivates at the same time, enchanting with sounds and words. It is perfectly written, composed, sung and played. Music outside the mainstream genres, but also tangential to at least two. These are jazz and world music. Itamar Borochov plays with forms and moves along familiar paths in an exemplary manner. A beautiful album for the sensitive and connoisseurs." -JAZZ-FUN (Germany)
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"This album showcases Borochov’s mastery of a custom Monette quarter-tone trumpet with four valves, offering a unique sonic experience.​"
-Steven James, JAZZ IN EUROPE (Netherlands)
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"Magnificent. Such control, such musicality is demonstrated
here" -Jan Vranken, MAXINE MAGAZINE (Netherlands)
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"Borochov has merged these Middle Eastern musical tradition in his compositions in an elegant and deeply personal way. An exciting voice worth following both now and in the years to come."
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"Borochov weaves into his lyrical and often melancholic melodies a seductive yet fragile sensuality... and knows how to sketch emotional, story-like textures." -Eyal Hareuveni, SALT PEANUTS (Norway)
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"Itamar seemed to be singing the lament of a whole nation with his trumpet... I haven't experienced such an emotionally powerful concert in a long time, one of the most powerful experiences of this year."
-​Michal Kratochvíl, JAZZPORT (Czech Republic)
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"A set of world-sounds in which [Borochov’s] deep knowledge of maqamat, a system of scales and language typical of the Middle Eastern and North-African traditions emerges. Music where inflections and melodies characteristic of the Sephardic synagogue intersect with the idiom of improvisation, and the mix works wonderfully." -Ivo Franchi, MUSICA JAZZ (Italy)
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"This work utilizes Borochov's own voice and is rich in spirituality." -Takehiko Tak Tokiwa, JAZ.IN (Japan)
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Blue Nights (2018)
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"His melodies are direct and often plangent, his harmonies and rhythms sturdy and repetitious. His latest album, “Blue Nights,” draws together influences from the Middle East and North Africa with jazz-academy thinking." -Giovanni Russonello, THE NEW YORK TIMES (USA)
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"Blue Nights draws from an array of elements including bebop, rock, pop, Arabic maqam scales, the Gnawa patterns of North Africa’s Hausa people, and sounds that Borochov encountered in a local Yemenite-Jewish synagogue in his native Jaffa, Israel. What is surprising is the way the band manages to introduce changes without disturbing the silken flow of the music."-Saby Reyes-Kulkarni, BANDCAMP DAILY (USA)
"Trumpeter Itamar Borochov has spent years exploring creative convergences of jazz and music connected to his upbringing in the multicultural Israeli city of Jaffa. Within those contexts, he's become adept at using quarter tones and other elements of Sephardic spiritual music, along with the North African and Bukharian sounds he heard growing up, in various jazz constructs. Those influences, along with echoes of the Arabic and African-laced world grooves Borochov worked with in Ravid Kahalnai's Yemen Blues outfit, all filter through the trumpeter's stunning third album as a leader." -Jennifer Odell, DOWNBEAT MAGAZINE (USA)
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-WBGO.ORG LetterOne Rising Stars Jazz Award 2021
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-ALLMUSIC.COM (USA) Favorite Latin & World Albums 2019
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-ALLMUSIC.COM (USA) Favorite Jazz Albums 2019
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-ALLMUSIC.COM (USA) Best of 2019 review
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- DOWNBEAT MAGAZINE (USA) 2017
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- THE TOWER MAGAZINE (USA) 2014 [Feature]
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"I was dazzled by the trumpet sound, incredibly full, fleshy, this way of playing on the air that gives all the features of an astonishing fluidity, even in the high register. What comes out of his trumpet is never struck, you never feel the effort: It's velvet.”
-JF Mondot, JAZZ MAGAZINE (France) 2018
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“Itamar Borochov once again exposes what he knows best: invoking his talents as an assertive melodist and a musician inhabited by a superior mind.” -Alex Dutilh, FRANCE MUSIQUE (France) 2018
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“an introspective album with mixed scents of the shores of the Mediterranean.” -Jean-Pierre Goffin, JAZZ AROUND MAGAZINE (France)
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“It’s an almost mystical universe.” -Philippe Desmond, ACTION JAZZ (France) 2018
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-Laurent Dussutour, CITIZEN JAZZ (France) [Album Review]
“Trumpeter Itamar Borochov produces a feast of musical exploration on this, his third album, combining influences from across the Middle East and North Africa with a jazz quartet line-up. The result is rich, detailed and engrossing music with an individual sound. I was struck” -Mark McKergow, LONDON JAZZ NEWS (UK)
"The album is simply divine, in the spiritual sense. It touches all our senses with its lyricism, leaving the listeners with a lasting impression. 5 Stars” -Nathalie Freson, UK VIBE (UK) 2018
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“An air of hushed reverence had fallen over the audience as the sense of spirituality that informs all of Borochov’s music was at its most palpable. With the tension now released the audience clapped loudly and cheered for more...” -Ian Mann, THE JAZZ MANN (UK) 2018 [Live Review]
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"A fascinating, multi faceted album. There’s a profound air of spirituality about the music, which is played by the Borochov quartet with an understated virtuosity and a simmering, low key intensity."
-Ian Mann, THE JAZZ MANN (UK) 2018 [Album Review]
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-Ruth Fisher, JAZZ FM (UK) 2018 [Radio Interview]
“Itamar Borochov is a master jazz innovator.” -Robin Arends, JAZZHALO (Belgium)
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- Jordi De Beule, JAZZ&MO' (Belgium) 2019 [Live Review]
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“The Israeli trumpeter takes us to a more peaceful world on his new album ‘Blue Nights’ and miraculously gives us comfort. With his new quarter-tone trumpet, he is immersing himself more intensively than before in the world of maqams - the scales that are played in Arabic music.” -Sarah Seidel, NDR (Germany)
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"Breaking down traditions and merging them into something new is one of the central ideas of jazz - one that Itamar Borochov cultivates with a remarkable virtuosity and a fantastic feeling for melodies and moods."
-Olaf Maikopf, JAZZ THETIK (Germany) 2018
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-Andreas E. Müller, WETZLARER NEUE ZEITUNG (Germany) 2019 [Live Review]
-CONCERTO MAGAZINE (Austria) 2018
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-Milan Tesar, KULTURNI MAGAZINE (Czech Republic) 2019
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-JAZZ.ROZHLAS.CZ/ (Czech Republic) 2019
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