Boomerang by Itamar Borochov

Born into a musical family, raised in the mixed Jewish-Christian-Muslim city of Jaffa, Itamar Borochov has always been faithful to this profuseness of influences: Edith Piaf, Weather Report, Nusrat Fatah Ali Khan or Prince have laid the foundations of a beneficial openness to music. His initiation was completed only when he entered the neighborhood Sephardi synagogue: there, Borochov absorbed sacred music based on Arabic scales and nourished of that centuries-old Jewish tradition.

His immersion in the New York jazz heritage in the early years of our century will convince him: “I have to be real. If Coltrane was informed by his father being a preacher, I had to do the same thing. Lee Morgan brought gospel and I’m bringing Sephardi synagogue music.”

A kind of hybridizing approach that is no stranger to the DNA of jazz and identically present in Itamar Borochov’s new album “Boomerang”.

Itamar Borochov displays in it what he does best: putting forward his talents of proven melodist and musician inhabited by a higher spirit. And even though his hard-bop pedigree is on display in the compositional structures, the journey offered by Itamar (trumpet), his brother Avri (contrabass), Mickael King (piano) and Jay Sawyer (drums), no doubt refers to the image of the boomerang and its curved path: from Jaffa and the original piyyut in “Adon Olam”, through West Village with “Jones Street”, North Africa in “Ca Va Bien” with its Arabic malfuf and back through a “Jaffa’s Tune” and its distinctly Middle-Eastern feel, a homage to his hometown.

The sound provided by Itamar is unique. Deeply immersed in the tradition of jazz, Itamar seeks his personal roots that lead him to an ever-growing love of the Arabic and Pan-African musical sensibilities. Living in New York since 2006, he has studied, amongst others, with Junior Mance, Charles Tolliver, Jimmy Owens, Cecil Bridgewater and he regularly performs in the best clubs of the city.