Avi Bortnick is an American guitarist who became more widely known after his association with jazz guitarist

John Scofield John Scofield (born December 26, 1951) is an American guitarist and composer. His music over a long career has blended jazz, jazz fusion, funk, blues, soul and rock. He first came to mainstream attention as part of the band of Miles Davis; he ...

. Bortnick joined Scofield's jam-oriented band in 2000 and played rhythm guitar and samples on three albums: ''

Überjam ''Überjam'' is an album by jazz guitarist John Scofield, the first credited to “The John Scofield Band”. It was released by Verve Records, Verve on January 29, 2002. Saxophonist Karl Denson, guitarist Avi Bortnick, keyboardist John Medeski ...

'', '' Up All Night,'' and '' Überjam Deux''.

Biography

Born in

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

, Bortnick was raised in

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an Independent city (United States), independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Miss ...

, where he was immersed in the sounds of

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African-American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African-Americans in the ...

, rock, and soul. After moving to California, he began to play with African and

Caribbean The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...

bands. As a graduate student at the University of Florida in Gainesville, he started the band What It Is, which became popular in the southeast touring circuit. Bortnick became known as a strong

rhythm guitar In music performances, rhythm guitar is a guitar technique and role that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse (music), pulse in conjunction with other instruments from the rhythm section (e.g., d ...

player and came to John Scofield's attention when assembling a band for his album ''Bump''. A five-month tour extended to four-and-a-half years. In 2003, Bortnick released his first solo album, ''Clean Slate''. Bortnick has played with the Avi B Three, Shitty Shitty Jam Band (with members of The Brazilian Girls), Rene Lopez, Jihae, Erik Deutsch, and Betty Black and the Ghost Train Orchestra.

Discography

As sideman

With Jihae * ''Elvis Is Still Alive'' (Septem, 2008) * ''Fire Burning Rain'' (Septem, 2010) * ''Illusion of You'' (Septem, 2015) With

* '' Uberjam'' (Verve, 2002) * '' Up All Night'' (Verve, 2003) * '' Uberjam Deux'' (Verve, 2013) With others * Ghost Train Orchestra, ''Book of Rhapsodies'' (Accurate, 2013) * Ghost Train Orchestra, ''Book of Rhapsodies Vol. II'' (Accurate, 2017) * Rene Lopez, ''Let's Be Strangers Again'' (Liberation, 2013)

References

Living people American jazz guitarists Israeli emigrants to the United States American male guitarists 20th-century American guitarists 20th-century American male musicians American male jazz musicians Ghost Train Orchestra members Year of birth missing (living people) {{US-jazz-guitarist-stub