Nitai Hershkovits
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Nitai Hershkovits (; born 21 February 1988) is a jazz pianist and composer.


Biography


Early life

Hershkovits was born in Israel to Eva and Ilan Hershkovits. He started playing the
clarinet The clarinet is a Single-reed instrument, single-reed musical instrument in the woodwind family, with a nearly cylindrical bore (wind instruments), bore and a flared bell. Clarinets comprise a Family (musical instruments), family of instrume ...
at the age of twelve and three years after, at the age of fifteen, he changed his musical instrument and start playing the
piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...
. By the age of seventeen, Hershkovits already won several jazz competitions, which led him to move to
Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( or , ; ), sometimes rendered as Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and usually referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the Gush Dan metropolitan area of Israel. Located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline and with a popula ...
, there he managed to combine regular school with private music and piano lessons under the guidance of jazz educators Amit Golan and Yuval Cohen. During his time in school, he soon became interested in a rich variety of both classical and
jazz music Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, hymns, m ...
, writing arrangements for bands from the "Israel Conservatory of Music" in Tel Aviv. These experiences led him to study classical music and theory with Israeli composer and educator, Dr. Menahem Weisenberg and classical piano educator Shoshana Cohen and Amir Pedorovits. Between the years 2004 and 2010, he was awarded four times in a row the highest scholarship given by the
America-Israel Cultural Foundation The America-Israel Cultural Foundation (AICF) is a non-profit American foundation that supports cultural projects in Israel. History The America-Israel Cultural Foundation was established in 1939 to support the growth and development of a Jewish ...
(AICF). Another highlight was in 2009 when he got the prestigious Chase Scholarship award, sponsoring a Bachelor’s degree at the " Jerusalem Rubin Academy of Music". In a short time he realized that the institution setting was not suitable for him, and developed his own taste and repertoire by taking private lessons and listening to wide variety of music.


Career

In the midst of 2011, Hershkovits started working with
bassist A bassist (also known as a bass player or bass guitarist) is a musician who plays a bass instrument such as a double bass (upright bass, contrabass, wood bass), bass guitar (electric bass, acoustic bass), keyboard bass (synth bass) or a low br ...
Avishai Cohen. Their first album together, ''Duende'', a piano and bass Duet, was released in 2012. His playing on this album was described by the critic John Fordham as "somewhat reminiscent of a silky-toned old piano swinger such as the late
Hank Jones Henry Jones Jr. (July 31, 1918 – May 16, 2010) was an American jazz pianist, bandleader, arranger, and composer. Critics and musicians have described Jones as eloquent, lyrical, and impeccable. In 1989, The National Endowment for the Arts h ...
". As part of Avishai Cohen Trio, they recorded two more albums together: ''Almah'', a chamber music project (2013) and ''From Darkness'', a
trio Trio may refer to: Music Groups * Trio (music), an ensemble of three performers, or a composition for such an ensemble ** Jazz trio, pianist, double bassist, drummer ** Minuet and trio, a form in classical music ** String trio, a group of three ...
album (2015). During their collaborative work, Hershkovits dove into classical music and was also Cohen’s musical director of his strings project and a few others. Together they toured and performed at many different venues and diverse music festivals all over the world, such as:
North Sea Jazz Festival The North Sea Jazz Festival is a festival held annually on the second weekend of July in the Netherlands at the Ahoy venue. The festival moved to Rotterdam in 2006 after the demolition of the Statenhal in The Hague where it was originally held. ...
,
Village Vanguard The Village Vanguard is a jazz club at Seventh Avenue South in Greenwich Village, New York City. The club was opened on February 22, 1935, by Max Gordon. Originally, the club presented folk music and beat poetry, but it became primarily a jaz ...
, Antibes Jazz Festival,
Jazz à Vienne Jazz à Vienne is a jazz festival in Vienne, Isère, near Lyon, France. The festival has been held since 6 July 1981 in the months of June and July for two weeks. Every evening during the festival, there are concerts in the ancient Roman theate ...
,
Montreux Jazz Festival The Montreux Jazz Festival (formerly Festival de Jazz Montreux and Festival International de Jazz Montreux) is a music festival in Switzerland, held annually in early July in Montreux on the Lake Geneva shoreline. It is the second-largest annu ...
. In 2016, Hershkovits decided to move to
New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...
. His last tour with Cohen's trio was with guitarist
Kurt Rosenwinkel Kurt Rosenwinkel (born October 28, 1970) is an American jazz guitarist, composer, bandleader, producer, educator, keyboardist and record label owner. Biography Born in Philadelphia to a musical family, Rosenwinkel began taking piano lessons when ...
and a few other musicians from New York, he grew up listening to. In New York he began playing and recording in numerous groups, among them
Ari Hoenig Ari Hoenig (born November 13, 1973) is an American jazz drummer, composer, and educator. Educational materials Hoenig has taught and is on the faculty at New York University and The New School in New York. He gives clinics and lectures at music ...
group and Oded Tzur's quartet (Hershkovits played in Tzur's albums, ''Here Be Dragons'' (2020), ''Isabela'' (2022) and ''My Prophet'' (2024)) Hershkovits’ debut album, ''I Asked You A Question'' (Raw Tapes Records), was released in February 2016. The album, Co-produced with Rejoicer, features him on vocals, piano, and synths. In addition, participants in the album also, Los Angeles-based singer, Brainfeeder artist,
Georgia Anne Muldrow Georgia Anne Muldrow (born 1983) is an American soul and hip hop singer, producer, and songwriter from Los Angeles. In 2008, she co-founded the SomeOthaShip Connect record label with fellow artist and former husband Dudley Perkins. Life and car ...
, and guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel, on two tracks ("Satellite Dish" and "My Turn"). Hershkovits’ second solo album, ''New Place Always'', was written primarily for solo piano and released in 2018. In this album he continued collaborating with Rejoicer and together they wrote in the studio eight of the tunes. In addition, there is in the album also one instrumental arrangement to Paul McCartney's song, "Jenny Wren" (from his album, ''Chaos and Creation in the Backyard''). In 2020, Hershkovits joined three other musicians: Yuval Havkin, Rejoicer (keyboards), Amir Bresler (drums) and Yonatan Albalak (bass), and together the four formed a group called Apifera. The group, which plays
experimental music Experimental music is a general label for any music or music genre that pushes existing boundaries and genre definitions. Experimental compositional practice is defined broadly by exploratory sensibilities radically opposed to, and questioning of, ...
, mostly
instrumental An instrumental or instrumental song is music without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through Semantic change, semantic widening, a broader sense of the word s ...
, influenced by a variety of different musical styles such as: fusion,
jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...
,
electronic music Electronic music broadly is a group of music genres that employ electronic musical instruments, circuitry-based music technology and software, or general-purpose electronics (such as personal computers) in its creation. It includes both music ...
,
progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog) is a broad genre of rock music that primarily developed in the United Kingdom through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early-to-mid-1970s. Initially termed " progressive pop", the ...
and
classical music Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be #Relationship to other music traditions, distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical mu ...
, was signed that same year in the independent record label based in
Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
, "
Stones Throw Stones Throw Records is an American independent record label based in Los Angeles, California. Under the direction of founder Peanut Butter Wolf, Stones Throw has released music ranging from hip hop to experimental psychedelic rock. '' LA Weekl ...
", where it releases its albums. In November 2023 Hershkovits released his first solo album on the
ECM Records ECM (Edition of Contemporary Music) is an independent record label founded by Karl Egger, Manfred Eicher and Manfred Scheffner in Munich in 1969. While ECM is best known for jazz music, the label has released a variety of recordings, and ECM's a ...
, "Call on the Old Wise". The album, recorded in 2022 in
Lugano Lugano ( , , ; ) is a city and municipality within the Lugano District in the canton of Ticino, Switzerland. It is the largest city in both Ticino and the Italian-speaking region of southern Switzerland. Lugano has a population () of , and an u ...
,
Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...
, produced by
Manfred Eicher Manfred Eicher (born 9 July 1943) is a German record producer and the founder of ECM Records. Life and career Eicher was born in Lindau, Germany. He studied music at the Academy of Music in Berlin. He started as a double-bass player of classi ...
, includes, in addition to his original compositions, arrangements of the
jazz standard Jazz standards are musical compositions that are an important part of the musical repertoire of jazz musicians, in that they are widely known, performed, and recorded by jazz musicians, and widely known by listeners. There is no definitive List ...
"Single Petal Of A Rose" by
Duke Ellington Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974) was an American Jazz piano, jazz pianist, composer, and leader of his eponymous Big band, jazz orchestra from 1924 through the rest of his life. Born and raised in Washington, D ...
and the song "Dream Your Dreams" by Molly Drake ( Nick Drake's mother). In 2024, the album received the prestigious German Record Critics' Award for "Jazz Album of the Year". And in addition, the album was presented by ECM label for nomination at the prestigious
Grammy Award The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious ...
in the "Jazz Album of the Year" category.


Discography


Studio albums

* ''I Asked You a Question'' (Raw Tapes, 2016) * ''New Place Always'' (Enja, 2018) * ''Lemon the Moon'' (Enja, 2019) * ''Imajin'' (Raw Tapes, 2022) * ''Call on the Old Wise'' (
ECM Records ECM (Edition of Contemporary Music) is an independent record label founded by Karl Egger, Manfred Eicher and Manfred Scheffner in Munich in 1969. While ECM is best known for jazz music, the label has released a variety of recordings, and ECM's a ...
, 2023) With Apifera * ''Overstand'' (Stones Throw Records, 2021) * ''6 Visits'' (Stones Throw Records, 2021) * ''Keep The Outside Open'' (Stones Throw Records, 2024) With Avishai Cohen * Avishai Cohen – ''Duende'' (EMI/Blue Note Records, 2012) * Avishai Cohen – ''Almah'' (Parlophone/Razdaz, 2013) * Avishai Cohen – ''From Darkness'' (Razdaz, 2015)


Co-Leading

* ''Time Grove Ensemble'', Nitai Hershkovits and Rejoicer (Raw Tapes, 2021) * ''Let The Mountain In'', KerenDun and Nitai Hershkovits (Raw Tapes, 2021) * ''The Garden Suite'', Nitai Hershkovits and Daniel Dor (Raw Tapes, 2024)


Featured

* Daniel Zamir – ''One'' (8th Note, 2009) * Ilan Salem – ''Wild'' (Razdaz, 2011) * Avi Lebovich Orchestra – ''Volcano'' (Indie, 2013) * Layers – ''Things on Top of Each Other'' (Raw Tapes, 2014) * Daniel Zamir – ''Redemption Songs'' (Tzadik, 2015) * All Original – ''Best Young Jazz in Israel'' (Razdaz, 2015) * Ari Hoenig – ''Conner's Days'' (Fresh Sound Records, 2019) * Oded Tzur – ''Here Be Dragons'' (ECM Records, 2020) * Oded Tzur – ''Isabela'' (ECM Records, 2022) * Oded Tzur - ''My Prophet'' (ECM Records, 2024)


Compilations

* "Flyin' Bamboo (feat. Mndsgn)" – ''Puzzles, Volume 3'' (Raw Tapes, 2018)


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hershkovits, Nitai Israeli jazz pianists 1988 births Living people 21st-century Israeli pianists Enja Records artists