Please tell us about your new album?
I Thought I Was Ready is my second album, and it feels like a natural continuation of the path I began with my first record. If that album was about finding my voice, this one is more about looking inward, toward home, childhood, and the slow process of growing up while staying honest with myself.
The album is built around seven original compositions, each rooted in a specific memory or emotional moment. I don’t really write in the abstract. The music grows out of lived experiences and reflections that only made sense to me in hindsight.
I recorded the album with musicians who are also close friends: Guy Moskovich on piano, Omri Hadani on bass, and David Sirkis on drums. We have been playing together for many years, and that shared history is a big part of the sound. There is a lot of trust, a lot of listening, and very little forcing. The music comes from the space we share rather than from a predetermined concept.
The title track, ‘I Thought I Was Ready’, opens the album and captures its central idea. It reflects that moment when you realize that being “ready” is often an illusion, and that growth usually arrives before certainty.
Some of the pieces are tied to places and times in my life, from where I grew up to periods spent in New York, while others look further back to early musical influences and childhood songs. One of the lighter moments on the album was inspired by a chance encounter outside the Blue Note in New York, a small, unexpected moment that stayed with me and eventually became music.
The album closes with a piece featuring oud player Onn Yosef Kadosh, a long time collaborator and close musical partner. His sound felt like a natural way to bring the record to a close. Taken as a whole, I Thought I Was Ready feels like a snapshot of where I am right now, both as a person and as a musician.
What other projects are you currently involved in?
Alongside various collaborations, my other main focus right now is KOMRADIN, a duo project I share with oud player Onn Yosef Kadosh. We are releasing a new album this month.
The album, Hilalen (Two Crescents), continues our exploration of classical Arabic music through an intimate duo of oud and saxophone. This format allows the music to breathe. The melodic, rhythmic, and modal subtleties of the muwashshah tradition come through with much greater clarity and sensitivity.
The entire album was recorded on a 120 year old oud built by the Nahat Brothers in Damascus, a rare instrument that adds a very tangible sense of history to the sound. The album also includes spoken recitations of muwashshah poetry accompanied by traditional percussion, preserving the original rhythmic structures of the pieces.
Our arrangements grow directly from the poetry itself, using its imagery as a starting point. At the same time, the project places this tradition firmly in the present, drawing inspiration from its origins in medieval Al-Andalus and subtly referencing Andalusian flamenco traditions.
Beyond KOMRADIN, I am also a regular member of the Eli Degibri Big Band and perform with Ester Rada’s band, both of which bring very different musical worlds into my everyday playing.
What are you currently listening to, and what was the last CD or download you bought?
I listen to a wide range of music, from Arabic classical recordings to film soundtracks. I like keeping my ears open and slightly confused. As a saxophonist, I keep finding my way back to Joe Henderson and Joe Lovano. Both feel endlessly relevant to me, each in a very different way.
What is your all-time favourite album and why?
If I had to choose one, it would probably be Moanin’ by Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. No matter how much time passes, that album lives very deeply inside me. The sound of that band is completely unique. Benny Golson’s compositions, Lee Morgan’s solos, and Bobby Timmons’ groove all come together in a way that still feels alive and urgent. I am also deeply drawn to that version of the Jazz Messengers in live recordings, especially the Paris Olympia performance from 1958.
Who has caught your attention recently that we should be listening out for?
You should definitely listen to The Kadosh Brothers. Their debut album is not out yet, but there is material online, and it already feels fearless. Three brothers playing original music that moves freely between Arabic music and heavy metal. It is intense, imaginative, and very much its own thing.
I Thought I Was Ready is released on Asaf Harris Music in association with ECN Music. For more information visit asafharrismusic.com
