Jazz by the sunny wintry sea
As Dubi Lenz puts it, February is an excellent time of year for getting away from the cold weather in the rest of the country, and heading down south for the sunshine and blue sea in Eilat. The perennial artistic director of the winter version of the Red Sea Jazz Festival also notes that those who head south in three months' time, for a long weekend over February 20-22, will also be able to immerse themselves in “the ocean of music that call on us to dive in between the sounds of local and global jazz, between the waves of jazz's encounters with pop, rock and ethnic music,” adding, tellingly, that the event will take place on “a weekend that every music fan will find something to their liking.”
It is this all-inclusive take on music that has kept the festival going, and even prospering, for the past 10 years. Lenz's programs have continued packing them into the festival's various auditoria, possibly coupled with the lure of comfortable temperatures and that bluest of seas.
The next edition of the festival features Lenz's regular mix of genres, styles and musical intent with the likes of quicksilver Spanish pianist Marco Mezquida, Cuban fellow instrumentalist Jorge Luis Pacheco, Swiss vocal acrobat Andreas Schaerer, Belgian singer David Linx and American pop-jazz singer and trombonist Aubrey Logan on the agenda.
The Israeli side of the program embraces a broad sweep of entertainment fare. Some are bona fide jazz offerings, some have a degree of jazzy content, while others have little or no connection with the festival's stated titular discipline.
The homegrown roster includes Mexican-born guitarist Ilan Bar-Lavi, who dips into numerous areas of music; jazz pianist Tom Oren, winner of last year's prestigious Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz International Piano Competition; veteran pop-rock artists Corinne Alal and Eran Tzur; singer Netta Elkayam, who normally works in Arabic music circles; and African-Arabic-blues singer and Yemen Blues band leader Ravid Kahalani.
Meanwhile, ubiquitous pianist-vocalist Shlomi Shaban, backed by silkily skilled percussionist Itamar Douari, will host feted cellist-vocalist Maya Belsitzman, and accordion- and violin-playing father-son twosome Emile and Sanya Kroitor while deliver their trademark klezmer-oriented materials, seasoned with jazz. The latter will team up with high energy multi-instrumental siblings Assaf and Eyal Talmudi, with the Trans-Moldavian Express jazz quartet in merry tow, in what promises to be one of the most intriguing slots of the festival.
And, if the music doesn't adequately warm the cockles of your heart, between shows one can always take a stroll down to the beach to soak up some rays and take in a dip.
For tickets and more information: *9066, www.eventim.co.il and redseajazz.co.il.