The young Israeli pianist and composer Nitai Hershkovits has recorded the first album under his own name called I Asked You A Question, which came to be in collaboration with pianist, vocalist, composer, multi-instrumentalist and producer Yuval Havkin aka Rejoicer.
I Asked You A Question is a result of a six month studio “exploration of the the realm of keyboards and beats with the colorful and creative Rejoicer”, said Hershkovits with great excitement.
Referring to the album repertoire to be released on 06 February for the label Raw Tapes Records, he announced “a variety of tunes made in a creative process where we recorded a few ideas and built a story around each one of them.”
Following a yearlong collaboration as a sideman with musicians like Jorge Rossy, Greg Tardy, Charles Davis, Mark Guiliana, Zohar Fresco, Steve Davis, Diego Urcola, Robert Sadin, Daniel Zamir and Kurt Rosenwinkel, who appears on the new album as a guest musician alongside Georgia Anne Muldrow and Shai Tsabari, the new album is marking a sort of a new musical beginning for Hershkovits as a leader and composer.
The first album under his name sets the beginning of his solo career, which is following a successful collaboration with double bassist Avishai Cohen, with whom he recorded and performed over the course of the past four years as a member of his trio, among others in Sarajevo within 18th Jazz Fest 2014. Hershkovits played on the albums From Darkness and Almah with the Avishai Cohen Trio and recorded the album Duende by the famous Israeli double bassist in a duet with him.
While we wait for I Asked You A Question, let’s listen to Nitai performing solo a composition recorded last January.