Artist: Ayelet Rose Gottlieb
Title: Roadsides
Label: Arogole Music
Genre: world music/traditional/jazz
Review by Dawoud Kringle
Ayelet Rose Gottlieb’s music blends Jazz, Middle-Eastern & Jewish music, combined with her innovative approach to composition & improvisation. Her history is fascinating.
Gottlieb was born in Jerusalem, to a background of mixed cultures and a musically seasoned family. She was exposed to Oum Kalthoum, J.S. Bach, The Beatles, Andres Segovia, Laurie Anderson, Ella Fitzgerald, Bob Dylan, Thelonious Monk, Fairuz, and many others. In her childhood, she played the classical flute until graduating from the High School For the Arts in Jerusalem.
After developing an interest in jazz and improvisation and working with the late saxophonist Arnie Lawrence, she spent a couple of years of Jazz studies at Rimon School of Music in Tel Aviv, Gottlieb moved to Boston to complete her BM at the New England Conservatory where she studied with Ran Blake, Dominique Eade, George Russell, Cecil McBee and Klezmer clarinetist Hankus Netsky to name a few. In 2002, she moved to NYC.
In Mayim Rabim (Tzadik 2006) she composed a song cycle based on erotic biblical poetry from the Song of Songs. Her musical work continued. Her first album, Internal External with Matt Mitchell and Matana Roberts featured “Peace” by Ornette Coleman and “Portrait” by Charles Mingus. In 2009, she recorded Up Here, From Here (2009) with Avishai Cohen & Loren Stillman, creating an intricate jazz album using texts by Martin Luther King, John Cage and Rumi. And she’d worked with John Zorn, ETHEL, and Anat Fort.
The title track “Bridge” begins as a jazz vamp with congas. The vocals are sung in Hebrew. It’s interesting to hear this music in a language one does not expect to hear in this setting. One is immediately impressed by Gottlieb’s excellent vocal skills and style. In the middle of the song, the jazz gives way to a Middle Eastern flavor, and then returns to its jazz beginning.
“Love Song with a Ceiling Fan” (see video below): here, Gottlieb’s avant-garde influences come through. There are breaks during which the ensemble goes into some “out” places; but somehow, playfulness is not absent.
“Slowly, Distant” begins with an Arabic / flamenco guitar and a violin evoking the musical traditions that Jews and Muslims seem to share. Gottlieb comes in, and reinforces this musical atmosphere. As the song progresses, this remains strong; Ihab Nimer’s oud bringing its unique voice. Yet Gottlieb’s jazz background occasionally added itself as a factor in the equation.
The next track, “Clarity,” opens with Anat Fort’s piano offering a delightful and poetic solo. Gottlieb enters with her lovely voice, and the song becomes a smoky, mournful jazz song.
The rest of the tracks offer Gottlieb’s mastery of both jazz and middle eastern styles. It’s clear that both east and west are integral parts of her musical vision. Some interesting moments: “At The Supermarket” is a playful jazzy romp through a variety of changes, “A Second Bird,” which begins with violin imitating bird calls, and becomes an impressionistic poem. The last track, “From One Sky to Another, Dreamers Pass” begins as a Parisian jazz song and slides into an ethereal vocal foray.
Roadsides, released in October 2014, contains songs written over several years, and presents the flavors and sensations of everyday life, in what she called an “open letter to my homeland.” To quote Ms. Gottlieb; “People of all backgrounds love the land, its views and fragrances and flavors. I do believe at the core of my being that it is possible to elevate beyond the pain and hurt. It’s possible to do better at loving this place. Like Mahmoud Darwish says it – It is within our power to be as we ought to be.”
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