Colour photos by Megan Shumate

Photo by Ana Koleva

On Tuesday, May 24th I had the opportunity to see a performance of an exciting new trio, Augmented Reality, as they performed at the Cornelia Street Cafe in Greenwich Village to promote the release of their new self titled album. Pianist Roy Assaf, drummer Ronen Itzik, (both from Israel), and Peruvian bassist Jorge Roeder are all monster players and rising stars in the New York jazz scene. The house was packed for both sets and the chemistry between the musicians was undeniable as they performed a diverse repertoire of mainly Assaf and Itzik’s own originals. After the concert I had the opportunity to ask Ronen a few questions about the project.

William Harvey: First of all I just want to say that I really enjoyed the show I can honestly say that the performance only got better as the night went on. How do you guys know each other and how long have you been playing together?

Ronen Itzik: Me and Roy started playing together around five years ago in NY and we were involved in another project together which ended up being recorded. We felt a musical connection and knew we will be collaborating again at some point. A little over a year ago we decided to try our new tunes with a couple of bass players. Roy introduced me to Jorge and right from the start the connection was very strong and we knew that this was the right formation for the project. It felt like we had been playing together for a long time.

R.I. Roy and I each brought tunes and arrangements that were the corner stone for the project, but the growth process of each and every tune was a collaborative one. In order to personalize each tune and make it sound our own we decided to go through an interesting process where we took each other’s tunes and arranged it for the other composer. We made it a point to make sure we are open to each other’s ideas while taking advantage of the fresh takes on our own tunes. Through rehearsing we created a sound that is our own and each tune in it’s unique way has a little of each of us in it. We also really wanted to break away from the head in, solos, head out format, to find a dimension to that as well. In that way we made each tune’s concept and arrangement different from one another.

W.H. That was another aspect I enjoyed about the performance was that nothing seemed predictable or obvious. Very refreshing! Culturally your trio is a unique combination of players with two from Israel and one from Peru. How has your background influenced your music?