Label: Outside In Music, 2025
Personnel - Nadav Remez: guitar; Gregory Tardy: tenor saxophone, clarinet; Guy Moskovich: piano; Ben Tiberio: bass; David Sirkis: drums.
It’s not uncommon for a musician’s most personal to also become an artistic triumph, driven sincerity, effort, and honesty. That’s the case with Israeli guitarist and composer Nada Remez, whose sophomore album, Summit, places him in the company of American saxophonist Greg Tardy, pianist Guy Moskovich, bassist Ben Tiberio, and drummer David Sirkis. The program features eight Remez originals, written over the pat two decades, alongside three covers.
With a clean tone and resolute attack, Remez opens with “The Awakening”, a mature, layered piece that causes frisson at every turn. A solo piano prelude yields to a bass melody, the drums fortify the atmosphere, and the saxophone guides sumptuous melodic paths with the aid of the guitar. It’s as if John Abercrombie’s magic guitarism met a modal slice of Jewish folk, briefly disrupted by contemporary effects.
The quintet reimagines Yedidia Admon’s “Shedemati”, a century-old agricultural song, with sharp focus and modal enchantment. Entrancing bass lines launch solos from Remez, who colors under a swinging backdrop; Tardy, whose phrases weave in and out without losing narrative articulation; and Moskovich, who, catching Tardy’s solo tail, develops from there his own ideas.
Marked by epic expansiveness and exploratory drive, “Hephaestus” unfolds as an odd-metered contemporary klezmer before Tardy’s blazing solo. On Noam Sheriff’s “Hinach Yaffa Raayati”, harmony and rhythm are laid down with a modern feel, with the luminous main melody fronting a well-developed theme. The group shows cohesiveness, riding sequences of 16-beat cycles with joy and purpose.
Remez’s compositions demand both skill and sensitivity, qualities the group embodies fully on “Beyond!”, with its asymmetric form and the bandleader’s hypnotic, patiently built solo. Remez trades ideas with Tardy on the title track, while the saxophonist also shines on the closer, “Adon Olam”, a traditional Jewish prayer lifted into spiritual resonance.
Authentic and deeply personal, Remez’s style radiates integrity. Summit not only showcases his voice but also the remarkable chemistry and talent of his quintet.
Favorite Tracks:
01 - The Awakening ► 02 - Shedemati ► 04 - Hephaestrus ► 09 - Beyond!