Efrat Gosh and the Tel Aviv Jazz Orchestra

The 2011 Tel Aviv Jazz Festival closed on Saturday night with a late night concert featuring singer-songwriter Efrat Gosh and the Tel Aviv Jazz Orchestra conducted by Amikam Kimmelman. For Gosh, who released her third album Ah Ah Ah Ahava in 2010, it was perhaps a homecoming of sorts, taking her back to her days at the Rimon School where she focused on jazz.

A waif-like figure with a big voice, Gosh is no stranger to the stage, having experimented with acting in films and onstage in the Cameri musical Restless Night, yet the encounter with songs made famous by Billie Holiday, Nat King Cole and Edith Piaf led the singer to confess “I want to run away.”

But backed by the amazing orchestra and the fresh dynamics of Amikam Kimmelman’s arrangements, she dove right into the music; and by the second song – Mean to Me, a Billie Holiday standard written by Roy Turk and Fred E. Ahlert – she was having fun with it. The Tel Aviv Jazz Orchestra has a tradition of collaborating with Israeli musicians and has hosted singers such as Shalom Hanoch and Nurit Galron. Performing with such an orchestra is a gift and a challenge for a singer – they’re that good.

They’re so good that each one deserves to be mentioned: Saxophones – Robert Anchipolovsky, Dima Pianin, Eitan Goffman, Omri Abramov, Alan Basin; Trumpets – Yuval Peled, Doron Silashi, Gregory Rivkin, Eli Eidlin; Trombones – Idan Walish, Yonathan Volchuk, Ma’ayan Milo, Oren Frenkel; Drums – Roi Oliel; Guitar – Dekel Bor; Piano – Hod Moshonov; Bass – Simon Starr; Vibraphone & Percussion – Rami Shuler.

The music brought warmth and intimacy to the large hall of the cinematheque – there was a party feel to the evening, a very classy closing party to the festival, with a tribute to jazz across three continents. The best treat of the evening was hearing Kimmelman’s jazz arrangements for two songs from Efrat Gosh’s recent album: Memahar Daf Hadash (Starting a new page from tomorrow) and Ah Ah Ah Ahava (Love). You really should have been there, but if you weren’t you can still hear a clip of the last song on YouTube: