New Sound of the Middle East

The album title certainly makes a brave claim, but in many ways the music lives up to it, for Hagai Bilitzky is an adventurous musician. A teacher at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance, he's also a double-bass player with an intriguing history: he has worked with everyone from the Ladino exponent Yasmin Levy to Palestinian singer Amal Murkus, and the legendary Maurice el Médioni, the veteran Jewish musician who became a hero in Algeria thanks to his influence on rai.

Now comes Bilitzky's solo set, a collection of his instrumental compositions in which the influences range from jazz to the traditional Arabic maqam. He is joined by an impressive six-piece band playing violin, the bouzouki-like buzuq, ney (flute) and oud, and with two percussionists, but what makes the set so original is Bilitzky's double-bass work. He starts out by providing a slinky, sturdy bassline that underpins the swirl of oud, violin and flute – and then steps out to follow the oud in providing a solo, rather like a jazz musician. Many of his compositions start out medium-paced and stately but then switch mood and tempo, with Bilitzky constantly alternating between plucked and bowed bass work – and providing a Middle Eastern-inspired jazz workout on the solo track ‘Taqsim Hijazz’.