Nowadays there are no more tenors and trumpeters, like Jonas Kaufmann and the young Israeli Itamar Borochov, but only exceptional tenors and star percussionists, or the other way around, to name just two exponents of the music scene. It does not matter whether these stars radiate exceptionally bright for artistic or purely marketing-driven reasons: main thing is, there is extensive radiation on the way. This generalizing and non-binding jubilation tires music consumers and offers no decision criterion for the acquisition of this or that album. It is best to forgo the use of these taciturn and completely empty jubilations and start doing so by turning our attention to the exponent of the album Boomerang, the trumpeter Itamar Borochov, who is praised being a “star” in all previous reviews. This is also because, thanks to his unquestionable ability, he does not need this kind of cheering through the press.

On Boomerang, we experience Itamar Borochov as a trumpeter in the group of his current quartet, including his brother Avri Borochov on the bass, Michael King on the piano, and the percussionist Jay Sawyer. Having grown up in Israel, the trumpeter has absorbed the influences of Arab and African musicians quasi with mother's milk. In New York, he finally expanded his musical horizon towards jazz. After the visit of the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music, he realized that his musical orientation, which had been gained in the Israeli homeland, would be best expressed in jazz. The New York jazz clubs confirmed him in his decision to conquer the world of contemporary jazz as a trumpeter and composer as his own, and the audience's reaction confirmed this decision as well.

On his album, Boomerang, recorded in Paris in late 2015, it is easy to see that Itamar Borochov, fusing the western and middle-eastern sound world, has found his very own style in jazz. We encounter the Middle Eastern sound world modified, but as such recognizable only in Eastern Lullaby. Apart from that, this sound world is only remotely discernable by one or another twist in the pianist’s play or a sudden twist of the percussion, so strongly it is sublimated into a completely new sound and a surprisingly variable rhythm just as typical phrases and moods of the Western sound world of jazz, which seem shortly to surface similar to a Déja Vue, before not after all they prove themselves as elements of the very own sound language of Itamar Borochov.

Per Tangerines, the percussion- and bassless, short entrance song, in which the trumpet surfs weightlessly on the wave motion of the piano sound and dares to climb the highest heights, one is gently but irresistibly drawn into the spell of what will be coming up, already anticipating that one will inevitably land on new shores and will experience till then all sorts of unusual things. Without the necessity of attracting attention by too much dissonance, the trumpet and piano, in Shimshon, sing for nearly ten minutes the song of the newly gained freedom, which only will be appreciated by someone who could make the experience that the true and the only truth never is exclusively to be found in the country of origin and its tradition. Percussion and bass confirm extensively this knowledge gained. Miles Davis would be delighted.

Jones Street is the place where the narrative rapidly gathers moment to summarize what has been experienced so far in Adon Alon, and to make plans for the progress of the journey in Jaffa Tune. Avri's Tune proves to be the resting-place of the journey, as a time in which a simple, short-tuned and coming-fast-to-the-point song serves turns out to be good for the soul. Ça va bien then is doing well with the physics by bringing about a brisk movement, which does not rule out lively discussion within the quartet, finally agreeing to reflect in the Wanderer Song the wanderer’s joys and sorrows in the style of a Franz Schubert, and to recognize and document by a change of mood half way that the wanderer does not necessarily have to be a Müllerbursche, a miller’s apprentice. In the final prayer, the song Prayer, the piano gently sings a kind of Bach chorale, leading the album Boomerang to a worthy conclusion.

A great album, on which new musical paths are convincingly pursued. An album that has the finest recording technology that makes you forget that between what you hear and the recording location a lot of hardware is used, so naturally does the Itamar Borochov Quartet sound on Boomerang.

Itamar Borochov, trumpet, vocals (on track 9)
Michael King, piano
Avri Borochov, bass, oud (on tracks 8, 9), Sazbush, vocals (on track 9)
Jay Sawyer, drums
Guest musician:
Yisrael Borochov, Jumbush, vocals (on track 9)