Asaf Yuria to Release IN LIGHT OF A NEW MOON on JOJO Records
Recorded at Van Gelder Studio, the album marks a shift toward interpretations after 2020's Exorcisms.
Tenor saxophonist Asaf Yuria is set to release IN LIGHT OF A NEW MOON, a new album via JOJO Records that finds him working with a quartet of veteran musicians rather than the sextet he assembled for his prior release. The album, recorded at Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs, features pianist George Cables, bassist Omer Avital and drummer Billy Hart, with trumpeter Joe Magnarelli appearing as a special guest. The project shifts Yuria's focus toward interpretations of existing repertoire rather than the original compositions that shaped his earlier work.
New York-based tenor saxophonist Asaf Yuria is not one to make the same record twice. Five years ago, he released the remarkable Exorcisms on Jojo Records, surrounded by a sextet of New York musicians still little known in Europe and built around a program of original compositions. Today, with In Light of a New Moon, Yuria charts an entirely different course: a quartet of celebrated masters and a repertoire devoted primarily to interpretations, once again recorded at the legendary Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs.
Among these formidable musicians are pianist George Cables and drummer Billy Hart, both former teachers of Yuria's, and both particularly inspired here, alongside the superb bassist Omer Avital. Trumpeter Joe Magnarelli joins as a special guest on two tracks.
What hasn't changed is Yuria's profound love for the hard bop movement, a music that takes the improvisational foundations of bebop and casts them in a more playful, high energy form, drawing deeply on the blues, rhythm & blues, and gospel. It is a style carried forward by Horace Silver, Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers, and Clifford Brown, as well as by the great tenor saxophonists who shaped Yuria's own voice: Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane, Benny Golson, Hank Mobley, Harold Land, and more.
Yuria has made this music entirely his own, and his joy in playing and deepening it radiates throughout this new program. It features one original composition, 'Praise of Shadows,' yet the album sits squarely within the hard bop tradition, bolstered by the addition of Magnarelli's trumpet. The lone true standard here is the sublime ballad 'Polka Dots and Moonbeams,' along with a beautiful reimagining of Dizzy Gillespie's 'Con Alma' and a breathtaking take on a hard bop touchstone, 'Hipsippy Blues.' Above all, the spotlight falls on fresh readings of pieces by John Hicks ('After the Morning') and George Cables ('Circle' and 'EVC').
Additionally, In Light of a New Moon marks Yuria's third appearance on Jojo Records, following his contribution to Simon Belelty's 2022 album Pee Wee.
'After the Morning' was composed in 1979 by pianist John Hicks, originally for solo piano. Yuria has crafted a remarkable quartet arrangement that showcases the piece's haunting, unforgettable melody at a medium tempo, a tune he has played in concert regularly since his earliest days.
Saxophonist Hank Mobley wrote 'Hipsippy Blues' in 1959 for Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, of which he was then a member. A quintessential hard bop classic, it is performed here in quintet with trumpeter Joe Magnarelli.
'Polka Dots and Moonbeams' is the celebrated Jimmy Van Heusen standard, first introduced by the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra with Frank Sinatra in 1940. Virtually every great jazz vocalist has taken up this magnificent ballad, along with countless players, from Lester Young and Bill Evans to Stan Getz and Paul Desmond with Jim Hall. The Yuria quartet's version, played in duet with Cables, is uncommonly sensual and moving.
'Circle' was composed by George Cables and first recorded in 1979 in a quartet with flutist Joe Farrell. Yuria had the inspired idea of asking the pianist to revisit his own piece for this quartet in a joyous bossa treatment: faster, brighter, and gloriously sun-drenched.
'Praise of Shadows' is Yuria's only original composition on the album: a musical world steeped in hard bop, where he summons trumpeter Joe Magnarelli for a particularly explosive quintet performance.
George Cables is honored once more with his composition 'EVC,' originally released in 2003 in a quartet with saxophonist Gary Bartz. The Yuria quartet's version stays close to the original. A piece Asaf holds especially dear, having discovered it some twenty years ago, when Cables was his teacher.
'Con Alma' is Dizzy Gillespie's famous 1954 composition, performed here in an intimate saxophone-piano duo. It is a beautiful way to close the album: an intense, interactive musical dialogue that captures the very definition of jazz. The piece is also a personal favorite of label founder Simon Belelty, and it appears on a number of Jojo Records releases, always in elegant and original arrangements.
Based on a text by Lionel Eskenazi
The album follows Yuria's 2020 release EXORCISMS, also issued on JOJO Records, which featured a sextet of New York-based musicians performing original compositions.
Photo Credit: Dan Bality
Photo Credit: Dan Bality
