Amit Golan - Ooshmi
If you’re an Israeli Jazz musician, you know Amit Golan and how important he was for a whole generation of musicians. Amit was a Jazz pianist, composer, arranger and teacher, but more than that, to me he was the kind of person who walks around with a magical aura, who exudes something cool and exciting, who made you feel like you wanted some of what he had. He was a teacher, but in the truest and rarest sense of the word - education comes from the latin root educe, which means to draw out, to coax. Indeed, the passion and curiosity Amit inspired in his students remained with them long after they had finished school, and in many the flame still burns strong. I remember walking out of my early lessons with him and feeling completely hazy, as if in a dream, and it was sometimes days before the feeling dissipated enough for me to come back to reality.
A big part of Amit’s genius was his great taste in music. He had a gigantic collection of CDs and vinyl, and he was totally immersed in the sound of the golden age of Blue Note records, especially the Hard Bop era: Lee Morgan, Hank Mobley, Horace Silver, Tadd Dameron, Wes Montgomery, Clifford Brown, Bobby Timmons and their contemporaries were always on his mind as he was playing, composing, teaching, writing or just having one of his many casual chats with friends after a gig. This complete knowledge enabled him to make his arrangements authentic and original and his own records sound and feel just like the classic records he loved.
Sadly, Amit passed away in 2010 shortly before the planned recording of his second album; but when the studio date arrived, two of his friends and long-time protégés, Jack Glottman and Yonatan Riklis, filled in for him on the piano. The rest of the sextet features guest artist and trumpet luminary Eddie Henderson and a stellar Israeli lineup: Gilad Abro on bass, Jonathan Voltzuk on trombone, Asaf Yuria on tenor sax, Shay Zelman and Yonatan Rosen on drums, Ofer Ganor on guitar and Amit’s son, Tav Golan, playing bass on one track.
Here is the album’s opening track called “Ooshmi,” one of Amit’s nicknames:
This transcription might seem un-pianistic because of the way it incorporates all three horn lines, and yet it offers a stylistic study in arranging for a hard-bop sextet and using doubled horn lines, a-la Horace Silver. I like this song a lot and think it is very idiomatic and exemplary of a style that is dear to my heart. I hope some of Amit’s spirit carries through and continues to live in his music and the people who knew and loved him.