Hila Kulik Trio & Omri Abramov 26.07.24 b-flat

Hila Kulik - piano
Marc Michel - drums
Josh Ginsburg - bass
Special Guest: Omri Abramov - saxophone

Current album “More Than a Change”

Another piano solo is already waiting: neither classically harmonic, nor atonally free, but rather modal in the sense of Bill Evans or McCoy Tyner, she plays her irrepressible, yet very differentiated strokes. Regardless of how her style of playing is to be categorized, her enthusiastic playing of the grand piano is simply great. The enthusiastic audience agrees. Josh Ginsburg's bass now creates a funky figure with light beat support from the drums. The lines and runs of the bass have the character of rough, even eruptive outbursts - if such a thing is possible on the double bass, but that's how it sounds. Anyway. The striking bass solo glides out, leaving the solo stage to drummer Marc Michel: with rolling strokes, bouncy beats and banging rolls, it really gets down to business, which in jazz is called power drumming. Where the sticks no longer do it, his elbow does it.

Hila Kulik's announcement refers to another piece by Oscar Peterson - “L'Impossible”. And that's how it will sound. But first it is up to the piano to introduce, to create tension for the anticipated theme, to play it carefully. Then it's the bass and drums that magic up a casual and cool Latin beat. The piano then makes this seductive rhythm swing. Cascading runs and virtuoso chords almost perfectly combine the beguiling Latin Tough with the spirit of the great master Oscar Peterson. The title remains Latin, but changes slightly by de-emphasizing the rhythmic component and focusing instead on a ballad-like arrangement. Nonetheless, “L'Impossible” is a subtly swinging title in the style of a samba: musically lived Brazil, here and now in b-flat.

In contrast, the following song is quite freely intoned. The sax in particular blows its expressive tone sequences unleashed into the track and into the audience. The agile tenor saxophone receives congenial support from the “rhythm section”.  Hila enthusiastically packs a groovy load of powerful chords and sweeping strokes on top. Then the whole band comes together to play a phrase in unison and end the track - for a well-deserved break for everyone.

2nd set. Time for another stylistic variation. “More Than a Change”, which is also the title of the current album of the same name.

It begins with a subtle duo between piano and bass.  First, Josh Ginsburg elicits melodic motifs from his bass, which are supported by complementary piano figures. Marc Michel's drums make a very discreet rhythmic contribution to the success of the genre. The music is now an excellent piano trio sound, in which Hila Kulik is the female incarnation of the “roaring lion in the Steinway” - J.E. Behrendt? via McCoy Tyner? She gets on blindly with her fellow performers. All in all, the title with its varied passages turns out to be a mixture of jazz and rhythm & blues with a few subliminal nuances of a ballad.

In her next announcement, she explains the relationship to her musician colleague, close friend and - as Omri Abramov interjects - mentor Erez Barnoy, who died three years ago.

“Emek” is the title of the composition dedicated to him. Musically, the homage is intoned as a hymn. The saxophone takes over the intro. An intimate duet soon develops between the tenor saxophone and the piano, which encourages the band to join in later. Drums & bass do this with slightly colored Cuban beats. The result is a fast, compact sound that transitions into a crazy swing in which Hela Kulik can't resist repeatedly expressing her joy of playing and virtuosity: Crashing chords, pearling runs, cascading “waterfalls” and everything that can be made to swing acoustically in the black and white keys. The sax does its best to do the same and the “working class” in jazz, i.e. bass & drums, work their asses off, plucking and drumming the jazz out of their bodies - When Light Glows Through Your Window.

Even if the 3 other tracks are all convincing, “When Light Glows Through Your Window” is probably the highlight of the concert - but that is only a subjective impression and rating.