Eyal Vilner Big Band - Hanukkah (2016) [CD-Rip]

“Old yet new, familiar but fresh, it’s jazz for the people at its most enduring best” ~Russ Musto, New York City Jazz Record.

The Eyal Vilner Big Band, a 16-piece NYC based jazz orchestra, features some of the finest musicians of the New York jazz scene. Their third release – Hanukkah, offers a new and original way to celebrate the beautiful repertoire of the traditional holiday songs. The music was arranged by Vilner in a unique blend of traditional jazz and swing music, Middle Eastern rhythms and the Brazilian Choro. The band is joined by a vocal trio in the Boswell Sisters style and by the Israeli flautist, Itai Kris.

The Hanukkah project was recorded live at one of the oldest Synagogues in the US – The Eldridge Street Synagogue, an 1887 National Historic Landmark. The unique acoustics add a special touch and complement the sound of the recording.

Growing up in Tel Aviv, saxophonist/clarinetist-composer/arranger Eyal Vilner moved to New York in 2007 and started his big band the following year. Since its inception the band has performed at some of the top jazz venues in NY and Israel including Jazz at Lincoln Center, Smalls Jazz Club and Central Park SummerStage, Red Sea Jazz Festival, Tel Aviv Museum, Jerusalem Theater and more. Their first two albums Introducing The Eyal Vilner Big Band and Almost Sunrise received rave reviews and made it to the Top Jazz Radio Charts throughout the US and Canada. Eyal’s writing was described as “full of daring and wit—much of it deeply in the tradition, some questing toward a convincing contemporary edge.”

“Contemporary yet classic, traditional but modern, The Eyal Vilner Big Band brings the timeless sounds of the Swing Era into the 21st Century, simultaneously preserving and renewing the mood of a time when jazz was the popular music that swept the country off its feet and onto dance floors all across America. A sound that continues to reverberate all around the globe, it captured the heart of the Israeli born saxophonist/clarinetist-arranger/composer, who leads this swinging aggregation from his adopted home of New York City, the jazz capital of the world.”