He is considered one of the most famous Israeli musicians in the world.

And he barely reads characters

Jazz pianist Omri Moore is only 37 years old and for years he has been considered one of the most brilliant musicians in Israel and abroad.

In a special interview prior to his participation in the "International Exposure" festival, he talks about the depression when he could not play, about working with Idan Raichel and the decision not to tie himself stylistically.

Yotam Ziv

24/11/2021

Wednesday, November 24, 2021, 00:00

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Burst at an early age.

Moore (Photo: Yossi Tzabker)

Very few children as young as 14 begin to appear regularly in front of an audience.

Only a few, if any, get to perform weekly in a duet with legendary saxophonist Ernie Lawrence who has played with Dizzy Gillespie and Clark Terry, among others.

This is exactly how the musical career of pianist Omri Moore began, who stood out from an early age for his unique musical abilities.

Today, when he is only 37 years old, Moore is one of the most esteemed musicians in Israel, with his colleagues calling him a "genius" and a "natural phenomenon."

Moore played with the big stars of Israeli jazz but did not stop there.

So far, he has played with Yoni Rechter, Idan Raichel, Shlomo Gronich, Miri Mesika, Shai Tsabari and Esther Rada, among others.

This week, ahead of the recording of his second album, Moore will perform with his new line-up at the "Exposure" festival (which will open tonight), which indirectly, and without his knowledge, was one of the reasons for founding the festival marking its 12th birthday this year.

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Omri Moore grew up in Jerusalem and began playing the piano at the age of 7 following his older brother. "My parents bought an organ for my brother and I started trying to play everything I heard," Moore tells Walla! culture. For a second-grader, what he heard most were hymns at Shabbat reception. "The first pieces I played were 'Innocent Gd' and 'Little Room.'" At the age of 12, after playing Bach and Mozart's works, he began to study in an orderly fashion with a classical-oriented teacher. At that time, Moore was exposed to jazz pianist Oscar Peterson's masterpiece album and was captivated by its charm.

But then a problem arose. The young pianist did not want to learn notes. "I had great difficulty and even resistance to the notes, I did not understand why if I was already playing something, it was important that I know how to read these dark circles on the sheet of paper," he explains. Today, Moore notes, the situation is much better: "I read notes, at a perfectly reasonable level, but still when I compose today, I usually record for myself and write a general charter when I do not write my part and memorize it."

The person responsible for Moore's ability to read and write notes is Prof. Benjamin Oren, one of the top classical musicians in Israel, a graduate of the prestigious Juilliard School in New York who has been teaching at the Jerusalem Academy since 1962. The connection between the two was deep not only musically and today. 92, Moore continues to take lessons from him.

Although 25 years have passed, Prof. Oren does not forget the first time he met his student: "The first time I heard him he made a great impression on me. He played Chopin's nocturnal only by not being able to read notes. Omri is a unique musician and he is unlike any other. "He draws his inspiration from the classical worlds, he manages to capture the psyche of the great classical composers and when he improvises on them he creates a homage to their work."

Barely reads characters.

Moore (Photo: Berzi Goldblatt)

Along with studying with Prof. Oren, in those years, the young pianist met two other musical mentors who had a decisive influence on his work and his musical career. The first is the renowned saxophonist Ernie Lawrence who immigrated to Israel a few years after founding one of New York's most important institutions for training jazz musicians. Many of Lawrence's students now lead the world jazz scene. When he arrived in Jerusalem in 1997, he established one of the most significant jazz incubators in the country - the "International Center for Creative Music". "I was really a snub-nosed kid, I followed my instincts. I realized something special was happening around Ernie and I had to stick with him," Moore recalled.

"When he offered to play with him in a duet at the Barud restaurant in Jerusalem, I was surprised and excited. We did not rehearse at all, and I knew maybe five standards and still, every week we would play together. Ernie was an educator in his soul, from the old school .

At age 14, Moore met Nino Bitton, a multi-instrumentalist who plays Andalusian Algerian music. "Nino's playing mesmerized me, the rhythm, the passion and also the sounds. This is not music I knew or grew up on at home," Moore recalled. Bitton believed in learning through music and Moore began to spend long hours playing with him every day. "In a short time, almost without my noticing, I knew a lot of excerpts from Algerian Andalusian music," he says.

After high school, he studied at the Jerusalem Academy of Music, where he deepened in various fields of music. Shortly after graduating, due to recurrent infections in his hands, he was unable to play for nearly three years.

"I was quite depressed, I lived in Tel Aviv and worked in a jazz record store. I knew I would look at this period as an experience, but it was a difficult time. I got to the point where I had time to look at the piano and my hands started to ache. I heard quite a bit of music I did not know, but It was very frustrating to sell albums of my colleagues who released their debut albums during this period and to realize that I could not even play. "

Along with medical treatments that include steroid injections into the muscles of his hand, Moore began to study guided music with Shoshana Cohen and also deepened in an alternative medical treatment method called the "Greenberg method".

In 2010, the artistic director of the Tel Aviv Jazz Festival, Barak Weiss, invited Moore to perform with his trio, along with Gilad Avro on bass and Noam David on drums. This time, luck also played a role, alongside Moore's talent, of course. Barak Weiss recalls: "On the third day of the festival, I get an urgent phone call from the director of the Cinematheque who said 'the French delegation has complaints'. Until that moment I did not even know there was such a delegation." In retrospect, it became clear to him that the Department of Cultural Relations at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, together with the French Embassy in Israel, had brought a delegation from France, Belgium and Madagascar to Israel to see Israeli dance and some music. "When I met them, I recommended them to come to Omri Moore's show. It was clear to me that they would be enthusiastic about his genius," says Weiss. As expected, the members of the foreign delegation were very enthusiastic about the Israeli pianist and the refreshing and unique combination he presented between Andalusian music and American jazz.

"After the festival," says Weiss, "I contacted the culture department at the Foreign Ministry and suggested that they organize an organized 'exposure' to Israeli jazz."

In November of that year the pilot of the festival actually began.

Weiss himself served as the artistic director of the Exposure Festival for about a decade.

As a result of that performance Moore was invited to perform at many festivals in France and Europe.

Among other things, Moore was invited to a major festival in France in which his ensemble performed before the ensemble of one of the greatest jazz pianists in the world, the late Chick Korea.

"I had a hard time believing that my band and I were opening a show with Chick Korea playing after us. I was very excited about the class," says Moore.

More Andalusian than the Algerians

Since then, Moore has appeared in more than 55 countries on five continents. Naturally, because of his musical style, he has performed quite a bit in North Africa and over the years has become one of the world's most prominent ambassadors of the genre. For example, Moore has appeared in Morocco 12 times in various ensembles. One of the most prominent musicians who has performed with Moore in Morocco is Tom Cohen, conductor and arranger and who has in recent years led the "East and West Orchestra, the Israeli and also the important Moroccan ensemble" Al-Gusto ".

"I can not forget the first time I met Omri Moore," Cohen recalls. He said he happened to enter one of the classrooms when Moore was playing the piano. Cohen: "He played in all sorts of styles, switched from Andalusian music to jazz and classical music and then he started improvising and playing Mozart and Beethoven style, it just blew my mind. Since I'm in love with him and I try to take him with me on all my adventures abroad." Cohen is amazed at Moore's status in North Africa: "He's on a legendary level there and he's the only musician I can say out loud that he's a genius. "And so it is also treated in North Africa, because it brings to their music something that combines uniqueness and groundbreaking innovation along with a deep understanding, acceptance and respect for the tradition and authentic aesthetics of this rooted music," Cohen concludes.

Omri Moore's debut album, which was released in 2018, is played alongside Moore by Israeli international bassist Avishai Cohen and one of the best North African musicians in the world, drummer Karim Ziad, an Algerian resident in France. The relationship between the two started in general on Facebook. Moore: "I wrote to him that I admire his music. Shortly afterwards I performed in France and offered him to play with me there. Since we've been in a relationship and I'm proud to say he's one of my best friends beyond being a musician I admire.

In contrast to recent years in which the festival was held only in Jerusalem, this year it will also flow to Tel Aviv. The International Exposure Festival is a joint venture of the "Yellow Submarine - The Place for Music in Jerusalem" and the Cultural Diplomacy Division at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with the support of the Ministry of Culture and Sports and the Jerusalem Municipality. Starting tonight, dozens of prominent representatives of the music industry from around the world will watch a wide variety of Israeli music. One of the most intriguing performances at the festival is Omri Moore launching his new lineup, on the way to a new album.

"Most of the material was written during the Corona period and in terms of influences, everything I learned and played, classical, jazz, Andalusian, salsa, reggae, pop, rock, everything is in my musical DNA and when I write I try to be unaware and dilute my choices "From this unconscious spring, but everything is there. I have a conscious choice not to bind myself stylistically."

Gradually, as the corona virus began to fade, Moore returned to being one of the busiest musicians in the country and he frequently performed. Despite this, he is very fond of teaching and finds great satisfaction in training future generations through his work at the Jerusalem Academy.

"The way I learned, Marnie Lawrence, Nino Bitton and Benjamin Oren has a crucial impact on who I am today as a musician and teacher. I strongly believe that a teacher should train the student practically. I believe in this approach. "

The young and talented pianist Satyo Achai, Moore's student, who released her debut album last year and will even perform at this year's "Exposure", reinforces his words: "I met Omri after many searches for a teacher and mentor to speak to my heart. However very professional and respectful. Hearing him play and demonstrate in this class drops a jaw, sometimes to the point of a huge burst of laughter and playing with him is like walking a track that every moment can go in a completely different direction. Even when I wanted to go a step further with my music, he supported me And gave a lot of confidence. "

The degree of Moore's musical diversity can be learned from his essays with a wide range of musicians from different musical genres. One of them is Idan Raichel who performed with Moore on the same stage in Moore's tribute to Raichel's works, as part of the Eilat Jazz Festival. Raichel: "More than twenty years ago, I saw Omri on stage, at the beginning of his career. Immediately after the performance I turned to him, and asked if he would agree to give me piano lessons. At that time I was a keyboardist of many singers in the country, but Moore's playing was flighty. "I was shocked and excited. When Yossi Payne initiated a tribute evening to the music of 'The Project', it was a kind of closing of the circle for me and the choice of Omri Moore moved me very much. Moore is a true Israeli pride.

With which musician who no longer lives would you like to play, and with which of those who live and are active today?

"I would very much like to meet and study with Mozart, because he is my favorite musician of all time. And among those who live today I would be happy to play with drummer Jack DeJont."

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