Yonatan Levi & Katia Toobool Quintet

After years in New York and Berlin, with many brilliant appearances in the Jerusalem Jazz Festival as a sideman, the mesmerizing double bass player, Yonatan Levi, is coming back to us, this time as the conductor of a quintet of musicians together with the phenomenal jazz pianist Katia Toobool. With them in the ensemble are the saxophonists, Hagai Amir and Asaf Yuria, who also recently returned to Israel after 13 successful years in New York, and drummer Ofri Nehemyah.

Levi, a gifted double bassist and electronic music producer, is one of the busiest musicians in the country, moving between different worlds of sounds and styles. Yonatan has collaborated with jazz giants including Frank Wess, Ben Dixon, Eddie Henderson, Harry Whitaker and “Killer” Ray Appleton and with key figures in the local scene including Amit Golan, Amos Hoffman, Avishai Cohen and others. During his Berlin years he was exposed to the realm of electronic music and collaborated with prominent figures in the field, multidisciplinary artists and cross-genre creators including producer, DJ and saxophone player, Daze Maxim and producer Bruno Pronsato. His first solo album, NY Times, starring Jimmy Cobb, hit stores in March 2020, two months before the death of the legendary drummer.

The long-standing collaboration between Levi and Toobool, is a starburst of talent manifesting in the two different ensembles with which they perform. Toobool, who has been at the forefront of the local scene for years, is a virtuoso pianist, composer and prolific and esteemed creator, and a revered teacher at the Rimon School of Music and the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance. After graduating from the New School in New York, she worked her way into the contemporary jazz scene and played with Eric Harland, Milena Gillard and Gregory Hutchinson, among others. Upon her return to Israel, she and her partner, drummer Eddie Tubul, formed their own ensemble and at the same time performed with the best jazz musicians in the country, including Arale Kaminsky, Amikam Kimelman, Jess Koren, Ilan Salem, Avi Lebovich, Assaf Hakimi, Amit Friedman and more. In 2020 she released Neshima (Breath), an acclaimed duo album with saxophonist Jonathan Cohen, who collected original melodies she had composed for the first time.

The ensemble members will perform original materials by Toobool and Levi at the jazz festival.