Mohamed Salmawy Translated BY Raphael Cohen Butterfly Wings

The best young Israeli jazz presented by bassist, composer and singer, Avishai Cohen. A beautiful compilation of music from the growing Israeli Jazz Scene, where in recent years has seen an abundance of mature, young jazz musicians coming out of Israel. Cohen has hand-picked the musicians featured on this album who he considers some of the leading musicians of this movement; ‘To be a great artist one needs to have a meaningful life experience and story to tell and Israel certainly encourages that. The one thing that makes this an exceptional recording is the fact that all five band leaders are great composers in the making and are hinting to where the music is going now. It’s not just about New York anymore, Israel is now a jazz entity.’ (Avishai Cohen)

If you’re going to cover anyone you may as well aim high, and that is what Blue Raincoat (or Blå Regnrock to give them their original Swedish name before they decided to appeal to an international audience) have done with this album which reprises work by Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen and Neil Young. You can’t aspire much higher than that.