Ayelet Rose Gottlieb
Roadsides (Independent)

It would have given me great pleasure to announce that one of the year’s best Hebrew-language recordings was made in Vancouver, but no: Roadsides was cut at Pluto Studios in Tel Aviv, although it was mastered here by drummer and electronics tech Dylan van der Schyff. So we’ll probably have to wait until Ayelet Rose Gottlieb finishes her next record before our town makes waves in the Israeli market—but now that she’s a local, that’s a distinct possibility.

Sonically and geographically, it’s hard to pin this singer down. Her website lists residences in Israel, London, and New York City in addition to B.C., while her TD Vancouver International Jazz Festival debut, in 2013, found her inhabiting the world of international modernism. Accompanied by pianist and ECM recording artist Anat Fort, she delivered a sophisticated set that oscillated between contemporary art music and free-form creativity.

The very gifted Fort returns here, but the emphasis shifts more toward the kind of pop-flavoured Israeli jazz (or jazz-flavoured Israeli pop) purveyed by the likes of Idan Raichel and Avishai Cohen. The music is at its strongest when Middle Eastern sounds predominate—check out Ihab Nimer’s oud on album highlight “The World in Translation”—and Gottlieb further extends her eclectic reach with her setting of the late Palestinian poet and activist Mahmoud Darwish’s “From One Sky to Another, Dreamers Pass”. Imagine a fine jazz vocalist sitting in with a slinky klezmer band and you’d be on the right track—and an interesting track it is, too.

Gottlieb plans to unveil a new, Vancouver-based band in November; stay tuned.