As soon as you hear the first notes of this CD, you think: “Ah, here’s a guitarist who doesn’t follow in the footsteps of Pat Metheny, John Scofield or Bill Frisell!”
In fact, the playing of Eran Har Even, a 40 some-year-old Israeli who has lived in Amsterdam for the past ten years, can best be traced back to that of Jim Hall. From the harmonic sophistication of his playing and the limpidity of his phrasing to his fruity, effect-free sound, this excellent instrumentalist’s approach to the guitar clearly derives from Jim Hall.
Choosing to revisit Wayne Shorter’s repertoire is no ordinary choice for a guitarist, and it’s fair to say that Eran Har Even has indeed reappropriated these themes, offering a sensitive and intelligent rereading based on group work that makes the trio sound very homogeneous without necessarily emphasizing guitar solos.
It is as much – if not more – as a musician than as an instrumentalist that the guitarist tackles a body of work that has rarely been covered by his fellow six-string players, and certainly not on an entire album. Wayne Shorter is one of the major composers of recent decades, and it’s clear that his music has a dimension that allows any jazz formation to make it its own.
Eran Har Even shows us that, in this respect, the guitar/bass/drums trio is a particularly well-suited tool for revisiting a work that will undoubtedly remain a source of inspiration for jazzmen/women for a long time to come, whatever instrument they play and whatever type of group they perform in.
Line up:
Eran Har Even: guitar
Omer Govreen: double bass
Wouter Kühne: drums
Shorter Days was released by World Citizen Music Records, on January 18, 2024.
All compositions by Wayne Shorter – Arrangements by Eran Har Even Trio –Recorded at the Roode Bioscoop by Philip Ten Brink – Mixed by Alessandro Mazzieri – Mastered Marci Fenyvesi @ F.M Mastering – Artwork by Hagar Cohen – Videos by Felipe Pipi / Mastered by Alessandro Mazzieri – Solo shoot pictures by Cripta Scheppers.
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