Fresh from touring the world, the Hadar Noiberg Trio comes to the Al Green Theatre on Nov. 22 at 8 p.m.
Hadar Noiberg is an Israeli-born, New York-based flutist, composer and arranger. She combines jazz improvisation, Middle Eastern and North African rhythms and melodies with western harmonic structure in her original compositions, as is evident on her CD, Journey Back Home.
For her Toronto concert, Noiberg will perform with double bassist Edward Perez, who’s from Texas, and drummer Yoni Halevy, an Israeli who is subbing for Ziv Ravitz.
“The concept of the trio started because I get to play in various scenes in New York, including the jazz, Cuban and Brazilian scenes,” Noiberg says. “What is beautiful about New York City is that you can play with people that come from these countries. I just love their sense of roots and how they feel connected to their music and culture.
“It made me think of my culture and what it means to be a jazz musician from Israel. I started learning more about Middle Eastern and Arabic music, and played with others who played jazz, but were also interested in Middle Eastern music.”
She says that when eastern Europeans immigrated to Israel they were influenced by the Bedouins and other Arabs.
“A modern style of music has come out of that, but I feel sometimes it has been left behind… I’m just trying to incorporate those old influences where you can have a melody that sounds a bit Middle Eastern, but then add jazz improvisational and harmonies… breaking the boundaries and trying to mesh all that into a language.”
Noiberg began her career touring with the Young Philharmonic Orchestra. She studied classical music at the Tel Aviv Academy of Music and is the founding member of the celebrated African/Israeli fusion group Yemen Blues, which performed in Toronto last year at an Ashkenaz event.
Noiberg moved to New York eight years ago, enrolling in flute and composition at City College of New York. In 2007, the ASCAP Foundation granted Noiberg a Young Jazz Composer Award.
The trio’s future includes a European tour and the recording of another CD in 2013. Noiberg also plans to continue performing with Brazilian and Cuban bands in New York City.
The concert in Toronto is co-presented by the Al Green Theatre in the Miles Nadal Jewish Community Centre, with support from the Canada-Israel Cultural Foundation and the Consulate General of Israel, in conjunction with Toronto Downtown Jazz.
For tickets, contact the Al Green Theatre box office, 416-924-6211, ext. 0, www.algreentheatre.ca.
For more information about Noiberg, visit www.hadarnoiberg.com and/or www.torontojazz.com.
