EYAL MAOZ

ABOUT EYAL MAOZ Bandleader, solo performer and composer Eyal Maoz leads a number of original music ensembles including Edom, Dimyon, and Crazy Slavic Band. He also co-leads the Maoz-Sirkis Duet, the Maoz-Masaoka Duet (with koto player Miya Masaoka) and Hypercolor (with Lukas Ligeti and James Ilgenfritz), and is a guest member of John Zorn’s Cobra. Eyal’s ensembles have performed at major music festivals worldwide such as the Montreal International Jazz Festival, NYC 2007 Winter JazzFest, Brooklyn BAM Next Festival, Verizon Jazz Festival, the New York Jewish Music and Heritage Festival, Florida Music Harvest, The Jewzapalooza Festival in NYC and many more. His music was featured in the movies Keepers Of Eden (by Yoram Porath), Israeli’s Cinema History documentary (by Raphael Nadjari) as well as at the MTV show “Undress.” WNYC/NPR recently interviewed him and dedicated a 90-minute program to his music. Born in Israel, Eyal started to explore jazz, rock and avant-garde music at an early age. He led the highly celebrated Lemon Juice Quartet which performed regularly at the Red Sea International Jazz Festival, released three original CDs and was heralded for their CD “Peasant Songs,” a raucous version of Bela Bartok and Eric Satie’s music on Piadrum Records. Eyal’s collaboration with long-time childhood friend and in-demand UK drummer Asaf Sirkis, has resulted in two duo CDs; the most recent “Elementary Dialogues” was released in June 2009 by Ayler Records (France). His Jewish music acoustic ensemble, Dimyon, has earned critical acclaim after performances in Israel and Italy. After a successful guitar solo tour in Austria, Eyal recently completed a guitar tour in China, playing solo as well as performing with local musicians from straight-ahead jazz aficionados to extreme avant-garde noisemakers. “Hope and Destruction,” his second CD on Tzadik Records with his ensemble “Edom” will be released this fall. The group’s debut CD, featuring Maoz with John Medeski, Shanir Blumenkranz and Ben Perowsky, earned wide acclaim for its soulful, hard-rocking “ecstatic” music.