"Jazz is an indigenous American art form, but it is also a thoroughly global enterprise. And few of the music's practitioners embody its universality more completely than saxophonist Uri Gurvich" DOWNBEAT

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Saxophonist and composer Uri Gurvich was a member of the Tel Aviv Jazz Orchestra and won at 20 the Jazz Player of the Year competition in his native Israel before coming to Berklee College of Music, where he studied under Joe Lovano.

 

Based in New York for the past decade, Gurvich won great acclaim as a bandleader with his debut album The Storyteller (Tzadik), featuring some of the most prominent voices on the contemporary jazz scene: Argentinian pianist Leo Genovese, Bulgarian bassist Peter Slavov, Cuban drummer Francisco Mela, and special guest Chris Cheek on tenor sax. All Music Guide called Gurvich, “a major new voice in jazz”.

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Gurvich’s second album, BabEl (Tzadik), features his long-time quartet and Moroccan multi- instrumentalist Brahim Fribgane on oud and percussion.
The Los Angeles Times wrote that the music “transcends borders,” placing Israeli, Yemenite, East European, and North African music into a progressive jazz context

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Their third album, KINSHIP, was released in 2017 on the boutique French label, Jazz Family. The album was an 'Editor Choice' pick on Jazz Times and was featured on Stereogum, which called it "Unique and hypnotic".

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Gurvich and his quartet appeared at the legendary Village Vanguard, NYC Town Hall, Tel Aviv Jazz Festival, DC Jazz Festival, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Atlanta Jazz Festival, Burlington Jazz Festival, Red Sea Jazz Festival, Ecuador Jazz Festival, Malaga Jazz Festival, Chutzpah! Fest, The Stone and more. 

In addition, Uri has performed at the Blue Note, The Jazz Standard, Birdland, Jazz @ Lincoln Center, Alice Tully Hall, JVC Jazz Festival, Jazz à Vienne, Marciac Jazz Festival, Copenhagen Jazz Festival, Istanbul Jazz Festival, Nisville Jazz Festival, PetroJazz-St. Petersburg, Getxo Jazz Festival, Santander Jazz Festival, Jaffa Jazz Festival, Jazzhus Montmartre-Copenhagen, Centro Coltural de Belem-Lisbon, JazzOpen Stuttgart and more. 

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Performing concerts in the U.S., Europe, South America and Asia, Gurvich has shared the stage and recorded with such artists as: Grammy winner - Esperanza Spalding, John Zorn, Billy Cobham, Mingus Big Band, Lionel Loueke, Chris Potter, Dave Liebman, Elio Villafranca, Ben Monder, George Garzone, Alon Yavnai, Avishai Cohen, Jorge Rossy, Paquito D'Rivera, Uri Caine, Anat Cohen and Django Bates among others.

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EDUCATION - 

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Uri Gurvich is a part-time faculty member at The New School University - College of Performing Arts. He holds a B.M. from Berklee College of Music and a M.M. from The New School University.

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Gurvich was a guest lecturer and clinician at Berklee College of Music, The Danish Royal Academy of Music, Cornell University, Ithaca College, Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre, Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre, TAI University (Madrid, Spain), Conservatorio Superior de Musica (Valencia, Spain), Universidad De Las Américas (Quito, Ecuador), Rimon School of Music (Tel Aviv, Israel) and Koyo School of Music and Dance (Kobe, Japan). 

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