Red Sea Jazz Festival in Eilat opens

The 18th Red Sea Jazz Festival in Eilat began on Monday and is to continue until Thursday, hosting national and international groups.

Among the big guns from abroad are veteran saxophonist-flutist Charles Lloyd, guitarist John Scofield, bass player Charlie Haden and female drummer Cindy Blackman's quartet.

"Traditionally, the Eilat jazz festival has been a middle-of-the-road event," said perennial artistic director Danny Gottfried, "but [this year] I wanted to see how the Israeli public reacts to a slightly more progressive program. It's the most open, and least traditional, of any Red Sea festival so far."

The Bad Plus trio will be playing on the last two days of the festival, as well as giving a master class on the third day.

The non-mainstream end of the festival program also features French trumpeter Erik Truffaz, who mixes modern dance rhythms with drum 'n' bass, hip hop as well as rock 'n' roll, and American trumpeter Russell Gunn, who weaves Cuban, Brazilian and African sentiments with rap and progressive jazz, liberally laced with urban noise.

The festival also provides some of our homegrown artists a chance to play in front of big audiences, as well as rub shoulders with their better-known counterparts. Trombonist Avi Lebovich's wind instrument-based Orkestra ensemble should get Eilat audiences grooving, while guitarist Yottam Silberstein's trio and saxophonist Tevet Sela's mix of straight-ahead jazz fused with Jewish and other ethnic motifs will no doubt appeal to Gottfried's middle-of-the-road crowd.