Gilad Chatsav and Yayoi Okaniwa | Ladino-Jazz

 

Medieval Spanish music and Ladino especially piqued Yayoi Okaniwa’s interest since her graduation at the prestigious Kunitachi Music College in Tokyo.

After graduating, Okaniwa performed as a soloist in numerous vocal and instrumental ensembles of both baroque & medieval music and became acquainted with traditional Jewish music. Eventually the particular style of Sephardic Jewish music, Ladino, lead her to explore and search for a deeper understanding of the genre. she learned for months  and made a record dedicated fully to Ladino, the first of its kind in Japan. Recently, Yayoi Okaniwa attended a program supported by Bar Ilan University and started studying Ladino culture and language in Israel.

 

An active jazz pianist and composer, Gilad Chatsav has released 4 albums as band leader and is the Israeli ambassador for UNESCO’s International Jazz Day yearly project in Israel. Gilad's natural interest in combining styles led to a unique project with Yayoi Okaniwa. Okaniwa and Chatsav met in Tel Aviv.

 

Soon after, both of them started to share their vision about collaborating and making the current project, where Sephardic music meets Gilad Chatsav’s jazz arrangements for trio and vocal ensemble.

 

The result is a unique blend of sounds of Middle Eastern and Ladino music (traditional Jewish Sephardic songs from Turkey, Greece, and Bulgari) ; including splashes of Israeli, traditional jazz and Brazilian music.

 

The ladino-jazz project received warm comments and already conducted a successful tour to Japan. The project features Yayoi (voice, oud) and Pianist/Arranger Gilad Chatsav  along with support of the Gilad Chatsav Trio, these days, the band work on the recordings making of  Ladino-Jazz project