Oran Etkin / Gilad Hekselman

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Part of the Israeli Jazz at Joe's Pub Series
presented with the America-Israel Cultural Foundation

“…a composer of eminent individuality. [Oran Etkin] is also an extraordinary performing musician, who is a soul and mind in search of ultimate truth in aesthetics. He is a profoundly moral, socially responsible man.”
-Yusef Lateef

Clarinetist, Bass-Clarinetist and Saxophonist Oran Etkin has cultivated a very personal voice through a decade of work with some of the best musicians in both the modern jazz scene and the world of
African music. In his travels to Mali, Oran had the opportunity to play for the Chief of all Griots and work with some of the region's most respected musicians.  Oran's forthcoming CD, Kelenia, explores the connection of these two worlds and his own roots in Israeli and Jewish music.  On Kelenia, Oran is joined by Malian Griot master musicians Abdoulaye Diabate, Balla Kouyate and Meckane Kouyate, as well as bassist John Benitez, Joe Sanders and guitarist Lionel Loueke.

Since his arrival to New York in 2004, Gilad Hekselman has been earning a reputation as one of the most promising guitarists in New York. In only three years this native Israeli has shared the stage with many top names from the New York jazz scene including Gretchen Parlato, Chris Potter, Greg Hutchinson, Reuben Rogers, Ari Hoenig, Joel Frahm, Joe Martin, Jeff 'Tain' Watts, Jonathan Blake, Anat Cohen, Jason Lindner, Avishai Cohen, Joe Cohn, Omer Avital, Mark Ferber, Kendrick Scott, Matt Brewer, Hans Glawischnig, Eric McPhearson and François Moutin. He has played the Blue Note, The Jazz Gallery, Smalls, 55 Bar, Dizzy's Club, Minton's Playhouse, Fat Cat and toured in Switzerland, Japan, Scotland, Canada, Norway, and Israel. He has also played in world famous Jazz festivals such as Montreux JF, Duke Ellington JF, San Francisco JF and Tel Aviv JF.

Gilad is the Winner of the 2005 Gibson Montreux International Guitar Competition. A string of performance dates followed that achievement in 2006, highlighted by the Gibson Les Paul guitar he received from Claude Nobs: he opened for guitar legend Paco De Lucia at the Montreux Jazz Festival, performed at the IAJE conference in New York, at Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola - Jazz at Lincoln Center.