Melodies of Light

Having only recently reviewed Levitt’s Soul Song (in #190) I was surprised and delighted to see he’d released a second album in the space of a few months. Remarkably, it transpires that Melodies of Light is the result of just one extra day in the studio after the recording of the previous album.

Pianist/composer Omri Mor and drummer Ofri Nehemya were encouraged to improvise and only later did jazz fusion bassist/composer Levitt add his bass parts. Levitt shaped the improvised material into fully-realised compositions and, in doing so, has co-created another album of transcendent music, this time with Mor’s piano taking centre-stage.

As with the previous album, you can detect South African and Hasidic influences, even touches of Eric Satie, but also Middle Eastern and Moroccan flavours.

It would be unfair to describe this as an hour of leftovers from a recording session – it’s a delicate, rich listening experience in its own right. But, for me, this is not quite as sublime as Soul Song. For all that, what a difference an extra day of studio time can make.