One of the most prominent and unique trumpet players of his generation, Itamar Borochov from Israel will open the 18th edition of the festival Jazz Appreciation Month in Montenegro – JAM 2025, on Tuesday, April 1, at KIC “Budo Tomović” at 8 p.m. His guest appearance will continue in the next two days at the Royal Theater Zetski dom in Cetinje (April 2, at 8 p.m.) and in the White Hall of the International School “Adriatic Open School” in Bar (April 3, at 7 p.m.). The Montenegrin tour of Itamar Borochov was supported by the Embassy of Israel in Belgrade.
Raised in the cosmopolitan port city of Jaffa, now resident in New York, Borochov is creating a new musical hybrid from the broad palette of influences of his rich global landscape. Arba – Borochov’s fourth album as leader, was recorded in 2022 with his quartet of in-demand New York musicians and Grammy award-winning producer Matt Pierson, and released on 8th September 2023 on Greenleaf Music. The nine original compositions celebrate an emergence from a time of hopelessness and loss to a recognition of faith in the radiant life-force. Borochov performs on a custom-made Monette 4-valve quarter-tone trumpet which he uses to incorporate Maqams into his playing (the middle-eastern microtonal modes that are the musical language of his traditional upbringing).
Borochov first heard Sephardic music in his local synagogue and absorbed these‘maqams’ (modes) of the greater Middle East and North Africa alongside a range of other musical influences. He began playing trumpet at the age of eleven and immersed himself in the discovery of jazz, inspired by the jazz trumpet lineage of Louis Armstrong, Clark Terry, Miles Davis, Kenny Dorham, Lee Morgan, and Booker Little through to Wynton Marsalis, and citing the influence of Ben Webster for his assured yet wistful warm airy tone. In 2007 Borochov relocated to New York to study at the New School and attend Barry Harris’s weekly workshops.
Borochov won the prestigious 2020 ‘Rising Stars’ Jazz Award European edition, which was presented to him in February 2021 by vocalist Dee Dee Bridgewater. He has toured across four continents and performed at prestigious venues such as Lincoln Center, The Kennedy Center, SummerStage at Central Park, Blue Note NY, Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club, Bimhuis, Flagey and international festivals including Roskilde, Vitoria, Lviv, Montreal & Ottawa Jazz Festivals, London Jazz Festival, Moscow Jazz Festival, Tel Aviv & Red Sea Jazz Festivals, Jazz à Liège & Shanghai World Music Festival. The Itamar Borochov Quartet was chosen to showcase at WOMEX 2019 in Tampere, Finland.
Tickets for the concert in Podgorica are on sale at the KIC Budo Tomović box office from Monday, March 24, 2025 at a price of 10 euros.