Here From There

Yaniv Taubenhouse possesses a rare gift as a musician and pianist; the combination of virtuosity, curiosity along with the courage to use his art as a vehicle tobring his joy and pain to the surface. Taubenhouse has divided his efforts between the studies of classical and jazz repertoire and technique, the results of which are both a finely tuned interpretive talent along with inspired improvisational skills. His compositions have a compelling familiarity that reflects his empathy and charisma.

Tracklist

Album details

Press reviews

"Here is a bright and relatively new talent. The Yaniv Taubenhouse trio, at least on a few of their tracks, reminded me of Jacques Loussier, such is the almost classical music approach of the group.

There is sensitivity within the Trio that forces the listener to concentrate and follow (at least mentally) the score and the individual performances. Taubenhouse is yet another brilliant musician from Israel making a name for himself in the USA. He is the thinking jazz fans jazz man, if that makes sense.

His rhythm backing is drummer Darren Novotny and bassist Garrett Jones and they play like they have been together for ever. There are 11 tracks on the CD of which all but two are Taubenhouse compositions. In reality, this album is a showcase of the composers talent in composition, arrangement and performing abilities. Vey impressive!

I thoroughly enjoyed the album and recommend to anyone who relishes high quality jazz musicianship."

http://www.thejassman.com (August, 2015)
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"Here From There announces a major new mainstream talent, the Yaniv Taubenhouse Trio, led by pianist Yaniv Taubenhouse, from the perspective of both his performance and composition.

The album was recorded during Taubenhouse's stay at Fayetteville, Arkansas in the University of Arkansas piano performance program. Since arriving there in 2010, the current trio which includes drummer Darren Novotny and bassist Garrett Jones, had rehearsed and played for a year before recording this album.

While his personal charisma cannot be vouched for, Taubenhouse's musical charisma is evident from the first notes of the solo piece, "Prelude of the Ozarks." His compositions and arrangements unfold slowly, but always carry the ear along.

The album is of a piece because Taubenhouse's musical personality and vision is so strong. His music has an intensity which comes from this purity of vision, but which, however, is balanced and underpinned by an emotional optimism that is very appealing.

Taubenhouse swings very easily and relentlessly, and seems to know inherently how to build tension and then release it, allowing the tracks to be on the long side, while never having any feeling of aural fatigue.

While the original compositions are very appealing, at least part of the test for a young player is how a standard is treated. The up-tempo "Tenderly" gets one moving immediately, but it is the big arrangement of "Time After Time" that really impresses.

Here From There has the feel of a recorded live set, and while listening, it is very easy to see the Yaniv Taubenhouse trio on stage with the audience hanging on every note. There is no doubt that much more will be heard from Taubenhouse and he continues to grow, mature and explore his expanding musical world."

-Budd Kopman (June 24, 2015)
All About Jazz
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"What with Roni Ben-Hur and various Cohens, Ilan Volkov in classical and improvised music, a string of others, Israel has been a net exporter of musical talent in the last couple of decades. Taubenhouse came out of Thelma-Yellin High School in Tel Aviv (alma mater of Avishai, Yuval and Anat Cohen) and fetched up in Arkansas, where music started coming out of him like water out of a cloven rock.

The Razorback state isnt an obvious source for jazz talent, but in Jones and Novotny the young pianist found the two other legs of a trio capable of swinging his tight, detailed tunes with just the right weight and intensity. After the slowish, unexpected discords and turns of the solo opening, Coming Back comes over with epic force and simplicity, slim melodic material built up into a performance of some grandeur. The title piece is more thoughtful, possibly even a hint elegiac in its opening phrases, but once the trios in it turns into a quirky folk dance, provenance difficult to locate.

The two standards are nicely and idiosyncratically done. Few younger-generation players would be capable of a similar deconstruction of Time After Time, or following it with the intense uplift of Hope. New talent comes along with the seasons; fresh new talent is somewhat rarer and more precious."

-Brian Morton (Jazz Journal, March 2015)
http://www.jazzjournal.co.uk
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"Young New York-based and Israeli-born pianist Yaniv Taubenhouse, who pursued an advanced musical education at the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music after having previously studied under acclaimed Israeli and European instructors, is essentially a classically-trained pianist. Since moving to Fayetteville, Arkansas in 2010 to study at the University of Arkansas, jazz has been his professional pursuit and the classic piano trio, his preferred format. The Yaniv Taubenhouse Trio delivers their debut album with an audacious date on Here from There, perhaps a personal reference from the jazz pianist in describing his musical journey from Israel to the U.S. culminating in this first solo album as leader.

Though now performing throughout New York since moving there in 2013, this debut was recorded in Fayetteville with bassist Garrett Jones and drummer Darren Novotnytwo Arkansas natives the pianist met during his stay therewith whom he collaborated with and led to the formation of this new trio and recording. Except for two standards, the eleven-track project provides all-new material from Taubenhouse beginning with the brief "Prelude of the Ozarks," a solo piano offering from the leader displaying his excellent classical skills as he introduces his new music.

The hard-driving contemporary-sounding "Coming Back" offers the first glimpse of the pianist's compositional talents on a nine-minute musical statements that essentially states "I'm not coming back, I've just arrived." Well the new kid on the block has indeed arrived and the beautiful title track demonstrates the leader's warm side with soft touches on the keys accompanied well by Novotny's brushes and Jones's laid back upright bass lines. "Joey Boy" however, is another story, as it contains a bluesy-tinged melody with nice bass and drum solos giving this piece, a night club groove to it.

The Walter Gross piece "Tenderly" and Sammy Cahn's classic "Time After Time," are the two jazz standards reimagined here by Taubenhouse, who pens cleaver new arrangements making these time-honored songs sound almost new. The fresh new sound keeps coming on the superb "Uncle Robert," the swinging slightly Latin-tinged "Train to a Green Mountain," and the dark-toned finale, "Hope."

Not very well know yet, but jazz pianist Yaniv Taubenhouse is definitely poised to be one of the new young lions of jazz to watch out for and his impressive Here from There debut, is a serious musical statement sure to shine some light on the young pianist who's current musical obscurity is certain to be brief. A technician on the keys and a talented writer, Taubenhouse provides an enjoyable session of music where jazz and classical merge to forge one of the finest trio performances found on today's jazz landscape."

-Edward Blanco (March 20, 2015)
All About Jazz
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"Yaniv Taubenhouse may have embarked on a maiden voyage with Here from There but the young pianist appears to have prepared extremely well for the trip. For one, he has travelled light, taking with him music that is stripped bare of all but expressive content and depth of emotion that is well beyond his years. And he has brought with him a wealth of belongings: compositions that he has crafted as if he were much older and full of a gravitas that belies his age. The music is rhythmically and dynamically complex with accuracy and expressive nuance giving them many of the characteristics of fabulously conceived chamber works created out of a sound palette that is exploding with colour and classically ordered sense of pianism that seems to sit exceedingly well with his innate sense of swing. Occasionally the pianist, seemingly lost in a dream night break away from notation and launch into improvisations that seem to come out of nowhere bursting with distinctive tinta, underpinned by timbre that marries high-wire virtuosity with an exemplary fineness of tone and touch. All of this holds him in good stead especially as the melodies he has conceived for this outing deserve his very best.

Mr. Taubenhouse is too good a musician to put into practice his reported assertion to give off his very best especially with music this good and that too on his debut. And he doesnt disappoint. He begins the recording with a picturesque, gliding version of Prelude to the Ozarks a piece that he has performed before. Here he distils the balletic music into 1min:53secs. Then he moves quickly to allow significantly more agogic freedom that some would express in Coming Back and again in Sunrise Fantasy. The extreme here is a performance of the pianists own Time and Place that is drenched in its own expressive content. There are also stellar turns on other charts too. Or instance the overall sonority of Train to a Green Mountain is beautifully weighted and eminently cultured. And then again the distilled pathos of Hope is full of expressive nuance, noticeable so because who better than the creator to understand the internal clues of the work itself. With so much original work on this record there is bound to be extra scrutiny of the performances. It is, after all, one thing to write beautifully, but quite another to perform the same written notes with wit and imagination. And this Yaniv Taubenhouse passes this test with flying colours. But here too he acquits himself with flying colours. On Tenderly and Time After Time, even when the composers metronomes are entirely plausible Mr. Taubenhouse finds room to perform in tempi informed by crescendo and diminuendo that is of his own considerable imagination.

I would be remiss if I did not mention the extraordinary accompaniment of the exemplary bassist Garrett Jones and Darren Novotny, a drummer extraordinaire who also doubles up as an engineer on this project. In their playing you can h ear comparable pedigree to the pianist. They are also listeners with very big ears and who know when to move into the spotlight and when to recede from it and let Yaniv Taubenhouse. That is the hallmark of an excellent rhythm section and one that contributes to the stated purpose of making an outstanding record."

-Raul da Gama (Mar 23, 2015)
http://jazzdagama.com
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"I first met Robert Ginsburg in the mid-1980s. A St. Louis native, he arrived in Columbia to attend the University of Missouri. In 1976, two years before my Mid-Missouri arrival, Ginsburg traded this college town for another Fayetteville, Arkansas leaving Columbia with a degree in structural design and thinking he would enroll in the University of Arkansas in the architecture program. Despite having Columbia in common, we actually first crossed paths in Razorback country.

The occasion of our meeting involved a jazz concert I cant recall who the performers were, but I was an artist representative/road manager and he was host, serving as founder of the North Arkansas Jazz Society, now the Northwest Arkansas Jazz Society.

Ginsburg and I hit it off immediately: We were like-minded, aesthetically minded and, most important, we were and remain musical kindred spirits.

That brings us to Yaniv Taubenhouse, a young, gifted musician still in his 20s. The Israeli-born pianist arrived in New York in 2009, then landed in Fayetteville between 2010-2013 as a scholarship recipient. This allowed him to study with Professor Jura Margulis, a Russian-born, third-generation pianist who holds the McAllister Endowed Professorship for Piano at the J.W. Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Arkansas.

I mention the internationally acclaimed concert pianist and recording artists credentials because it is certainly a reflection upon Taubenhouses potential; I doubt Margulis takes on just any student.

A few years back, Ginsburg began telling me about Taubenhouse and that I needed to hear him play. He had met the pianist during a fundraiser where Taubenhause performed a solo recital. The program, recalled Ginsburg in an email, was a mix of classical and original jazz compositions, adding, we became acquainted and friends from then on, working together on a variety of performance and radio projects.

My first exposure to Taubenhouse came on a trip to Fayetteville to hear Anat Cohens quartet. Ginsburg wanted Cohen, also Israeli, to meet the pianist; the two crossed paths at a reception where Taubenhouse played a piano in the room. I was impressed. It was obvious that he could play fluidly, improvisationally and energetically.

As Taubenhouses scholarship came to a close, I recall Ginsburg telling me the pianist had a decision to make: Return home or somehow pursue studies likely going to New York. His preference was obvious and, in 2013, having exhausted opportunities, he left for New York where he is currently attending the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music, pursuing an undergraduate degree in performance. Before Taubenhouse left Arkansas, he and Ginsburg thought it would be a good idea to record the pianist.

As Ginsburg explains the situation, In 2012 and 2013, Yaniv experienced not only a creative outpouring of original music, but also a focused and intense relationship with several of Northwest Arkansas finest jazz performers.

It led to extensive rehearsals in trio culminating in several live, self-produced concerts at the university. As his impending departure from Fayetteville loomed, we collectively decided to document the months of work the trio had done. I secured the use of the performance space at Walton Arts Center, an engineer was hired and the recording took place over the course of two days, Ginsburg said.

The end result is Here From There (Fresh Sound/New Talent), which features bassist Garrett Jones and drummer Darren Novotny.

As Taubenhouses scholarship came to a close, I recall Ginsburg telling me the pianist had a decision to make: Return home or somehow pursue studies likely going to New York. His preference was obvious and, in 2013, having exhausted opportunities, he left for New York where he is currently attending the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music, pursuing an undergraduate degree in performance. Before Taubenhouse left Arkansas, he and Ginsburg thought it would be a good idea to record the pianist.

As Ginsburg explains the situation, In 2012 and 2013, Yaniv experienced not only a creative outpouring of original music, but also a focused and intense relationship with several of Northwest Arkansas finest jazz performers.

It led to extensive rehearsals in trio culminating in several live, self-produced concerts at the university. As his impending departure from Fayetteville loomed, we collectively decided to document the months of work the trio had done. I secured the use of the performance space at Walton Arts Center, an engineer was hired and the recording took place over the course of two days, Ginsburg said.

The end result is Here From There (Fresh Sound/New Talent), which features bassist Garrett Jones and drummer Darren Novotny.

Since his New York arrival, Taubenhouse has been gaining traction among what is perhaps the worlds most highly competitive and accomplished jazz scene. He has made several appearances in the citys various clubs as he continues his studies.

Taubenhouse is not one to rest on his accomplishments; he is now scheduled to go into the studio in May with his new New York-based trio and record a second CD for Fresh Sound, once again showcasing largely original material."

-John W. Poses (April 26, 2015)
Columbia Daily Tribune
http://www.columbiatribune.com/arts_life/
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