Life & Fire Omer Klein, Haggai Cohen-Milo, Amir Bresler

• 1The Ravens06:18
• 2Song No 204:13
• 33/4 Mantra03:38
• 4Tzuri03:57
• 5Cantando04:51
• 6One Step at a Time08:39
• 7Niggun07:43
• 8Spilt Milk05:58
• 9Malchut06:00
• Total Runtime51:17

Info for Life & Fire

For ten years now Omer Klein has been playing together with his trio consisting of bassist Haggai Cohen-Milo and drummer Amir Bresler. For this anniversary there will be a new album on March 3, "Life & Fire".

In order not to lose himself on well-trodden paths after four albums, the pianist from Israel, who lives in Frankfurt am Main, set clear principles before the production of the new album. The first maxim was that it should be fun. Principle two was that friends should be involved, because it is, after all, an anniversary party. Third, it is part of an anniversary to honor the past in a new way and carry it into the future. The result is nine songs full of infectious liveliness.

Memory and future are very close together on the album. Klein's music is full of optimism, it literally swirls the present for the future, and yet he also has said "Niggun" in the program, a traditional Jewish song. "These two aspects come together because of my personality. Nowadays we maintain a certain projection of a time - imaginary or real - when we think people could identify more with one thing. If you were from a small village, that was your horizon and your culture. Today we are bombarded with so much input that in art we sometimes tend to reproduce that kind of authenticity. At a certain point in my life, however, I realized that eclecticism was the truth of my life. I was born in Israel, which from the beginning was a melting pot of people from all over the world. My parents' parents came from Eastern Europe and North Africa. As a teenager, I opened myself to music from the U.S. and Brazil, as well as to the European masters of classical music."

Since those days, countless elements have been added to Klein's artistic self-image. It took him time and effort to figure out that he just doesn't have one identity, but is a product of a wide variety of influences and experiences. But the way this multi-faceted mosaic is realized on "Life & Fire" is highly holistic. It is a single haunting message of the unity that lies in the diversity of things. "Life & Fire" is a window into the present for eternity. The album was recorded in Berlin in August 2022.

Omer Klein, piano
Haggai Cohen-Milo, bass
Amir Bresler, drums

Recorded & mixed by Guy Sternberg at Emil Berliner Studios, Berlin
Mastered by Christoph Stickel
Produced by Omer Klein

Omer Klein
Pianist and Composer Omer Klein’s music is “borderless” (New York Times) in its organic assimilation of widely diverse sources of inspiration, as he continuously “pushes mainstream Jazz concepts into the future” (Time Out New York). A prolific performer and composer, Klein has released 8 albums as a soloist, and published over 100 original compositions.

An exclusive Warner Music artist, Klein has made three recordings for the label so far. Sleepwalkers (2017) is a trio exploration of themes related to society in the information age, for which the Omer Klein Trio has won the 2018 ECHO award. This was followed by Radio Mediteran (2019), adding analog synthesizers and percussion to the classic trio format, thus creating “a very contemporary, forward-looking album full of subtle grooves and strong melodies” (Hamburger Abendblatt). Klein’s third effort for Warner Music and his 9th overall, “Personal Belongings”, was released in September 2021.

Klein’s concert appearances have been widely praised. He has performed as soloist and band leader at the North Sea Jazz Festival, Nice Jazz Festival, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, Swing Hall Tokyo , Elbphilharmonie, Alte Oper Frankfurt, Bremen Musikfest, Dresdner Musikfestspiele, Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival and many more.

Upcoming highlights in 2021-2022 include Klein’s Berliner Philharmonie and Wiener Konzerthaus debuts, and the premiere of a new composition for theater and dance at Schauspiel Frankfurt.

With bassist Haggai Cohen Milo and drummer Amir Bresler, Klein formed the Omer Klein Trio in 2013. The trio performs Klein’s compositions and tours extensively. Their debut recording, Fearless Friday (2015) is considered “one of the most rewarding piano trio releases of recent years” (All About Jazz).

Klein’s collaboration with Mandolin star Avi Avital has been celebrated as a creative meeting of the minds. This includes Klein improvising new movements for pieces by J.S.Bach performed by Avital. Other collaborations include Klein’s project with the NDR Big Band, premiered in 2019, and an upcoming duo project with classical percussionist Alexej Gerassimez, following their 2017 residency at the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.

“One of the most fascinating artists that have emerged from this country in the last decade” (City Mouse Tel Aviv), Omer Klein’s roots in Israeli music are heard loud and clear. He composed songs or performed with iconic singers like Arik Einstein, Gidi Gov, Yehudit Ravitz and Rona Kenan. He is a regular presence at the Red Sea Jazz Festival and the Tel Aviv Jazz Festival and is “broadening the country’s musical horizons.” (Haaretz).

Omer Klein was born in Israel in 1982 and grew up in Netanya. He is the son of Israeli-born parents, and the grandchild of immigrants from Tunisia, Libya and Hungary. Klein began playing keyboard instruments at 5, turning his focus to the piano at 13, while composing and improvising from a young age. He studied at the Thelma Yellin High School of the Arts in Givatayim, before moving to the US as the recipient of a scholarship from the New England Conservatory in Boston, where he studied jazz pxiano with Danilo Perez and Ran Blake, and classical piano with Alexander Korsantia. In 2005 Klein moved to New York, where he continued his studies privately under Fred Hersch. Since 2009 he is based in Germany. He currently resides in Frankfurt with his girlfriend, the actress Viola Pobitschka, and their three children.

Booklet for Life & Fire