Saxophonist, composer, and Thelonious Monk Competition semi-finalist Dean Tsur, had - like many musicians - felt the wear of quarantines, lockdowns, and social distancing. “Jazz (Black American Music) is a style of music that is so free, communicative, and spontaneous,” Dean says. “It’s the antithesis of lockdowns.” Weary of video conferencing and virtual recordings, and itching for a creative outlet with a live audience, Tsur found himself jumping at an opportunity presented by Barak Weiss, artistic director of the Tel Aviv Jazz Festival and manager of the Israeli Jazz Society.

Weiss and Tsur worked together to create a concert that combined Tsur’s jazz quartet, The Songbirds, with a chamber string ensemble in a way that utilized this unique timbre blend beyond merely performing ballads. “Having the strings enriches the musical scope of this band a lot,” Tsur tells. “It also takes all of us out of our comfort zone and lets us go into making music from a more open state of mind.”

The performance was recorded in November 2020 and featured a blended audience: in-person technicians with an online audience. Tsur describes the former as “the first real audience we’ve performed in front of in a long time” and that their encouragement was “incredibly uplifting for us.” The show was hosted by the Israeli Jazz Society and was recorded at Terminal 4 in Tel Aviv. “There was a special atmosphere among the people in the room due to the realities of the pandemic,” Tsur recalls. “All of us were grateful to be there... We didn’t know when [we would] go back to normality, so we wanted to make this show meaningful.”

Dean Tsur’s Live from Lockdown features his quartet of Yonatan Riklis (piano), Gasper Bertoncelj (drums), and Tal Ronen (bass), with special guests Yael Shapira (cello) and Hagar Maoz (violin).

“2020 has been a particular year for all people,” reflects Dean. “It has felt like a new world: [one] relatively similar to the world we used to know from 2019, but [with] new elements. I’m coming out of this year with a greater appreciation for living in the sense of enjoying life and an increased feeling of meaning about creating music.