Oded Tzur

Oded Tzur (Hebrew: עודד צור; born January 5, 1984) is an Israeli, New York City based saxophonist, composer, bandleader and educator. His work focuses on fundamental connections between several different musical traditions, among them are Indian Classical Music and Jazz, and draws inspiration from the art of storytelling. His sound on the tenor saxophone results from a technique he developed while studying Indian Classical Music, which has been credited with giving his instrument pioneering dimension and depth.

Background

Tzur was born in Tel Aviv, Israel, in 1984. He studied jazz and classical music in the Thelma Yellin High School For The Arts and the Jerusalem Academy before being accepted as a disciple of Hariprasad Chaurasia, a stalwart of Indian classical music, at the Rotterdam World Music Academy. During this time Tzur developed a saxophone technique that extends the instrument's microtonal capacity, inspired by Chaurasia's Bansuri playing and other Indian instruments, which he named Middle Path.

The technique enables the saxophone to slide between the notes and highlight specific microtones, and differs from traditional saxophone playing to a significant extent. Hariprasad Chaurasia once described it by saying: “If a curtain were to be drawn in front of him, no one could tell which instrument was being played”.

Career

Tzur first presented Middle Path in an academic context during the 2011 British Saxophone Congress in Trinity College of Music. Since then his findings were presented at other academic institutions, such as the Amsterdam Conservatory, Copenhagen Conservatory and the Juilliard School.