The Café Royal Cultural Foundation NYC has awarded a 2024 Summer Music Grant to Eden Bareket for his new album “Zaman”.

Eden Bareket is a distinguished saxophonist, composer, producer, and arranger, known for his unique style and genre-spanning versatility. Born in Argentina and raised in Israel, Bareket moved to New York City in 2013 and quickly gained international recognition. He has released three albums on the Freshsound Records label: Choice (2016), Night (2018), and Day Dream(2021). Bareket has performed alongside acclaimed artists such as Ari Hoenig and Chad Lefkowitz-Brown, gracing iconic venues like Carnegie Hall and Jazz at Lincoln Center. His music reflects his diverse cultural influences and boundary-pushing creativity.

The idea was born when I started looking into my family history.

As I was learning about my ancestors, I unearthed many stories. I learned that my ancestors took great risks and made extreme life changes to pursue a better future. I imagined what it felt like to be in those moments and if that could be translated into music.

Wandering, traveling, searching.

I started listening to traditional music from my ancestral homelands. My grandparents carried with them the sounds of North Africa, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and South America. While listening I felt the rhythms dig deeper and deeper, exposing layers of my identity.

Darbuka beats in one layer, Argentinean Zamba in another, Klezmer, Andalusian, Gnawa, Hora…

New songs started forming in my mind. My focus was to maintain the connection to the roots as I added more ingredients carefully and gradually.

Past, present and future blend together as music.

The songs came out very different from the music I previously wrote. I moved away from  technically challenging and cerebral melodies, towards simple pentatonic/modal melodies.

I layered them on top of rhythms that felt earthy and ancient. I feel as though I added my own colors, sounds and smells to an old black and white photo.

My musical DNA

The song of their journey is present within me, I just listen and play it out, where it lives as vibrations for only a moment before it dissipates into the air.

Each note is filled with the feeling of longing, hope and endurance. The story of a long line of ancestors that traveled through the generations to bring me to this moment.

As you listen to this music, imagine being on the deck of a ship crossing the Atlantic in 1894 or on a truck driving through the Iraqi desert in 1933. Let this music allow you to travel to forgotten moments and feel the rhythms echoing through time.

Please visit Eden’s website, Facebook, YouTube, or Instagram for more information.