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Ubuntu Music is delighted to release Squiggles, the third album from Israeli guitarist/composer Gur Liraz. Born in Tel Aviv, Israel, in 1988, Gur first took up the guitar when he was nine years old, and soon began his journey with jazz music. He majored in jazz at the prestigious Thelma Yellin High School, where he studied with some of the best musicians from the Israeli scene such as Amit Golan, Yuval Cohen, Erez Barnoy, Amos Hoffman and many more. He spent four years of that time studying under jazz guitar master, Ofer Ganor. Gur spent time in New York City, studying under guitar legend Peter Bernstein. Gur currently resides in Berlin. “This was created during the Corona lockdown, and so, more than anything we had time…time to write, compose, arrange, and explore our own ideas as individuals and together as a band. When we decided to record, it was clear to us that we wanted to create only original music, and so even though the album has a clear hard-bop flavour, all the songs are original - seven of my own and two from my organist, Tal Balshai. All of them take inspiration from our Israeli roots as well as from the tradition of soul and blues playing that informs jazz music. With an aesthetic focus on exploring the canonical organ-guitar combos of the 60s - such as Wes Montgomery and Melvin Rye or Grant Green and Larry Young - the songs have a traditional as opposed to innovative sound. Above all, they are an offering of what we created as a band, and me as a composer, during the time the world came to a halt.” - Gur Liraz