Gadi Caplan
Brooklyn, New York, United States | SELF
Music
Press
This independently releases debut album from Israeli-born guitarist Gadi Caplan is a solid mixture of fusion with touches of funk and progressive rock thrown in.
The album opens with its heaviest rock riff (“Harmony Police”) but quickly segues into a funky electric guitar / alto sax jam with some nifty solo trade offs:
Caplan makes a good choice in sharing the spotlight with alto player Eyal Hai throughout Opposite Views; they play off each other perfectly.
Caplan’s acoustic guitar emerges on track six (“Rita’s Garden”) for a folky intro, but it’s on the closing title piece that his greatest prowess unfolds both acoustically and compositionally. On “Opposite Views” Gadi’s acoustic lead is joined by a single bass flute, soon replace by a viola. The beautifully orchestrated arrangement builds slowly adding cello and violin until drums kick into gear, driving things to a dramatic peak. Caplan’s lone guitar then brings things back to earth for a sensitively nuanced conclusion. Beautiful stuff showing much promise.
- John Collinge
Gadi is an Israeli guitarist currently living in Boston. He's released this, his first album, and it's a
very strong release firmly in the progressive/jazz-rock vein. This is a full band, featuring Gadi's
guitar work, keyboards, bass, drums, alto sax and violin, viola, cello featured on certain tracks.
The music is definitely 'fusion', but it also definitely fits closer to progressive rock than 'jazz'. This
is the first release by someone I think we'll be hearing a lot of in the future.
- Wayside music
Gadi is an Israeli guitarist currently living in Boston. He's released this, his first album, and it's a
very strong release firmly in the progressive/jazz-rock vein. This is a full band, featuring Gadi's
guitar work, keyboards, bass, drums, alto sax and violin, viola, cello featured on certain tracks.
The music is definitely 'fusion', but it also definitely fits closer to progressive rock than 'jazz'. This
is the first release by someone I think we'll be hearing a lot of in the future.
- Wayside music
This is definitely the work of a guitarist, improvising in the expanded styles inspired directly or
more vaguely from jazz and R&B in a much larger open structure and with additional
arrangements of altosax and chamber music instruments this becomes having a large progressive
symphonic music context. The guitar plays relaxed, first rocking, then with jazz guitar, R&B
guitar, with one 50s song with radio voice in it, and then picking, always very relaxed in what
he’s doing with some nice harmonies to the arrangements, the treatment gives the unpretentious
improvisation still some convincing grandeur, another level. At some stage near the end an
electric viola takes over the role of the guitar.
- Gerald Van Waes
This is definitely the work of a guitarist, improvising in the expanded styles inspired directly or
more vaguely from jazz and R&B in a much larger open structure and with additional
arrangements of altosax and chamber music instruments this becomes having a large progressive
symphonic music context. The guitar plays relaxed, first rocking, then with jazz guitar, R&B
guitar, with one 50s song with radio voice in it, and then picking, always very relaxed in what
he’s doing with some nice harmonies to the arrangements, the treatment gives the unpretentious
improvisation still some convincing grandeur, another level. At some stage near the end an
electric viola takes over the role of the guitar.
- Gerald Van Waes
Gadi Caplan is a talented upcoming Israeli guitarist now
living in the Boston area. Opposite Views is a self released
effort that touches on both fusion and progressive rock with
the scales tipped more heavily towards the later. Its not just
a guitar driven wank fest. The title track clocks in near 11
minutes and starts out as a quiet chamber piece and just
swells into this larger scale orchestral work with some
gorgeous violin, cello and acoustic guitar. Other tunes like
the opener find Caplan plugging in and bringing down the
hammer with some Crimson fury.
- Laser's edge
Shakefist review of Gadi Caplan's "opposite views"
With a musician like Gadi Caplan, you are not going to get your typical formulaic album. What you will get is a first class ticket to travel through time and space to sample the many delicacies of world music. With his album "opposite views," you truly get the lifelong worldly musical experience Gadi Caplan has acquired. From his upbringing in Jerusalem, to studying sitar in India, to playing rock-n-roll in New York City, and studying at Berklee College of Music, Gadi is able to create a delicious stew of musical genius.
It's really hard to write a review for an album like, "opposite views." Each track almost deserves its own examination to see how Gadi perfectly combines jazz, rock, funk, classical and psychedelic elements together.
The track Rita's Garden is a instrumental track that uses a combination of progressive rock with Asian fusion to tell the story of the birth of a garden from seed to blossom. Harmony Police, the opening track, plays hopscotch with your ear buds. It jumps from jazz to funk to jazz in a great way to amp you up for the rest of the album. Nocturnal Adventure, is the only track on the album with vocals. It features Patrick McConnell, lead singer of the band Innercombustion, and has a very lounge feel to it. It is actually my favorite track on the album, because it makes me think of drinking whiskey in a smokey bar during the 1940s.
So do yourself a favor and go to http://www.myspace.com/gadicaplan and listen to Gadi Caplan's "opposite views."
- Danny Melendez
Shakefist review of Gadi Caplan's "opposite views"
With a musician like Gadi Caplan, you are not going to get your typical formulaic album. What you will get is a first class ticket to travel through time and space to sample the many delicacies of world music. With his album "opposite views," you truly get the lifelong worldly musical experience Gadi Caplan has acquired. From his upbringing in Jerusalem, to studying sitar in India, to playing rock-n-roll in New York City, and studying at Berklee College of Music, Gadi is able to create a delicious stew of musical genius.
It's really hard to write a review for an album like, "opposite views." Each track almost deserves its own examination to see how Gadi perfectly combines jazz, rock, funk, classical and psychedelic elements together.
The track Rita's Garden is a instrumental track that uses a combination of progressive rock with Asian fusion to tell the story of the birth of a garden from seed to blossom. Harmony Police, the opening track, plays hopscotch with your ear buds. It jumps from jazz to funk to jazz in a great way to amp you up for the rest of the album. Nocturnal Adventure, is the only track on the album with vocals. It features Patrick McConnell, lead singer of the band Innercombustion, and has a very lounge feel to it. It is actually my favorite track on the album, because it makes me think of drinking whiskey in a smokey bar during the 1940s.
So do yourself a favor and go to http://www.myspace.com/gadicaplan and listen to Gadi Caplan's "opposite views."
- Danny Melendez
Discography
Still working on that hot first release.
Photos
Bio
With psychedelic drones, modes and odd meters, Israeli born, Brooklyn based composer, Gadi Caplan, wields a progressive fusion of world music with songs that free themselves from labels by taking liberties and leaving behind formulas. While most new progressive rock is more metal based, Caplans new album Look Back Step Forward soars with the power of 70s rock, the complexities of Jazz, and the evolving nature of classical music.
Originally trained on piano as a child, Caplan switched to guitar in his teens and developed a passion for rock and blues which took him on many journeys throughout the years, such as; India in 2004-2005 where he studied traditional Indian music and sitar, New York City in 2006 where he joined various rock bands, and to Boston in 2007 to study jazz, fusion and funk along with composition at the Berklee College of Music. One unlikely influence at that time became Pink Floyd and Frank Zappa, whom Gadi became more inspired by, leading him to form a rock band that was not afraid to color outside the lines by playing jazz or Indian music.
In January 2011 Gadi released his first album Opposite Views. It was appreciated by both Jazz and Rock communities alike, receiving welcomed reviews from various magazines and radio play by many stations from Boston and New York to Texas and California, and as far as England, Belgium, Germany, Japan and Israel. Critics have hailed the album with such remarks as " Fantastically arranged and written work by an undiscovered genius", and Delectable stuff from start to end, 'opposite views' is the prog album destined to be talked about for decades if not ever..
Expanding his musical interests, Gadi Caplan explores rock, jazz, funk and world music in an even deeper way on his second album Look Back Step Forward. Backed by a multinational pedigree of players from U.S, Canada, Israel, Finland and Poland, Gadi blends demanding arrangements into dynamic, easily digestible compositions that evolve with each listen. With Indian Summer being based on classical Carnatic music, while other songs find Caplan plugging in and bringing down the hammer with Crimson fury, gifting his audience with a first class ticket to sample the many delicacies of his fascinating musical history.
Despite being a mostly instrumental product, Look Back Step Forward is musically
massive. Through his newfound confidence as a composer and his willingness to draw from the past, Look Back Step Forward is an honest expression of the lifelong worldly musical experience Caplan has acquired, put into modern context and primed for a new generation of bold music fans.
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