Those walks in the wadi of my childhood, the river and caves of the Natufians, are present in my life and art just as Bill Dixon and Sunny Murray and the many paths they showed me into the world of sound. Music for me is everything that is unexplainable and yet undoubtedly beautiful in this life. Its ways and manifestations in the sound world are infinetly diverse. Whether desgined carefully, fast or slow, or being played in the NOW. The feeling is of that same primary creativity.
The paths, or those walks, are still being explored as the story unfolds..
Born in the Galil region, Northern Israel, Ziv Taubenfeld started playing the clarinet as part of his primary school orchestra and continued with classical studies guided by Ilya Schwartz at the local conservatory of Karmiel. During that period, following the attraction to low sounds, he added the bass clarinet as a second instrument that soon became Ziv's main focus. His interest in improvised music (fooling around with the orchestra's charts or diggin into jazz records) grew bigger after meeting the influential saxophone player Albert Beger, who opened up a road that eventually led him to further studies of the bass clarinet with Michael Moore in the Netherlands.
Moving to Amsterdam has encouraged Ziv to inspiring collaborations with a wide variety of artists from the city's improvised music scene and its satelite musicians. Taubenfeld's main musical vehicle for a few years was Bones, a trio he co-led with fellow musicians from his home town, Karmiel. In 2016 Ziv was offered a Carte Blanche at the Bimhuis, Amsterdam, and shortly after got the invitation to present the music of Bones at the North Sea Jazz Festival, July 2017. The third album of Bones- Reptiles- was released in fall 2019 on NoBusiness Records.
Taubenfeld's most recent project - FULL SUN - searches for a space that is timeless, a place where sounds talk of primitive existence. The musicians that form this ensemble are all strong individuals with a sound-world all their own, sitting together at the round coffee table, talking about the wonderous ways of life. Following their debut performance at the Bimhuis, Amsterdam, they are currently bringing their music to major venues and festivals across Europe.
Other bands Taubenfeld takes part in include Kuhn Fu, Plots, CosJazzul and Xavier Pamplona Ensemble. Recent collaborations include Han Bennink, Ab Baars, Guus Janssen, Olie Brice and Carlos "Zingaro" among others.