Stephen Horenstein

Collages - Jerusalem '85 is the album the saxophonist and composer Stephen Horenstein made five years after he settled in Israel, recorded mostly in Jerusalem and Ramat Gan in the summer of 1985 and released by Soul Note the same year. Born in Boston, Horenstein studied composition with Bill Dixon, whom his own site calls his major creative inspiration, and taught at Bennington College from 1973 to 1980 before emigrating. The six pieces, all his, move from a piece for shofar to writing for a large ensemble and a chamber piece with soprano voice.

Horenstein plays tenor and baritone saxophones, alto flute, piano, orchestra bells and cymbals across the record. Breaking The Walls, the opener, was taped at Jerusalem Recording Studios, and on it Horenstein is credited with the shofaroth, the ram's horns of the synagogue. Chiasmus, at sixteen minutes the longest piece, and the three that follow were recorded at Syntone Studios in Ramat Gan, with trumpeter Nevat Ben-Haim on two of them. Piece For Large Ensemble brings in alto saxophonist Roman Kunsman, three more tenor saxophones, trombonist David Hillberg (also the album's recording engineer), two pianists, cello, bass and two drummers. Seven Faces Of A Garden is older, recorded in July 1981 at the Jerusalem Music Center and remastered for this release, for soprano Judith Axelrod, three cellos, bass, tubular bells and percussion. Early Morning Song and Meditation On A Line stand between the two ensemble pieces. Micah Morrison wrote the liner notes and Giovanni Bonandrini produced.

This is a copy of the original 1985 Soul Note LP, catalogue number SN 1099, on 140 gram vinyl: CAM Jazz, which now owns the label, describes it as original stock rediscovered in its vaults. Ducale lists it as 121099-1.