Guitarist plays in Israeli fete

The emerging community of Israeli jazz musicians in New York typically draws from a wide spectrum of influences, extending from Jewish, Middle Eastern, and North African songs to classical music. Guitarist Gilad Hekselman draws less from this exotic fare, and more from American jazz and blues.

Hekselman performed Tuesday during the Israeli Jazz Festival at Chris' Jazz Cafe, a Center City venue that presented the four-night event (concluding tonight with flutist Mattan Klein) in partnership with the Consulate General of Israel in Philadelphia. The festival debuted in January 2008 at World Cafe Live with the goal of focusing attention on Israel apart from the country's political strife.

Hekselman, 26, has recorded two albums - most recently, Words Unspoken (Late Set Records) - that feature standard repertoire. He performs alongside some of New York's leading musicians at Smalls, a Greenwich Village club that has become a focal point for straight-ahead jazz.

The guitarist's hour-long first set at Chris' only occasionally looked beyond his mainstream sensibilities. Performing five songs in the 10- to 12-minute range, Hekselman played an archtop guitar (a hollow-body model long favored by jazz players) whose clean tone he sometimes seasoned with effects pedals.

Hekselman began the night with an original composition called "One More Song," which displayed a thematic approach to improvisation. In the absence of another chordal instrument, Hekselman's references to the melody proved valuable to not just bassist Joe Martin and drummer Justin Brown, but to the audience as well.

Hekselman introduced "Words Unspoken," the title song from his 2008 release, as a ballad, and it started out as advertised. The trio created a subdued ambience; the composition was more sophisticated and nuanced than the previous songs. Hekselman yielded the first solo to Martin, and Brown switched from sticks to brushes for parts of the tune.

As the song's structure grew more elastic, Hekselman's chordal accompaniment and single-note fills developed into a solo. As his guitar grew louder, the trio's tempo and intensity increased dramatically. Hekselman played several double-time runs that climaxed in the instrument's upper register before returning to the melody and rediscovering the equanimity with which he began the song.

Closing out the set with John Coltrane's "Countdown," Hekselman started with an unaccompanied intro that outlined the harmony but showed little interest in melody. Just as it began to sound like an exercise, the rhythm section fell in behind Hekselman, whose solo - fluid, linear and increasingly aggressive - provided a counterweight for the initial abstraction. Brown's explosive drum solo merely provided an exclamation point.