If you come to Avishai expecting flashy technique or crowd-pleasing swing, you'll be confused for the first few minutes. His playing is slow to reveal itself. He leaves gaps that would make a less confident pianist nervous, and he seems to trust silence the way other pianists trust scales. The first time I heard him, I thought something was wrong with my speakers. Then I realized: no, he just plays like that. It's deliberate, and once you're on his wavelength, it's hard to go back to busier pianists.

He grew up in Israel steeped in both Western classical music and the Middle Eastern sounds around him, and you can hear both of those things in his playing without him ever making a big deal of it. He doesn't lean on exotic scales as a gimmick. The influence is subtler — it shows up in the way a phrase ends, or the way he approaches a chord that another pianist might leave unambiguous. He moved to Paris in his twenties, and the city's jazz scene clearly shaped him. There's a Gallic economy to his playing, a sense that less is being understood as more.

His album Modern Times (2017), recorded for the ACT label with Ziv Ravitz on drums and Yoni Zelnik on bass, is probably the best entry point. The title is a little misleading — there's nothing especially contemporary about the aesthetic. The music sounds timeless in a good way, stripped of trends. Ravitz is a perfect match for him: restrained, attentive, never stepping on the piano's breathing room. The trio sounds like three people who genuinely listen to each other rather than waiting for their turn.

He has also worked closely with Emile Parisien, the French saxophonist, and those collaborations show a different side of Avishai — more expansive, willing to chase ideas further before resolving them. With Parisien in the room, Avishai opens up a bit, like he's been given permission to push. Their duo and small-group recordings are worth seeking out if you want to understand the range he's working with.

What makes Avishai worth your time is that he sounds like he made choices. Every element of his playing feels considered rather than habitual. He's not reinventing anything, and he wouldn't claim to be. He's doing something harder: playing with real conviction inside an established tradition without sounding stale. Put him on late at night when you want music that holds your attention without demanding it.