Radiating thoughtful beauty - Yosef Gutman’s 'Resisei Lyla' reviewed

I’ve been an enthusiastic follower of Yosef Gutman’s music since I reviewed his album Soul Song in 2023 (a collaboration with his friend, guitarist Lionel Loueke.) Gutman has an impressive stream of releases to his name – a dozen albums over the past seven years.

For those unfamiliar with Gutman, he was born in South Africa and grew up listening to American jazz fusion. Inspired by the music of Weather Report's Jaco Pastorius he put down his skateboard and took up bass guitar, winning a scholarship to study at Boston’s Berklee College of Music. He relocated to New York where, for many years, he was part of the city’s jazz scene and then, in 2009, he emigrated to Israel, taking a long hiatus from music.

By 2018 he had returned to music, using his five-string acoustic bass guitar to become both a prolific recording artist and the curator of Soul Song Records, a label Gutman founded to promote "modest, soulful music that radiates a thoughtful beauty." According to his website, the label “focuses on encouraging artists to create honest, improvised, and inspired music, regardless of religious background.” In some ways, for me, Soul Song Records fills the space once occupied by Wyndham Hill Records – an amazing community of musicians releasing instrumental music which is hard to classify but always life-enhancing. Some of Gutman’s albums are largely improvisational, others more composed - but they are always played exquisitely, with originality and verve, by a trusted team of musical collaborators.

As expected – based on Gutman’s previous albums – the latest release, Resisei Lyla, is a thing of great beauty, with Omri Mor (piano), Yoed Nir (cello), Itamar Doari (percussion) and Tal Yahalom (guitar) blending with Gutman’s acoustic bass guitar and double bass. Levitt sometimes plays surprising melody lines high on the extra top string of his bass, while Doari’s percussion is always subtle but perfectly judged. The simple act of putting this record on the turntable brings a big smile to my face but it’s also rewarding and fascinating to watch the videos of the studio recordings as a masterclass in how a group of musicians can play so instinctively and sympathetically together.

The music shifts effortlessly between traditional folk-like themes to jazzier excursions, often settling into a meditative mood. Most of the tracks are original Gutman compositions, and the album ends with an unplanned solo version of a traditional Moroccan tune from pianist Mor. Resisei Lyla is a deeply soulful, transformative and restorative journey. This album provides much-needed balm in a troubled world and Gutman has certainly succeeded in his mission to  create “soulful music that radiates a thoughtful beauty.”   

Resisei Lyla is released January 2026, available on LP/CD/DL from Soul Song Records.