Rosenfeld, Avi & Caz Mera: It’s Late

You don’t come across blues and rock guitarists from Jerusalem every month, but quite remarkably, it would appear that Israeli songwriter Aviv Rosenfeld releases albums at exactly that rate, with It’s Late being his 52nd release (yes, fifty-second). Appearing in October 2020, that he found time to add another two albums to that tally before the year was out shows the sort of prolific nature we’re talking about here.

That in itself almost makes the conclusion of this review as expected as it will doubtless prove to be, but to his credit Rosenfeld isn’t just a one man band, collaborations and gentle alterations in style evident along the way. With the man himself being kind enough to send a further five albums to SoT with the review copy of It’s Late, I can attest that while he has a strong and well documented love of Deep Purple, Uriah Heep, Rainbow, Dio and the like, there are more strings to his fretboard than just that.

It’s Late is mainly (semi) acoustic in nature, Catalan singer Caz Mera allowed to roam pretty free over a bluesified selection of acoustic guitar tracks that engage without ever quite capturing the soul this style of music truly requires to stand out from an ever growing crowd of exponents. That said, “When The Night�, “Be The One For Me� and “On The Road To My Old Home� do offer enough to suggest two things - firstly that the other Rosenfeld albums deserve some investigation and secondly that possibly this acoustic style, while fun, isn’t this man’s natural territory.

So with that in mind and the score below for the main album in this review, I did indeed dig deeper, in truth, with mixed results. Prior to It’s Late, came Tell Me Something (3.5/5) with Marco Buono this time on vocals. In style, Rosenfeld is now plugged in as he combines the Beatles pop of “Summer’s Ending Now� to a more relaxed blues style. “Lady D� is arguably where it’s at here, the upbeat but still relaxed blues simple but effective and if ever we needed proof that Rosenfeld can play guitar, then it’s here for all to experience and then some. However, for Silence Is Sounding Good (2/5), the unfortunate album title bears more truth than was probably hoped for, vocalist Hangacsi Marton screeching and wailing his way inappropriately over inoffensive rock tracks like “Carpool� and “Peaky Blinders�. The music here is fine, if hardly inspired, but in truth Marton’s vocal style is a serious struggle to cope with.

From there the self explanatory Very Heepy, Very Purple XI (3.5/5) (yes, the eleventh album of Uriah Heep and Deep Purple inspired sounds from the man) proves to be the cream of the crop, even if the multi-vocalist effort hardly rivals either of the bands seen as inspiration in terms of class. That said, Rosenfeld undoubtedly is steeped in this sound and if you want to investigate what he’s about, I suggest you begin here, with “She’s A Speed Demon� showing some serious Blackmore chops! Money Burns (3.5/5), with Marco Buono again, continues in that classic rock vein and proves it to be this musician’s strong suit, before Forever (2.5/5) confuses matters further with a variety of singers adding their tones to a mostly ballad-style set of songs that really never get going.

So, you knew it was coming and here it is, Avi Rosenfeld is a really talented guitarist and, on this evidence, good songwriter. However, instead of releasing ten songs a month, if he instead simply chose the best twelve to fifteen and released one album a year, then he might have a much better chance to shine. I mean not even the most prolific, successful songwriters ever average 100 or so new, excellent compositions a year…

Track Listing
1. Raise Your Sails
2. When The Night
3. Been Born That Summer Day
4. And If You Love Me
5. Be The One For Me
6. On The Road To My Old Home
7. Yesterday I’ve Been Loving You
8. It’s been A Long Time
9. Remember Falling In Love Was Not Easy
10. It’s Late

Added: March 25th 2021
Reviewer: Steven Reid
Score:
Related Link: Avi Rosenfeld @ bandcamp
Hits: 599
Language: english

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