B i o g r a p h y
Yoshie Fruchter is a guitar, bass and oud player whose playing and composing combines a unique blend of rock, jazz, experimental, and Jewish styles.
Fruchter is notable for his work in composing and interpreting Jewish music, and has forged new directions with his performance, regardless of genre. His current project, Sandcatchers, in which he plays oud and is joined by lap steel player Myk Freedman and Erik Friedlander on cello, explores the sounds of the Middle East combined with the American South.
He has released two albums on John Zorn’s Tzadik record label with his band Pitom and played on several others. His interest in early Jewish cantorial music also led him to do a project called He Schizophonia, which recorded arrangements of music by classic cantors of the early 20th-century in a unique style heavily influenced by progressive rock and jazz.
Yoshie is also a sought after sideman, and has performed and recorded with a wide variety of artists in concerts around the country and overseas. He has been a member of the Eitan Katz Band, Jon Madof’s Zion80, Joey Weisenberg’s Hadar Ensemble, David Krakauer’s Mazal Tov Cocktail Party, Zeb Bangash and Sandaraa, Frank London’s Shekhina Big Band, Ruthless Cosmopolitans (Eprhyme and Jon Madof), Basya Shechter, Shlomo Katz, Soulfarm, Moshav, and Michael Winograd’s Pillars among others. He has also performed with John Zorn, Matisyahu, Katrina Lenk (The Band’s Visit), Daniel Carter, Lorin Sklamberg (Klezmatics), Daniel Kahn, So-Called, Tyshawn Sorey, Erik Friedlander and many others.
