ASAF YURIA

Born in Tel Aviv, Israel in 1985, Yuria was raised on the recordings of John Coltrane, Charlie Parker and countless others. By high school, he’d advanced to play alongside some of the top musicians in the capital’s close-knit jazz scene. However, the bright lights of New York City were always an aspiration for the young Yuria. He eventually moved to the US to follow his dreams, enrolling at the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music in the late 2000’s where he came under the influence of close mentor Billy Harper, as well as George Cables, Reggie Workman, Billy Hart and Charles Tolliver.
For years now, Yuria has been a key part of countryman and world-renowned bassist Omer Avital’s quintet. He released his debut album, Papa Wawa, in 2018, and still lives and plays in New York today.

Released on September 4, 2026, In Light Of A New Moon is Asaf Yuria’s third and latest album on JOJO RECORDS, after Exorcisms (2021) and his appearance on Simon Belelty’s Pee Wee (2022). The sax player extraordinaire returns with the record he had been dreaming of for more than a decade, reunited with two of the very teachers who shaped his musical journey: George Cables and Billy Hart.

Produced by label founder Simon Belelty and recorded in just two days at the iconic Van Gelder Studio, Yuria trades the all-original sextet writing of his first album for the label for a quartet of masters devoted to interpretation: pianist George Cables and drummer Billy Hart, both former teachers of his, alongside bassist Omer Avital, with trumpeter Joe Magnarelli as special guest. Across seven pieces, the music moves from hard bop to blues to ballads, with compositions by John Hicks, Hank Mobley, Jimmy Van Heusen, Dizzy Gillespie and George Cables, a brand new Yuria original, and two unforgettable duets between tenor and piano.

Before that came Exorcisms, drawing seamlessly from the proud jazz combo tradition of Art Blakey and Lee Morgan on a sophomore effort ripe with inventive horn arrangements and captivating solo work. There he assembled a cast of New York’s finest, with trumpeter Josh Evans and trombonist Jonathan Voltzok on frontline duties and pianist Jeremy Manasia, bassist Ben Meigners and drummer Jason Brown providing lithe accompaniment from the backline.

“I’m looking for those unexplainable moments,” Yuria said of Exorcisms: “that mysterious condition in which the listeners and the musicians are immersed in the present moment.” Yuria’s musical outlook deals with the abstract possibilities of music, allowing a clear route to a personal connection with listeners: “When people are present in the moment, then the music can really touch them.”

“The expression of study has to come out through the prism of my life experience and ideas” he reflects.
Yuria is bold with his goals, which shine through his highly intuitive charts steeped in detailed knowledge of great masters of the past.