For years, Israeli jazz drummer and composer Ziv Ravitz, a former child prodigy, has been one of the most sought-after sidemen in modern jazz. With a unique and distinctive musical voice, he has played and recorded with such names as Lee Konitz, Joe Lovano, Tomasz Stanko, Shai Maestro, Florian Weber, Oded Tzur, and Avishai Cohen.

Born in Beersheba, Israel, in 1976 into a musical family, Ravitz began music lessons early, studying piano, guitar, and drums before deciding at the age of nine to focus on percussion. His talent was recognized by his tutors, and he was considered a prodigy, performing live by age 13 and regularly playing with established jazz, rock, and pop names while still in high school. After touring internationally during his early twenties, he further studied jazz and composition at Berklee College in Boston, and then moved to New York.

In 2001, he formed the trio Minsarah with German pianist Florian Weber and American bassist Jeff Denson; their eponymous debut album appeared in 2006 on Enja. Ravitz's debut album as leader, 2009's self-released Images from Home, fused the musical cultures of his dual heritage -- Polish and Egyptian -- to striking effect. Ravitz went on to record in groups with bassist Max Johnson, pianist Shai Maestro, saxophonists Christoph Irniger and Oded Tzur, and trumpeter Avishai Cohen, for labels such as Intakt, Fresh Sound, Yellowbird, and ECM. His second album as leader, No Man Is an Island, appeared in 2019 on Sound Surveyor. ~ John D. Buchanan, Rovi