An Album a Day #2026-17

Notes

Just when I think I know what jazz is, someone like Yosef Gutman comes along and kicks my little sand castle over.

Resisei Lyla, Gutman's latest album released on January 16th, 2026, is a blend of jazz, African, and Jewish music. It's a blend that reflects its creator. Yosef Gutman was born in South Africa, studied jazz at Berklee, found a career in New York, left music for tech (he founded Mad Mimi, a newsletter startup later acquired by GoDaddy), settled in Jerusalem, and then left tech to return to music. Quite the journey.

Journey is probably the word that best describes Resisei Lyla. The music covers a wide range of emotional and psychological ground. There is playfulness, contemplation, gratitude, unease, darkness, and light. I imagine a person wandering aimlessly through a fog, which at times thins to reveal a small glimpse of something beyond. The name Resisei Lyla means "drops of night."

It sounds serious, and it is. But behind the seriousness, one gets a sense of lightness at play. Indeed, Gutman is the kind of man that will write a song like "Yedid Nefash," the closing track on Resisei Lyla, which sounds like the prayer of a man struggling to know himself, and then take a picture like this:

Listening to this album, I responded to each song by building a new sand castle, adding to each a new feature from the last song I heard. "Now I know what jazz is," I'd smile. And then Gutman would smash it to bits.

Until finally I understood:

Stop building sand castles.

Listen

What is "An Album a Day"?

Each day in 2026, I'm listening to an album that:

1. I've never heard before
2. Was released in the last six months (from the time of listening)