Harmonica player and composer Roni Eytan grew up in Jerusalem and now lives in Brooklyn, NY. He picked up the harmonica as a teenager, fell in love with jazz and learned its language from recordings of trumpet, saxophone and piano players — while also exploring the folk music of his own region, a path that became a major part of his identity as a musician.
After moving to the United States he found a mentor in Grégoire Maret, and while studying at Berklee College of Music he met pianist Danilo Pérez, who invited him into his band: by 23 he was touring major international stages with Pérez’s Panama 500 project. In 2018 he became the first harmonica player selected for the Thelonious Monk Institute (now the Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz), personally chosen by Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter, and studied composition with Tigran Hamasyan.
He has performed and recorded with Kris Davis, John Patitucci, Brian Blade, John Beasley, Kevin Hays, Gilad Hekselman and Shai Maestro. Deeply engaged with Middle Eastern, North African and Jewish music, he developed the microtonal harmonica together with inventor Brendan Power — an instrument built to capture the subtleties of maqam, opening new ground for the harmonica.
His debut album as a leader, Melody People, produced by Shai Maestro and featuring Nitzan Bar, Barak Mori and Daniel Dor, is out October 30, 2026 on PKmusik — an homage to his grandfather, a storyteller who passed melodies down through generations.
