Sefi Zisling was born in Tel Aviv and picked up the trumpet at 10, training at the Thelma Yellin School of the Arts and playing in bands from his early teens. In 2003 he became a founding member of Coolooloosh, and he spent years in Funk'n'stein, which released three albums between 2000 and 2014. He became one of the most-called session trumpeters in Israeli jazz and funk, with credits stretching back to 2006 across nearly a hundred releases, including several from artists already profiled in this system: Uzi Ramirez's 2010 debut Lick My Heart, Amir Bresler's 2017 debut single "Afro Golden Line" and 2022's House of Arches, and Hoodna Orchestra's Ofel.

His own leader catalog arrived later. Beyond the Things I Know (2017) was his debut, atmospheric and groove-driven, in dialogue with African rhythms. Expanse (2019, Tru Thoughts) followed, blending Afro-jazz, psychedelic funk, and spiritual jazz, explicitly drawing on childhood heroes John Coltrane, Grant Green, and Fred Wesley. A Welcome Sunset EP came in 2022, and his third full album, The Librarian, arrived in 2024, still on Tru Thoughts.

Zisling's own recordings sit at the intersection of spiritual jazz, jazz-funk, and Afrobeat, drawing on John Coltrane, Grant Green, and Fred Wesley from childhood, and echoing Alice Coltrane, Fela Kuti, and Donald Byrd on record. His extensive session work runs through funk, jazz, and Israeli pop, giving him a working vocabulary well beyond his own leader records.