Israeli chanson on the Riviera

August 6, 2008 - 5:44 PM by Harry

Avishai Cohen The French aren’t exactly known for their love of things Jewish and Israeli.

But with music made by Israelis [] and Israel lovers gaining in popularity internationally, even the French are playing along. They’d better – some of the most interesting acts in the Israeli musical export roster are part French. Ramat Hasharon-raised, Steve Jobs-endorsed songstress Yael Naim was actually born in gay Paris. Cheeky electro pop DJ and singer Onili, who splits her time between the clubs and stages of France and Tel Aviv, was raised in Paris. Keren Ann moved there when she was 11.

Israel’s musical French connection was on display on the Riviera late July, when the 60th Nice Jazz Festival welcomed several Israel-related performers.

The three-stage, eight-night festival, located adjacent to a Franciscan monastery, the Henri Matisse Museum and Roman ruins, drew some 41,000 people to 48 performances by local acts as well as big names like Rufus Wainwright, George Benson, Diana Krall, Maceo Parker, John Mayall and Joan Baez.

As part of an extended French tour that included other festival appearances, Yael Naim was on the Nice Jazz roster, and the opening night included a performance by Avichai Cohen (pictured), the Chick Corea-affiliated, New York-based jazz bassist who hails from the Judean Hills.

Another descendant of the ancient tribe of Judean altar boys, international man of poetic mystery Leonard Cohen drew one of the biggest crowds of the festival on the night he played. The 73-year-old Herzlia High School-educated (true, that’s Montreal’s Herzlia High School) singer-songwriter who is reported to have shared a glass of cognac with Arik Sharon during the 1973 war is actually perfect for the Nice Jazz scene:

He wowed the international audience with a Nice-customized verse of “Hallelujah,” an acoustic version of the High Holiday liturgy-inspired “Who by Fire” and plenty of other favorites spanning his career. The festival grounds were packed with fans who sang along in awe, Cohen pausing at one point to warn a young lady who had climbed up one of the park’s olive trees to be careful.

In Europe, jazz festivals are often wide in scope, and Leonard Cohen’s show was well-suited for French audiences, his late-Sixties dreamy folk sound having long since evolved into a sort of post-country cabaret.

If only the reports of a mid-September Leonard Cohen Israel concert hadn’t been greatly exaggerated.

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