Get your Israeli ‘mojo’ working
Filed under: General, Music, Pop Culture, Profiles
Asaf Avidan, right, and the Mojos - comin' at ya.
All that could change with the signing this week by Sony Columbia of Asaf Avidan and the Mojos. Called by one critic ‘the lost love child of Dylan & Joplin,’ Avidan’s high-pitched, impassioned vocals, poetic lyrics, and raw blues and folk-based English-language rock & roll have made waves in the last couple years locally.
According to a press release issued by the band, Sony Columbia – the home of Dylan, Bruce Springsteen and Leonard Cohen, among others – will distribute and promote the band’s records, including re-releasing their second album, 2008’s highly acclaimed The Reckoning.
Avidan, who was a successful animator in Tel Aviv after graudating from the Bezalel School of Design, is apparently aware that the label is a good fit for his indiosyncratic style
“Sony-Columbia’s legendary logo, which decorates albums by Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, and countless other music icons, will now accompany our music as well,” said Avidan in the release.
”This is a dream come true for five kids from Jerusalem who grew up with great faith and love for music, and it’s almost impossible to comprehend this honor. It’s so fulfilling to see that the hard work by the band and those around it has made the impact we we’re hoping for.
”It is important to emphasize that this is but another stepping-stone in the band’s ever-building path, we have a long way to go.”
Avidan spent four years as a child in Jamaica, where his parents, both Foreign Ministry officials, were stationed, a move which he told me last year had a profound impact.
“I heard reggae all around me. I can’t say that I was influenced by it or liked it at the time. But now if you asked me my top five artists now, Bob Marley would be one of them, but not because of reggae,” he said. “It was something I realized later. What I like about art in general, it doesn’t matter the medium or the genre, is feeling that honesty, that it’s something that coming from the depths of someone’s soul. It needs to be out there – for him, not for anybody else.”
Currently in Germany, Avidan and the Mojos have spent much of the last year building up a following throughout Europe with their English language high-energy amalgam of folk, blues and rock. Their next album is slated for release in the fall, and if things go according to plan, you’ll hear about it, even if you aren’t in Israel.
Legendary rock bassist chooses Jerusalem stone
Filed under: A New Reality, General, Immigrant Moments, Music, Profiles
The summer is full of flights with new immigrants coming to Israel from the US and Canada. In m my mind, they’re all latter-day Zionist heroes, but not all of them have played on records by Bob Dylan and Miles Davis, or shared a stage with The Doors or Steely Dan.
Meet Israel’s newest immigrant, Harvey Brooks – bass guitarist extraordinaire and the Forrest Gump of rock and roll. He’ll be arriving from Tuscon, Arizona with his wife Bonnie on an August 4th Nefesh B’nefesh flight, but his whole 40-year musical career has been one soaring flight.
He’s played bass guitar on some of the most groundbreaking records of the post-Beatles era – including Bob Dylan’s Highway 61 Revisited (1965), Miles Davis’s Bitches Brew (1969), The Doors Soft Parade (1969) and 1968’s Super Session featuring Michael Bloomfield, Al Kooper and Stephen Stills. And that’s only a fraction of the some 100 albums he’s appeared on or produced over the last 40 years on his way to cementing his status as one of the most respected figures on the American music scene.
He spoke with me for an article in the The Jerusalem Post.
“We’ve been going back and forth for a number of years, and every time we’re here, we’d talk about moving,” said the 65-year-old Brooks, whose stepdaughter Lori lives in the Gush Etzion settlement Neve Daniel. “Our two other kids are secure and established now, and we figured this is the time for us, for an adventure. It’s a good time to come.”
Calling Tuscon home since 1998, Brooks and Bonnie opened a guitar and music shop (17th Street Guitars and World Music) inside an international food market, the 17th St. Farmer’s Market, and started a Web business together with Jerusalem-based Web developer Charlie Kalish call Treasure Hidden that sells items from both establishments as well as other artifacts. To add to the symbiosis, Brooks formed a band with the market owner, called the 17th Street Band, playing a mix of rock, soul and blues.
“We’ve just released an album called Positively 17th Street,” said Brooks proudly, adding that while he’s going to be spending most of his time in Jerusalem, he plans on keeping his US endeavors ongoing. But when asked if he’s going to become musically active in Israel, Brooks said, “absolutely.”
“There are some great musicians in Israel. The last time we were here, we got to meet Ehud Banai, he’s a wonderful man and a great artist. Hopefully, we’ll spend some time with him,” said Brooks.
Welcome to the ‘hood, Harvey.
Hometown Jerusalem girl wins Grammy
Hila Plitmann - just a simple Yerushalmi...
Jerusalem-born and raised soprano Hila Plitmann received her award for Best Classical Performance as vocalist on a recording of Mr. Tambourine Man: Seven Poems of Bob Dylan (2000), an original composition for full orchestra and amplified soprano by John Corigliano using the lyrics of Dylan and performed by the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by JoAnne Falletta.
Since graduating from the prestigious Juillard School of Music in New York in 1997, Plitmann has gone on to become a staple on the international music scene, regularly premiering works by leading composers while cementing her reputation in musical theater, recordings and film, including the soundtrack work as a soloist for the The Da Vinci Code. CNN reported “Plitmann’s glissandi sail above the petty pulpits of earthly doctrine with an ethereal ease that argues for Plitmann’s pairing with [Kathleen] Battle or Dawn Upshaw.”
But Plitmann is as down to earth as they come. Living in LA now with her husband, conductor Eric Whitacre and their three-year-old son Esh (Fire in Hebrew), Plitmann is unaffected by the accolades and the glitter of the Grammys. So much so, that she ended up missing the ceremony last week to attend a birthday party for a friend of Esh’s.
“I’m still a little surprised we won,” said Plitmann. “Just thinking about the level of artistry and the level of respect I hold for the others who were nominated in the category – I didn’t really expect this.”
With her family all still living in Jerusalem (her father is a professor of botany at Hebrew University), and socializing with many Israelis in LA, Plitmann remains an Israeli at heart. A few years ago, she collaborated with Whitacre by writing and singing the original poems for Five Hebrew Love Songs, a collection of Whitacre compositions.
And, if she wasn’t busy enough, she studied Tae Kwon for five years and has received a black belt. The debate has gone back and forth about how terrible it is that Israelis move abroad and abandon their country. But in Plitmann’s case, she’s presenting an amazing image of Israel to the world, and much like her expansive vocal style, filling us with pride at a home town girl made good.
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