Idan Raichel project salutes Jerusalem
Filed under: Israeliness, Life, Music, Pop Culture
Two years ago, Israel’s capital introduced the “Jerusalem Card” which provides discounts on a whole range of Jerusalem attractions – from restaurants and museums to music performances and even discounts on parking and taxis. We bought ours at the opening to the annual Hutzot HaYotzer arts and crafts festival for NIS 60 (around $16) and it’s paid for itself many times over.
Last night, the city decided to celebrate the card’s birthday with a festive concert featuring the Idan Raichel Project at Jerusalem’s International Congress Center. Card holders got in for only NIS 50 ($13) instead of the non-resident price of NIS 140 ($37). In an age when concerts by big names are going for hundreds of shekels, this was a can’t miss deal.
That, apparently, was what half the city seemed to think too. The concert was sold out within hours of tickets going on sale and the performance hall was packed.
Raichel is one of Israel’s most unique talents. Bursting onto the local music scene in 2002, he’s assembled an 11-piece band composed of performers from around the world that sings in Amharic, Spanish, Arabic, English and, of course, Hebrew. Flute, sax, oud and mandolin could all be heard, along with a unique percussion instrument that involved pouring water into buckets. It’s true world music…with a rock beat.
The crowd was a unique Jerusalem mix of young and old, completely covered up religious and scantily clad secular. It was encouraging to see the way that music can bring together an increasingly polarized population.
That may have been due in part to Raichel’s multi-cultural and pluralistic emphasis. He punctuated the 2 hour plus concert with anecdotes about the texts he uses for his songs, many of which come from Biblical sources and have double meanings – love stories about longing for God that at the same time year for a more physical partner.
Perhaps the most poignant moment came when Raichel recounted the band’s performance earlier this year for Martin Luther King Day with U.S. President Barack Obama in attendance. On his return to Israel, though, he received a call about several young children under the age of four dying from cancer. His father picked him up at the airport and they immediately drove to the hospital.
The concert in the U.S., by comparison, Raichel realized, was all “shtuyiot” (“unimportant” or “nonsense” in Hebrew). He then proceeded to play an emotional ballad that had the crowd alternately cheering and crying.
Our Jerusalem Card is due to expire soon. There’s no question that we’ll renew it.
You can watch a clip from the concert above or click this link.
Karolina on my mind
Filed under: A New Reality, General, Israeliness, Music, Pop Culture, Profiles
When you think of Israel’s musical diversity and who the most fitting artist may be to exemplify it, Idan Raichel will likely come mind – with his multi-cultural band and his inspiring pastiche of Middle Eastern, new age, gospel and contemporary pop.
But a worthy contender is the Israeli ‘Earth mother’ – MC Karolina.
With her flowing rainbow clothes, distinctive hair, swaying motions, and evoceasily flow from Hebrew to English to Hebrew, she lays down a good-time groove and never lets go of it.
Audiences may already be familiar with Karolina without even knowing it – because she’s also the anchor of the acoustic jazz-folk vocal trio Habanot Nechama. The group, featuring singers Yael Deckelbaum and Dana Adini, recently returned from a triumphant tour of US and Canadian colleges and clubs, wowing the crowds with their bi-lingual vocal versatility.
Now Karolina – whose last name is Avratz and who was raised in Eilat – is back in Israel, enjoying solo success with her new album What Do I Do Now?, featuring the hit single “Happiness.”
Karolina’s musical diversity dates back to well before she founded her first band, Funset, in 2000 and began making inroads in Tel Aviv’s underground club and lounge scene.
Falling in with like-minded musicians in Tel Aviv, Karolina founded the Funset Sound System and created something she called a “Ragga Pumpkin” sound – a lively blend of reggae, soul and trip hop – which also featured in the name of the band’s 2005 debut album, Live Ragga Pumpkin.
The album resulted in an ACUM award (similar to an Israeli Grammy) for Karolina – for composition – with the prize citing her “original style, fresh and lively, and her diverse ability to write and to excite with a unique sound.” Another ACUM award – for Best New Song of 2007 – went her way for “So Far,” a track from the Habanot album of that year.
“I was a solo artist for many years before Habanot, so I have a strong identity coming in, as we all did,” she told me last week.
For her solo album, Karolina worked with collaborators Kutiman, who gained worldwide notoriety last year for his inventive YouTube musical mashup “Thru-You,” and Ronen Sabbo, one of the hottest DJs in Tel Aviv and one-fourth of the DJ crew Soulico.
For an authentic taste of contemporary music, Karolina will get you there… Here’s one of her songs, followed by the Habanot Nechama classic “So Far.”
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.
Subscribe
Subscribe to Israelity via email:
Social Media
Categories
- A New Reality
- Art
- Blogging
- Business
- coexistence
- Crime
- design
- education
- Environment
- Food
- Foto Friday
- General
- health
- History and Culture
- Holidays
- Immigrant Moments
- Israeliness
- Life
- Medical Breakthroughs
- Movies
- Music
- Nostalgia Sunday
- Picture of the Week
- Politics
- Pop Culture
- Profiles
- Religion
- Social Justice
- Sports
- Technology
- Travel
- tv
- War
The Face of Israel Today
-
About Israelity
Free newsletter
Stories from ISRAEL21c.orgPopular Posts