Bagel Music

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Sh'ma Israel

Sarit Hadad's Sh'ma Israel

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Sarit Hadad's Sh'ma Israel

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Saturday, September 15, 2007

Ok so this article is as much about Jewish Music as Madonna is about Kabbalah but its news never the less...

Madonna sings at Tel Aviv conference

Clapping and singing, pop music star Madonna joined in a Kabbalah conference on Friday in Tel Aviv to celebrate Rosh Hashana.

Madonna was singing Jewish songs with the crowd of hundreds at the David Intercontinental Hotel where the conference on Jewish mysticism was being held. At one point she pressed another participant, apparently a friend of hers, up to the front where he danced excitedly, making her and the crowd giggle and clap enthusiastically.

The 49-year-old diva was wearing a black jacket with elbow-length sleeves held at the waist with a belt with a large buckle. She also donned a baseball-type hat plaid in red and black with her hair in a ponytail.

Madonna arrived in Israel Wednesday night, on a private visit to the Holy Land. The singer did not speak to the media and the conference was closed to TV cameras.

The actress Demi Moore and her husband, Ashton Kutcher, were also attending the conference in Tel Aviv, and were seen out on the city streets Thursday night.

The celebrity was raised a Roman Catholic, but she has become a follower of Jewish mysticism in recent years, raising the ire of many Orthodox Jews who see the adoption of Kabbalah by non-Jewish pop figures as an abomination.

The singer has taken the Hebrew name Esther, and has been seen wearing a red thread on her wrist to ward off the evil eye. During her visit she plans to visit sites sacred to Kabbalists.

Madonna paid a visit to Israel three years ago, on another Kabbalah-centered trip. Her first visit to Israel came in 1993, when she performed in a concert unrelated to Kabbalah in Tel Aviv's Hayarkon park.

References:
JPost: Madonna sings at Tel Aviv conference

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Saturday, September 1, 2007

Jewish Music Festival: Jerusalem

From The Jerusalem Post

Jewish Music Festival: Notes of the tribe

Given that there can't be anything more natural than a Jewish music festival in Jerusalem, why has it taken all these millennia to hold a full-scale, week-long showcase?

"I don't know," admits Shlomo Yisraeli, artistic director of the inaugural Jewish Music Days festival due to take place between September 3 and 8. "Maybe it was a matter of having the right facilities, or the funding."

Funding is always a salient - or sticking - point, as any organizer of any cultural event can testify.

"There's no support from the municipality for this," Yisraeli continues, "and, to get funding from international bodies you have to first have the festival up and running. Once you've survived the first year - if you survive - you can start to apply all over."

Judging by the program, and the popularity of Jewish music in Jerusalem and the rest of the country, Yisraeli and Effi Benaya, director of Confederation House (which is organizing the event) have nothing to worry about.

The six concerts, which will be held at Confederation House, Beit Shmuel and Beit Avi Chai, do justice both to the cosmopolitan nature of our capital and the varied cultural baggage picked up by the Jews over the centuries.

"In many ways, Israel is the center of the world," Yisraeli declares. "If you look at old maps of the world - not contemporary American ones - you see that. And Jerusalem is central to the three major monotheistic religions. If you put all that together, it's easy to see why the festival is happening here and why the program is so varied."

The latter attribute is something of an understatement, and Yisraeli, an expert on many musical genres who broadcast ethnic music on Kol Yisrael for many years, is the right man in the right place at the right time. He has pieced together a musical agenda that represents a considerable number of our multifaceted ethnicities.

Take, for example, the opening show at Beit Shmuel on Monday (at 9 p.m.), which brings together the well-named local cross-cultural troupe Andralamusia and New York trumpeter Frank London. London has had his nimble fingers in numerous musical pies for many years. A member of the high-energy band Klezmatics, he has recorded and performed with jazz musicians, "new Jewish music" guru John Zorn and Arab music star Maurice El Mediouni, to mention but a few.

"I met Frank a while back in Brazil," explains Yisraeli, "and asked him if he'd be interested in performing with an Israeli band. He was delighted with the idea." The same went for his cohorts in next week's concert. "When I mentioned the idea to [Andralamusia leader] Itai Bin Nun, he said he'd dreamt of playing with Frank for years. So that came together nicely."

The festival program incorporates the kind of traditional material you'd expect - such as The Carpion Trio playing pre-World War II Yiddish and Romanian songs - alongside some far more "out-there" forays. Thursday's "Bayamim Hahem Bazman Hazzeh" ("In Those Days At This Time") program certainly pertains to the latter category. It will showcase musical interpretations of prayers and other liturgical material (piyutim) from the Italian Jewish tradition, sung by Charlette Shulamit Ottolenghi, who also plays soprano sax and will fuse her efforts through a computer, together with Mexican-born Jerusalemite percussionist Abe Doron, best known for his work with Irish music outfits such as Riverdance and Evergreen.

It is an intriguing mix.

"It is a bit provocative," admits Yisraeli, "having a woman sing piyutim and adding saxophone and computer. But, as with the whole festival, I have tried to embrace both tradition and the contemporary."

Yisraeli believes in keeping up with the times. "Without that, music would have died a long time ago."
Other crowd pullers to watch out for include a concert led by Ethiopian-born jazz and ethnic music saxophonist Abate (next Saturday at Beit Avi Hai at 9:30 p.m,) based on a fascinating confluence between the works of famous Spanish poets, such as 11th-century poet-philosopher Ibn Gvirol, and lesser known Ethiopian men of letters of the same period. Pianist Yitzhak Yedid's concert (Wednesday at Confederation House at 9 p.m.) will bring art forms together and include works inspired by painter Marc Chagall. Medieval Sufi and mystical Jewish music will cross paths at Splendor East and West, the Hayona Ensemble show on Tuesday (Beit Aviv Hai, 7 p.m.).

"There is far more to Jewish music than klezmer," says Yisraeli. "I think the average person thinks all Jewish music is Hassidic. I hope the festival will both entertain audiences and broaden their horizons."

For more information about the Jewish Music Days festival, check out http://www.confederationhouse.org/

Bagelblogger: When the world focuses so much negative attention on the State of Israel its good to see events celebrating the positive aspects of Israel. More sponsorship is needed for such cultural events.

References:
JPost: Jewish Music Festival: Notes of the tribe

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Friday, August 10, 2007

Australian Tour : Chaim Dovid and Yehuda Glantz

Jewish troubadours to tour Australia:
Chaim Dovid and Yehuda Glantz

The AJN has brought attention to the fact that Chaim Dovid and Yehuda Glantz are about to tour Australia

From AJN

CONTEMPORARY Jewish music with a Latin twist. This is how Argentinean-born musician Yehuda Glantz describes the music which has taken him all over the world.

“In combining so many different styles, I hope to focus on what makes us similar and not on what makes us different,” he says over the phone from Israel.

Glantz, along with fellow Orthodox troubadour Chaim Dovid, will be heading to Australia for performances in Melbourne and Sydney this month.

“Chaim and I are long-time friends and I am very excited to perform with him,” Glantz says.

Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Glantz began his music tuition at the tender age of five. By age 15, he had mastered a variety of different instruments, including guitar, keyboard and accordion.

Glantz, who made aliyah in 1979, writes, composes and produces his own music in his private studio in Jerusalem. Last year, he performed original compositions alongside the Israel Symphony Orchestra.

“I want to make people happy and unify my audience,” he says.

Originally from South Africa, Dovid’s Carlebach-inspired style has been entertaining crowds in Australia, North America and Europe for nearly two decades.

Despite their different styles, the pair, says concert organiser Yossi Segelman, are sure to cater to most musical tastes.

“Chaim Dovid has inspired thousands of people all over the world with his music and Yehuda Glantz brings a lot of energy,” Segelman told the AJN. “It will really be a special show.”

Yehuda Glantz and Chaim Dovid will perform on Sunday, August 5, 7pm, at the University of NSW Science Theatre and on Monday, August 6, 8pm, at the Athenaeum Theatre, 188 Collins Street, Melbourne.

References:
AJN: Jewish troubadours to tour Australia
Jewish Blogmeister: Chaim Dovid and Yehuda Glantz: Touring in Australia

Kippertip: Jewish Blogmeister

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Monday, June 25, 2007

Remembering Ofra Haza

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Remembering Ofra Haza

Remembering Ofra Haza - a tribute to the greatest Israeli singer ever - Ofra Haza. Dedicated to her life, her work and all her songs she sang for us.

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Ofra Haza - Im Nin'alu

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Ofra Haza - Im Nin'alu

Of Yemenite Jewish ancestry, Haza was born the youngest of nine children in the poor Tel Aviv neighborhood of Hatikvah. She became an instant local and then national success story, the subject of great pride for many Israelis of Yemenite origin.

Her voice has been described as mezzo-soprano, of near-flawless tonal quality, capable of lending itself to a variety of musical styles with apparent ease. It is thought likely that Haza's voice had the most upper harmonic overtones of any singer in history, reaching as many as 32 on some songs, such as "Love Song" from the album Shaday (1988)
Ofra Haza died at the age of 42 on the 23rd February 2000. More about Ofra Haza Wikipedia

HATIKVAH PLAYED ON ANCIENT JEWISH TEMPLE LYRE!

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Hatikvah played on ancient Jewish Temple Lyre

An arrangement on Youtube by KlezFiddle1,of the haunting melody of the Israeli National Anthem,"Hatikvah"(The Hope),played on the long-forgotten "Kinnor" Lyre,last played by the Levites in the Temple of Jerusalem,almost 2000 years ago...here played by one of their descendants, Michael Levy - in my spare room, Salford, Lancashire!

This poignant melody to me,uniquely conveys the sorrow and hardship of the Jewish people throughout the last 2000 years - after the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans,and the opression we faced in so many foreign lands to which we were then scattered...yet the Unshakeable HOPE, of returning to that long-lost Homeland once again,a Hope sustained through the prayers, dreams and almost endless struggles of nearly 2000 dark, desolate years.

May this humble musical contribution also bring another Hope...that one day,all strife will cease,and there will be a time to come,when all Jews and Arabs will live in harmony as brothers and sisters once again.

Some future,distant day from now,let Mankind also cling onto the Greatest Hope - that there will be an EVERLASTING Peace in this weary,war-torn world...