Great NPR Profile on Israeli Musician/Producer

Idan Raichel

Click here to hear the interview (a pop-up player console will open).

From National Public Radio's Weekend Edition Sunday, May 10, 2009:

"Israeli music producer Idan Raichel collaborates with many musicians from around the world. So far, he has worked with more than 90 artists.

"'I see myself as the director of many, many scenes,' he says. "We are 90 musicians: The youngest is 16 years old, and the eldest are 64, 79, 83 and 89 years old. For those listeners who are not familiar with the Israeli society, we are all kinds of immigrants. So we have singers from the Ethiopian community in Israel, and musicians from the Moroccan community. And we are proud to have all these singers joining us by MySpace, or by just writing to our Web site.'"

"It's all part of his ongoing recording work with what he calls The Idan Raichel Project. Raichel (pronounced RYE-kell — "with phlegm," he says) writes, arranges and performs on many of the songs, but he works with a far-reaching cast of musicians to record his compositions"
Read the rest.

And, despite NPR's perennial editorial animus towards Israel, and considering Raichel's stated hard-left politics, there nary a note against the Jewish State.