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"His name is Dror Gomel, he’s 36 years old, has three children, lives in Kibbutz Beit Kama in the Negev, has a degree in special education, and has been drumming since he can remember."'I play on anything. Everywhere I go, I immediately start drumming,' says Gomel, and his fellow infantry reservists can testify."
People may know the songs and albums he's played on more than his name, but a bona fide musical icon from the 1960s will be arriving on an August 4th Nefesh B'Nefesh flight of new immigrants to Israel.
Harvey Brooks calls his Jewish upbringing in Queens 'pretty ordinary,' and he credits his parents with instilling 'the basics' in him.
"Harvey Brooks, who will be making aliya with his wife Bonnie from Tuscon, Arizona, has 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' The 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 past 40 years on his way to cementing his status as one of the most respected figures on the American music scene."
Go here for more."With the media touting doomsday scenarios at every opportunity about a fracture between the Israeli government and US administration regarding the peace process, it’s nice to know Israelis and Americans can still make beautiful music together.
"Legendary American hard rock guitar virtuoso Steve Vai was in town this week, presenting his Alien Guitar Secrets masterclass to a Tel Aviv auditorium full of 1,500 adoring fans. While not my cup of musical tea, Vai, who in addition to an illustrious 20-year solo career, has played with everyone from Frank Zappa to David Lee Roth, was simply dazzling - both his guitar playing and his personality."
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.
"In 2003, five extremely talented musicians from Jerusalem, Israel, and around the world, found each other and came together to form one of the most unique and dynamic forces in the music world as we know it today. Suitability named 'Coolooloosh,' a Jerusalemite word for celebration and joy; this is precisely what the band exhumes with each and every exciting performance. Wooing fans around the world with their intelligent blend of genres, Coolooloosh combining Hip Hop, Rap, Jazz, and Funk, is one of Israel’s most popular groups, and is one of the very few well known emerging acts that can pull it off.'"Like I said, seriously big fun. From a profile on Israeli21c:
"Now, fresh off its first year of touring internationally and recording an album in the United States, the band is a rising star in a sea of tough competitors. With its hopping tunes that mix everything from Middle Eastern beats to Hasidic-like jigs to familiar hip-hop rhythms, the band is convinced it is "a dynamic force" ready to take on the world."(H-T: Israel21c)
"I can see they're a little crazy and great musicians," says Coolooloosh's US producer David Ivory in a home video made by the band, "...but in this business there are a lot of people making music, and these guys are serious."
Ivory, a Grammy-nominated producer known for his work with Erykah Badu and The Roots, invited Coolooloosh to Philadelphia in early 2008 to record its second album, Elements of Sound - a collection of songs that leap ahead of the group's first record, Coolooloosh.
Friday morning at Jerusalem's Mahane Yehuda open air market: Local street-theater artist, "The Purple Man," freezes, until passersby drop a coin or two into his guitar case. They he plays for another 15-seconds, until he again goes rigid.
Last I heard the cops ran him off for drawing too big a crowd and causing a public disturbance [sigh].
Friday morning at Jerusalem's Mahane Yehuda open air market: a beggar with a headset microphone and tambourine wishes passersby a good, peaceful Sabbath. (Dave Bender)
Ha. Haha. Like Friday shopping at Mahane Yehuda isn't a public disturbance, anyway...
Friday at Jerusalem's Mahane Yehuda open air market, a veteran hawker sells trinkets from a rolling cart. (Dave Bender)
A hero of the Revolution now shops for Shabbat. (Dave Bender)
Just imagine the things this elderly Russian immigrant has seen in his lifetime, including what he experienced in the service of the Soviet Red Army in order to merit those battle pins and medallions.
Shabbat Shalom, and have a great weekend.
From Israelity:
"An Israeli animation is now creating a buzz on the Net. It got 160,000 views in just two weeks, and a special review at Aniboom – the world’s biggest animation site. It was also featured on YouTube Spain, Mexico, Ireland, Netherlands and Israel.
It’s an animation music video for the Israeli alternative rock band, Eatliz. Called “Hey”, the 3D animation took almost two years to make, with a crew of 15 animators."
While I could do without the indie "bash a hole in the drumhead and cymbals, and scream" music, it's engaging, and pretty in a Eurostyle kinda' way ("...not that there's anything wrong with that" - Google Czech and Hungarian animation for more).
The project is the brainchild of Guy Ben-Shetrit, a freelance animator who has worked for commercials, TV programs and computer games. Ben-Shetrit is the founder and composer of Eatliz, wrote the featured song, directed the movie, and was the lead animator. (He quit his job and took a year off work to complete the project.)
The video, which is going to be featured in the next issues of animation and design DVD magazines Stash and IDN, is a weird Sci-Fi fantasy journey taken by a little girl and her special pet friend, a huge toad.
This is the second animation music video by Eatliz – the first “Attractive” was directed by Yuval and Merav Nathan. The film won Best animation category in Israel’s annual animation festival, Asif.
