Music in Israel at 60 Processes and Experiences

Music in Israel at 60: Processes and Experiences Photographs by Edwin Seroussi Originally presented at the conference Hearing Israel: Music, Culture and History at 60 University of Virginia, April 13, 2008

Kariel Gardosh’s Srulik (from the book “What Happened, ” 1964)

A Jerusalem Billboard Visuals conveying musical diversity during a typical spring week in 2008

Jerusalem Billboard Detail 1 A joint appearance by Argentinian-born rocker Pablo Rosenberg with veteran mizrahi star Shlomi Shabat at the Jerusalem Theatre

Jerusalem Billboard Detail 2 “Shlihei Ha-bluz” (“The Blues’ Messengers”) salute to Led Zeppelin at the Tzolelet tzehuva (“Yellow Submarine”), a hub for the performance and recording of progressive rock, jazz, experimental and ethnic music.

Jerusalem Billboard Detail 3 “Gaya, ” a “world music” fusion band celebrates the launching of its new CD “Hofesh” (“Freedom”) at Ma’abada (The Lab), Jerusalem’s newest hip performing arts center at the old Ottoman-British railroad station.

Jerusalem Billboard Detail 4 The new Israeli avant-garde salutes the visit/pilgrimage of New York-based Jewish musical icon John Zorn.

Jerusalem Billboard Detail 5 Dag Nahash, hip hop celebrities, change their usual repertoire and even their musical instruments marking the Jewish holiday of Purim. Changing the music as a carnivalesque gesture. The event takes place at the club located in the garage of the Avi Chai Foundation building in downtown Jerusalem.

A Special Event: The Piyyut Festival of the Avi Chai Foundation in Jerusalem and Yerucham (Negev Desert)

Jerusalem Billboard Detail 6 “The Adventures of Mickey and Rickie, ” a special musical for children at the Gerard Behar Theatre on the occasion of Purim.

Jerusalem Billboard Detail 7 Special evening at the Avi Chai Foundation: “Singing the Poets: Israeli Poetry Meets Music. ” Among the performers, the Arab singer Mira Awad and the avantgarde cellist Yuval Mesner. Among the canonical poets whose poems were performed: Natan Alterman Yehuda Amichai, Haim Guri, Meir Wieseltier and Natan Zakh. An unintentional remake of the 1970 s program “An Evening of Poets’ Songs” by Galei Tzahal (IDF Radio Station).

Jerusalem Billboard Detail 8 The Boogie, a hub for ethnic and contemporary music, is a club geared to the national religious youth in Jerusalem. The poster in English is geared towards American religious students. The eclectic Purim programming at Binyanei Ha’Umah, the Jerusalem Congress Center, promises a combination of a synagogue service, “free-style” dancing (i. e. without touching) to “world music. ” Notice that a separate area for women is “available, ” not mandatory.

Jerusalem Billboard from Another Angle

Jerusalem Billboard Detail 8 The extremely successful Israeli jazz quartet, Third World Love (Avishai Cohen, Jonathan Avishai, Omer Avital and Daniel Friedman), joins the Revolution Orchestra, a grassroots organization of students from the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance at the International Spring Festival. They promise a program of “original Israeli music, improvisation, groove, and world music. ”

A funkier Jerusalem billboard at the Mahane Yehuda market in downtown Jerusalem

Catering to the Ethiopian Jewish population shopping at the nearby Ethiopian goods store in the Mahane Yehuda market

The CD and video store at the Mahane Yehuda market

Bollywood hits juxtaposed with Richard Clayderman at the Mahane Yehuda store

“To the Most Wonderful [Moroccan Yiddishe] Mother” Moroccan-Arabic songs juxtaposed with High Holy Day prayers at the Mahane Yehuda store

Henna songs in Moroccan Arabic at the Mahane Yehuda store

“Greek Music, Sherif [The Druze-mizrahi Wunderkind], Russian Music” All “original” CDs for 10 shekels apiece at the Mahane Yehuda store

Mizrahi divas: Zehava Ben, Aviva Avidan, Yshay Levy All “original” CDs for 10 shekels apiece at the Mahane Yehuda store

Poster announcing an evening of Bakkashot (paraliturgical poetry) Issued by the Circle of Friends of Bakkashot Singing and the Piyyut

The location of the poster…

Music outlet in downtown Jerusalem: a transnational perspective

Music outlet in downtown Jerusalem: a local perspective, fifty feet from Tower Records

World music, classical music, mizra i songs h at local music outlet in downtown Jerusalem

Any music… at music outlet in downtown Jerusalem

Musicking in downtown Jerusalem: Russian Bluegrass

… and Russian Blues

Musicking in downtown Jerusalem: a global perspective from the Andes

A venerable musical instrument and supplies store in downtown Jerusalem

On sale: instruments from five continents

A new superpower of music marketing in downtown Jerusalem: the Eighth Note

Inside the Eighth Note: the Rock n’ Roll Section

. . . and the Israeli Rock one

… and the Jewish one: niggunim/klezmer , Yiddish, Oriental Jewry, Ladino, Hazzanut and anthologies ,

… and (following Irish music) “Israeli Ethnic” arranged by artists

… and the greatest performers of Arabic song: Oum Kulthum, Farid, Abdelwahab

… and of Persian popular song too…

Beit Shmuel’s musical offerings for the week from the “Mouse of the City, ” the cultural events section of the Jerusalem weekend newspaper: Flamenco del Monte, Salonika Mon Amour, From Baghdad to Cairo

… and the Jerusalem Theatre offers an evening of songs from the first decade of the State of Israel directed by poet, translator and scholar Dr. Dan Almagor

… and in the lobby of the Jerusalem Theatre: rocker Izhar Ashdod’s “Belly Dancing – The Irish Event, ” a revival appearance of the 1970 s band Tzlil Mekhuvan, Margalit Tzan’ani in a “Gypsy” program, and Matti Caspi’s “Intimate”

… and in the main hall of the Theatre: the Israeli Andalusian Orchestra with soloist Taiseer Elias followed closely by … the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra

All-time Israeli diva and Yiddish revivalist Chava Alberstein with Avi Leibovitz, founder and director of the “Orkestra” Big Band, announcing their collaboration

There is not only “Israeli Music, ” but also “Israeli Taste”: announcing the parade of sixty years of Israeli brand products