Imagine hearing Eatliz, Amit Erez, Izabo, Shiri Hadar, Geva Alon, Halas, and Electra all on one night – that amazing concert at Levontin 7 was the start for a marathon of Israeli music attended by a cultural delegation organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that took place from December 5 – 8, 2010.
Levontin 7 is the heart and hard-core of the contemporary music scene. Just off Allenby St. in Gan HaHashmal, Levontin 7 welcomes you with a street level bar, then invites you underground to their basement performing venue with two shows every night, where you can hear every electric-acoustic-synth-jazz-freak-fusion-pop-rock-indie-klezmer-classical-digital creation you can imagine, and then some.
Midnight East was not there for the entire party but jumped back into the scene on the 8th. Music producer Asher Bitansky, founder of Labaleh Records, reminisced about the early days of trying to get people to listen to Israeli music, when people called him “crazy.” For Bitansky “Hebrew is an instrument, like the clarinet or piano” and music is a form of “non-language culture” that can be enjoyed universally – and time has shown him to be right, as Israeli musicians and their music have become part of the contemporary music scene worldwide.
Daniel Sarid, co-founder of Levontin 7, was the host of the three-day happening, and introduced the first act – Oy Division, the band that “brought Klezmer back to the clubs, rock audiences to Klezmer and really created a revolution.” Infusing Klezmer with a rocking sound and perverse sense of fun, the band invited the audience to join in, saying, “We know how to treat our guests in Israel. It’s a lovely day outside, so we take you into a dark cellar. Imagine that this is a bomb shelter and this is your last chance to dance. We’re not talking about happiness, but the last chance for happiness.”
Next on the whirlwind tour were Yinon Muallem and the Rast Ensemble with music that undulates from the Middle East to Eastern Europe. Singer Hadas Bar Yarden joined them for a new arrangement of Lea Goldberg’s poem “Shir Hayakinton” and a Turkish rhythm to the familiar Hava Nagilla, which became Hava Nagila Nargila.
J’ali Ensemble grooves to an African/jazz sound, singing in Hebrew with African rhythms – a very cool combination. Bringing in the Kora, a West African instrument (this one was from Senegal) for their rendition of a prayer “How many are the things you have made, O Lord” (Psalms 104).
Rak-a-tak created a mind-blowing world fusion wall of sound fabric.
Marina Maximilian Blumen accompanied herself on the piano for a solo set that merged American jazz with Russian folk and Israeli contemporary.
The Alon Oleartchik Ensemble brought sunshine into the room with a sound that comes from the land of Israel with their jazz performance: Once in the Galilee.
Lights were dimmed and the room bathed in a warm red glow as Arab-Hebrew diva Dikla struck a sensual chord.
Abate Berihun sings into the soul with an Ethiopian-Middle Eastern-African blend from the liturgical “I rejoiced when they said to me, We are going to the House of the Lord” (Psalms 122) to the sounds that reach beyond words.
Bringing a joyful rhythm to the room guitarist and oudist Amos Hoffman and his band played Brown Sugar, the different instruments dancing together in hand-clapping, foot-tapping fusion.
Violinist Michael Greilsammer and Shimrit Dror sang “listen to your heart, it calls you to dance” – a whimsical, irresistible invitation.
In a radical mood shift the next band took the stage and Pissuk Rachav sang out “Jesus Christ the Nazarene Runs in the Streets of Tel-Aviv” and “Allenby Vagina Street.”
The wild three day music marathon reminded me of everything I love about Israel: intensity, creativity, spontaneity, diversity, the lack of formality, and the sheer Chutzpah that this entire underground eclectic happening was a government initiated and sponsored event! If we’re talking about intensity, many of the participants continued the party with the five-day 2010 International Exposure in dance at Suzanne Dellal. One of those who opted for the full experience was Shirley Gordon, who came to Israel with the Tararam South Africa Israel Cultural Fund, who said of the music marathon at Levontin 7: “I kept having to remind myself that it was not the best from the whole world.”
AYELET DEKEL
