You had to be there – and if you were, you know what I’m talking about: the Tel Aviv Blues Festival at Levontin 7, January 23 & 24, 2011. Two nights in every shade of blue, from midnight to electric.
The Jewish troubadour is a “Long way from Chicago, long way from New Orleans” but his songs come from the people, the streets, the place we live – “I get the blues so bad, yeah, right in the middle of Tel Aviv.”
Acollective – Idan Rabinovici, Roy Rieck, Daniel Shoham, Joseph E-Shine, Roy Rabinovici, Emanuel Slonim & Nadav Luzia – got a rhythm going and had everyone clapping with blues classics and originals. The band had fun playing with a song from Sonny Terry and Brownie McGee, and giving it their own interpretation.
New songs included the single Whiskey Eyes from their upcoming album, and others that represented as the band said, “more a blues state of mind than 12 bar.”
Uzi Ramirez opened with a quiet guitar solo then was joined by Shaham Ohana and Tal Tamari and cranked up the volume and rocked the room with thundering blues rock.
bringing back up Roy Reick from Acollective to jam on the harmonica.
Israelis/Action/Sex – Yuval Kainer, Tom Mochiach and Tamir Shkolnik, announced “We’re a new band” and with guests Yehuda Eder and Hemi Rudner launched into an Israeli classic harking back to Eder’s days as guitarist for Tamouz – “Holech Batel” (lyrics Meir Ariel, music Ariel Zilber), then rocked into “One After 909” (do I really need to tell you who wrote this one?). Rudner confessed that “I never wrote a real blues song,” but tore into “I can’t get no satisfaction” with true blue zeal.
Dor Nagar went down to the crossroads to make his own Faustian deal, singing Robert Johnson’s mythic “Cross Road Blues” with an almost tender grundge feel, then was joined by the other members of the Delta 5 Blues Band – Yossi Tanuri – electric and acoustic guitar; Dudi Danieli – bass guitar; Shlomo Ariel – harmonica, vocals; Gilad Ariel – drums, vocals; Moran Magal joining for the evening on keyboards and Lital David coming on later with a smoking rendition of Jezebel.
Singing old style blues – originals and covers the band invited powerhouse Roy Young who filled the room with his presence and even wheedled on more song from the timekeepers monitoring the marathon from the back of the room, singing, “If you feel good say yeah, if you don’t feel good still say yeah.”
Abate Blues brought the blues back to Africa with Ethiopian songs from Abate Berihun and the magic of the oud in the hands of Amos Hoffman, with Alon Yofe on percussion Omri Mor on piano and Avri Borochov on contrabass – this is an amazing ensemble.
You don’t need to understand the words, just listen and let their music take you on a journey. Playing originals by Berihun and Hoffman, they finished their set with a new piece composed by the ensemble, so new that they haven’t named it yet.
The festival brought Uri Kinrot (guitar), Adam Scheflan (bass) and Ram Gabay (drums) together as Chicken Fish for a set that began with a promise – “I’m gonna do bad things to you” and saw it through with rock-blues, whiskey voices and dark distortion. Complementing their covers with guest Allen Moon singing originals and closing with “Sure ‘Nuff ‘N Yes I Do” dedicated to the recently deceased wild rocker Captain Beefheart (aka Don Glen Vliet 1941 – December 17, 2010).
Black Seeds brought it all together to close the festival with a set to remember. Ravid Kahalani took the stage with a shout of energy and filled it with an ensemble from Israeli classic to contemporary: Alon Olearchik and Efraim Shamir, pianist and vocalist Maya Dunitz, guitarist Uzi Ramirez, oudist Alon Amano Campino, percussionist Roni Ivrin, drummer Amir Bresler and Guy Dagan on harmonica. Taking the music everywhere – from classic blues, to Moroccan and Kahalani’s own Yemen Blues, inviting Sefi Tzizling to join on horns and getting everyone up on their feet – yeah, you wish you were there…
Hi Ram Gabay from your Welsh travelling companion 🙂 x
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