Who Knew Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s Son Is Revolutionizing World Music?

Ronald Litke, The Jewish Daily Forward

Jewish roots are emerging in contemporary music from remarkably diverse performers who are often not Jewish. Beyond the intriguing klezmer revival , there’s a steadily growing movement of typically classically trained musicians who are discovering mostly European Jewish music as a base for alchemical combinations of past and present.

When classical guitarist Denis Azabagic, originally from Bosnia, and his wife, flutist Eugenia Moliner, who hails from Spain, visited his family back home in the mid-1990s, Azabagic recalls his great-aunt talking to his wife in Spanish.

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Gad Elbaz just united the City of Jerusalem in the most beautiful way

From israelvideonetwork.com

In a stunning video that includes sweeping footage of the Old City of Jerusalem and the surrounding areas, Israeli superstar Gad Elbaz is the voice of the Jewish people, expressing a longing for the day when Jerusalem will no longer be divided but will be a single united city.

Elbaz is joined by well known Israeli musician Meron Williams and the two walk the streets of the Old City, accompanied in song by Israelis of all ages who are eager to embrace the thriving Jewish communities that have begun to flourish all around the Kotel area.

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Bob Dylan’s forgotten pro-Israel song, revisited

By Gabe Friedman for JTA
“I was so much older then, I’m younger than that now,” Bob Dylan sang in 1964’s “My Back Pages.”

Reverse-aging or no, the legendary Jewish folk singer turns 75 on Tuesday.

While Dylan’s Jewishness has been examined and reexamined over the years, relatively little attention has been paid to his 1983 song “Neighborhood Bully” — a rare declaration of full-throated Israel support by a mainstream American rocker.

The lyrics (posted in full here) equate Israel with an “exiled man,” who is unjustly labeled a bully for fending off constant attacks by his neighbors.

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La Dor V’Jazz

Orli Santo for The Jewish Week

Meet members of the three waves of Israeli jazz musicians who have washed ashore here, and made their rhythmic and melodic mark.

THE FIRST WAVE

Bassist Avishai Cohen (avishaicohen.com)

Declared one of the 100 Most Influential Bass Players of the 20th Century by Bass Player Magazine, Cohen, 46, has been hailed by DownBeat as “a jazz visionary of global proportions.” Like several of his contemporaries, his signature sound blends Middle Eastern, Eastern European and African-American musical idioms. The New York Times describes it as a “heavy Middle Eastern groove with a delicate, almost New Age lyricism.”

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Hey, Mister DJ: Put a (Diaspora-Blending, Genre-Bending) Record On

Booty-shaking new music from A-Wa, Sandaraa, and Schizophonia

By Vox Tablet

Rob Weisberg, the host of the world music radio program Transpacific Sound Paradise, joins Vox Tablet host Sara Ivry to talk about a trio of new genre-bending projects: A-Wa, Sandaraa, and Schizophonia. A-Wa are Israeli sisters of Yemeni ancestry who invoke the music of legendary singer Ofra Haza. (The band’s infectious pop songs have made a splash with viral videos like this one.) Sandaraa joins Pashtun songs from Pakistani singer Zeb Bangash with the Eastern European klezmer clarinet of Michael Winograd. And Schizophonia, a project of guitarist Yoshie Fruchter, reconceives cantorial songs by setting them in a rock ’n’ roll context.

Weisberg shares a bit of background about each project, and we listen in for ourselves to these energetic and riveting sounds.

Listen:

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The Israelis Behind Coldplay’s Stunning New Video

By Avishay Artsy for Jewniverse

The video for Coldplay’s “Up&Up” has already garnered 12 million YouTube views this week, and that number just keeps going up and up. And for good reason: it’s simply breathtaking.

Vania Heymann and Gal Muggia co-directed the video for the British rock band. The two 30-year-old Israelis describe the video as “a poignant, surrealist montage which alludes to contemporary issues.”

The video blends seemingly incongruous worlds: whales swimming in the sky, a child swinging in outer space, synchronized swimmers in a teacup and popcorn bursting from a volcano.

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Andalusian Love Song

By Rahel Musleah for Hadassah Magazine   

The raspy strains of the ney, a Persian flute, give way to the swelling percussive rhythm of 35-piece Andalusian Orchestra Ashkelon—and suddenly Israeli singer David Broza’s voice emerges with his beloved hit “Shir Ahava Bedoui,” fused with a popular Arabic melody. The collaboration between Broza and the orchestra that began five years ago with new arrangements by director and conductor Tom Cohen has resulted in a fabulous reworking of Broza’s boy-with-guitar sound.

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