Spiritual Mix

By Janani Krishnaswamy, " Shalom, salaam, namaste " - The Hindu Business Line - Chennai, India
Friday, June 12, 2009

The sounds of qawwali rendered in Hebrew and in companionship with Rajasthani folk and jazz riffs..

The initial sounds were familiar — of harmonium, tabla, morsing and dholak, followed by a melodious flute recital by Israeli composer Shye Ben-Tzur. What followed then on sounded like a spiritual mix of Hebrew poetry set to Sufi melodies, combined with full-throated soulful Rajasthani music.

Along with the traditional sounds of khartals, bhapang (single-stringed talking drum) and dhol, played by Rajasthani musicians, Ben-Tzur made use of Israeli bassist Eyal Mazig and flamenco guitarist Fernando Pervez from Spain for the gypsy jazz sounds.

The world music field is crowded with singers trying to fuse their native traditions with Western pop. Ben-Tzur’s live performance from his upcoming album, Shoshan (meaning Rose in Hebrew), stood out that evening as his band of musicians unleashed lush harmonies, and fused Hebrew-Qawwali and Rajasthani folk.

They quickly built a loyal following among those who had come to witness the third edition of the EarthSync festival in Chennai recently.

Drawn from his understanding of the inner, mystical dimension of Islam, Ben-Tzur’s lyrics reflected the Sufi philosophy of unity, peace and brotherhood. Barring a few songs in Hindi and Urdu, the rest were in Hebrew. To reach out to his Indian audience, Ben-Tzur translated the essence/message of each song in English. One of the hymns was about total surrender to divine will and another about profound love for the divine.

The performance flowed finely from one genre of music to another. If you had entered the hall when, say, the Rajasthani vocalist Munshi Khan was producing sonic hymns from the depths of his throat, or when multi-instrumentalist Kutla Khan was playing the dholak, you may have thought you were at an Indian music festival. The very next moment, though, you’d have heard Ben-Tzur play his flute and sing in Hebrew. But if you happened to enter when the Spanish guitarist was in action, you’d have been forgiven for thinking this was a nod to the land of Floyd.

The evening proved to be a cross-cultural mix of emotions, realities, styles, languages and irresistible grooves. The lighting design by Tel Aviv-based Adi Shimrony added powerfully to the overall mood.

Hebrew Sufi
A former member of rock band Sword of Damocles, Ben-Tzur is the ‘Hebrew-Sufi’ living in Jaipur, for over a decade now, with wife Sajida, who hails from Ajmer.

He became interested in Indian music after attending a Zakir Hussain concert in Israel and this led him to Qawwali, a form of Sufi devotional music popular in South Asia; he has since been collaborating with Qawwali musicians of Ajmer.

Asserting that he couldn’t find the power of classical recitals anywhere other than in India, he says this set him off on his Indo-Israeli journey of music.

Refuge in music
Ben-Tzur’s concert was preceded by an electro-folk performance by Kartick (Patrick Sebag, Israeli music producer) and Gotam (Yotam Agam, sound designer). Under the canopy of a banyan tree, the duo with adoptive Indian names blended classical notes, Rajasthani folk music, fisherfolk music, temple music and south Indian devotional music with contemporary electronic music.

Their cast included vocalist Mahesh Vinayakram (son of famous ghatam player Vikku Vinayakram), Navin Iyer on the flute, Israeli Eyal Mazig on the trumpet, vocalist Anuradha Viswanathan and Bharathanatyam dancer Meera Seshadri.

Together they presented a live performance from their newly released album, Business Class Refugees.

The album’s name was inspired by a real-life incident. For over four years, Sebag and Agam travelled through Myanmar, Thailand and Indonesia, recording indigenous music forms. While travelling to Aceh, a village in Indonesia, they found themselves in business class luxury, thanks to an overbooked flight and unexpected luck.

But luck deserted them soon after that, and due to a curious set of events they were left stranded at the airport.

For three days they waited as ‘business class refugees,’ without passport or any identity, sometimes worried, sometimes homesick, but mostly making music on their laptops.

The duo have partnered musically for 15 years now and Agam’s (CTO of EarthSync) successful ventures include the Laya project; Binago — an album based on a south Indian raga produced in collaboration dargah musicians and Sufi singers; and Maha Geetha — a compilation of Myanmar’s ancient classical songs sung in praise of kings and queens.

At EarthSync, the Chennai-based world music record label, CEO Sonya Mazumdar is living her dream of reviving folk music. She believes that music and dance underpin the cultures of different countries and fusion music unites them.