Private
Yoel Ben, Simhon & Sultana Ensemble (MO/IS/US,2004)*°°
“Roots are tricky. We all want to idealize where we came from ; to let time sift our memories, and to think of our roots as nourishing anchors in a hard world. But sometimes roots are tangled and messy ; intertwined with the things we've buried. When it comes to roots-music things get even trickier. Sharing and borrowing are vital parts of any musician's education, so that exact provenances become forgotten and boundaries become blurred. Yet still we feel the need to pay our respects and honour the originators and pioneers.”
These are words close to my heart. After noticing some politicians and some other frustrated religious people still stimulate the idea of sub-cultures everywhere, I want again to remember the highlights of many cultures that flourished thanks to a large worked out communication between each tiny aspect of its empire and with blurred boundaries.
Yoel grew up speaking Moroccan, hearing Moroccan music. He went to school in Israel where he noticed the history and heritage of the Moroccan Jews was ignored. Later he studied Classical music and Opera in the US where he also included jazz, drums, voice and guitar. Then he studied two years with the Palestinian Simon Shaheen for oud and violin. This teacher taught him about the richness of Arabic music. It was then he realised his roots lay in Arabic tradition. He started conquering the dream of bringing back into music the unified or dialoguing culture from where Arabs and Jews once came from.
Participants for his project are the Colombian born Jay Rodriguez (US) with jazz and Latin roots, with flute, sax and clarinet. He collaborated with Tito Puente, Eddie Palmieri, Miles Davis, Elvis Costello and Wynton Marsalis, The Mingus Big Band, etc., is founding member of Groove Collective, part of the Batidos project). Emmanuel Mann (France) plays bass. He studied jazz in Paris, became part of the Israeli band Habrera Hativeet and the Arabic/Jewish ensemble Bustan Abraham Ensemble. He collaborated with Omar Faruk Tekbilek, Zakir Hussein, and Andy Statman. Rachil Halilal (Morocco) sings and plays oud and Arabic violin. He studied Western and Arabic classical music in Morocco. He also collaborated previously with Michel Cohen and Mohamed Abdo, owns a nightclub in Agadir, Morocco. Moroccan born Hicham Chami (US) plays ganun. He studied the instrument at the Moroccan Conservatory at the age of eight ; has his own group Mosaic, with traditional instrumental music from the North African, Sephardic, Egyptian, Levantine, Greek, Turkish, and Armenian repertoire). Yousif Sheronick, plays darbuka, riqq, and frame drums. He has collaborated before with Philip Glass, Yo-Yo Ma, and Branford Marsalis, various dance companies, films, commercials, and contemporary composers like Michael Daugherty, Zhou Long, and Glen Velez ; he also teaches at the Concordia Conservatory. Israeli born Tomer Tzur (US), contributes darbuka, riqq drumming and caxixi (he has played with several Judeo-Arabic ensembles and is a co-founder of The Sway Machinery, a group that combines klezmer with Blues/Rock).
Further we have a number of special guest artists : Smadar Levi - backup vocals, George Mordecai - Iraqi cantor; Bridget Robbins - nay; Carlos Revollar -flamenco guitar; Gisele Revollar - castanets, Shai Bachar - piano; Ramzi Edlibi - dabka dancer; Lucy Morganstern - violin; Leanne Darling - viola; Eugene Carr - cello.
The release gives the impression of a personal musical exploration into the roots and origins of Yoël in Morocco, including family related memories, -the voice of his grandmother can be heard on “Sultana”, and also “Forgiveness hymns” based upon a Moroccan hymn is about such memories-. The inspiration adapts therefore recognisable traditional melodies, like the already mentioned Moroccan hymns, like on “Yigdal”.
“Berber Blues” sounds like a melody within such a group gathering. We also hear one Sephardi hymn on “Lord of Pardons”, which contains a duet with duet with Iraqi cantor, George Mordechai, and another hymn written by Rabbi David Bouzaglo, sung by Yoel on “Sultana”. In all compositions there is a remaining influence of the whole road Yoel travelled, with his musical education, coming from various places and having experienced various people and teachers. Most instrumentals (like “Dabka”, “Mimouna”, “Elevation”, "Desert Morning") explore various Middle Eastern styles. “Fantasia” amongst these, sounds to me like a mixture of some different composition techniques and traditions, still with an effect belonging to the Middle East territory but with that opening from within. Another instrumental, “Eastern Winds” is a western classical composition (with violin, viola and cello) combined with oud. This is my personal favourite track. The left over instrumental, “Qasidat Essaouira", with a Latin flavoured rhythm, is the only jazz driven track, but it really fits within the rest.
For small concerts the big group also performs as a trio, the Sultana Trio. The musicians are usually Yoel on oud, guitar and vocals, a percussionist and one more instrument, either a viola or flutes. Other than that, the band leader Yoel is also part of Trio Mizan which include Hicham Chami on qanun and Nikolai Raskin on percussion.
