Labeleh: April 2007

Dana Adini, Big Girls new album now

26.4.07

We r on the plane to Stockholm with Dana Adini and her band.

Yesterday we played a midnight set at levontin club in tel aviv.
The first show to celebrate Dana’s debut Alum in Englis.
Menglish, minglish, This is a medetareneam accent belongs with the natives of the middle east . A call that gives no respect to English strucrure or accent.
This is the call of the natives in their will to create their own voice confronting with the on going colonialism of the Anglo American culture.

BigGirls is the album’s title. It is advaturous, young and I love it. We manufactured the album within one week including print , glass master and packaging. We had the record done for about a year, It took a while to realize it’s time to release and the timimg came right with the concert Dana is playing tomorrow in Stockholm.

This is going to be another wonderful rock holiday.Yesterday Dana was great performance vocally, emotionly and more. She looks gordgious.
The band, they were flying, wow.

Listen to dana on www.sonicbids.com/danaadini or www.myspace.com/danaadini.

Independence day is over, as always we did ‘mangal” with friends and at night Din Din aviv had a concert at zappa with special guests Zohar fresco and Dikla.

Mazal is a new song by Dikla and keren peles. I know this one is a great radio hit.

As time goes by time goes by
and my life goes by and say hi,
I m so happy, I m so happy, yet I cry, it’s good to sigh.

As I slowly die I m getting high,
high above the sky, recycle life, time and hum,

We r a membrane, a membrane that allows life, feelings, food obsorption, music and sound waves, views, smelle and more.

Tomorrow I will borrow your brain for an hour get my self the power Lose my self for an hour

Replace my self with another just for an hour.
Tomorrow I will be gone to a place where all is done, done digi done,
done.

Once upon a time there was a man, once upon a time there was a woman,
Once upon a time there were life, happiness and fun.
Once upon a time is once upon a time.

27.4.07

Tonight Dana Adini played Stockholm, tonight I know she is going to make it big. I saw Netanela, she came to see Dana, I will have breakfast with her tomorrow 40 years afters we first met in Tel Aviv.

Shoa, memorial day, today

Today is the memorial day for the Holocaust. It is sad. My late parents were survivors.
Me and my sisters, Ester and Pesia are what they call second generation.

Second generation are echoes of the first generation.
1990 In Warsaw, Poland, the new Poland is in the happening. Democracy will soon be here again.
I am suffering endless optimism, living the new world, I am a friend with my Polish colleagues.
I was invited to plan a sound system for a theatre. It is my third visit. This time i am honored,
I will be using the theater's guests apartment. On my previous visits I stayed at Hotel Europe.

At 10pm I am arriving at the apartment. It is dark, light is at minimum.
No TV or radio, the neighbourhood is very quiet.
I take a shower, and go to sleep.
Sleep escapes me, I am not comfortable. All the great experience I had with my new friends in
Poland is vanishing. I am waiting for the Germans to come. I check if there is a place where I can hide, a closet, a basement, nothing. no escape.

I keep waiting. I tell my self, "Usherul, there are no Germans in Warsaw any more. There is no war."
"It is 1990 not 1942". My being wouldn't listen. My being waits for the morning to escape from the Germans.

In the morning my friends came to take me to the airport. I am returning to Israel.
I did not say anything, I felt guilty for how I feel. They are not to be blamed for I am carrieng
remains of a trauma.

After returning to Tel Aviv I never called them, I did not complete the design work I was comissiones for. They never asked me where I am, as if they felt something went wrong.

I am determined to make another attempt to recover from the trauma.

I already made half way when joining Zohar Freasco for a concerts tour in Poland. Zohar plays
on a wonderful trio with Leszek Mozdzer and Lars Danielson.
I have enjoyed big time, I am helplessly optimistic again.

i would like to recommend

CANTOR Joel Shruman is A GRADUTE OF OUR INSTITUTE .
HE HAS A MOST OUTSTANDING VOICE AND IS AN EXPONENT OF JEWISH MUSIC WHICH HAS BEEN PERFPORMING FOR CLOSE TO 30 YEARS.
CANTOR Shruman IS A POWERFUL INTERPRETOR OF THE JEWISH LITURGY AND A SENSITIVE ARTIST WHO UPLIFTS HIS LISTENERS AND LEAVES THE CONGREGATION SPELLBOUND.
MAY HIS UNUSUAL TALENT BE A SOURCE OF PRIDE AND JOY TO ALL OF US.

Where do we go from here 2

The poet,

He was born in England, he came to spain to search the remains of his uncle, David who lost his life during the civilian war many years ago.

His family didn't want to stay under Franco, they left For England.

he wrote his first song when 12 years old.

mother, where do we go from here?
mother, where do we leave for if Franco wants more?
mother, what if he comes and we don't leave?
are we going to die? are we going to leave for the sky?

mother, i don't want to leave no more
mother, i want to stay home
for what ever it takes
i don't want to leave no more

mother, are you afraid of the germans?
is this why you didn't circumcised me although
i m a bloody jew?

he thought it is a song, but didn't realize it was life and not poetry.

At night he could not sleep. He was restless. He went out, he heard trance music from the distance.
as he spproached the place he saw three dormans and a handfull of young teenagers lining for the entrance.

He asked if he is allowed in, the door man told him it is for members only, he was upset,
he was anxious to get in to touch the walls of sound, the tythm, the young sweat.
As he turned away Dalia arrived. What do you do? she asked. I want to get in the poet answered.

Are you John Hensly Densmor? the famous poet. I am answered the poet.
Lets spend the night together she said taking the poet by his arm walking into the club.

The doorman asked his collegues, what are we going to do if Dario arrives and see the two of them together?

Children

Nir and Guy on the day when Guy left for India, January 10th, 2007.
Guy is 22 and Nir 24.

The other photo is a friend i met on the street, he is very slow, yet consistent.

Miri looks at Noa Dar dance company, a wonderful show one must experience,
it is called Tetris. The audience are under the stage with the head above the surface.

Choresh is the oldest boy, he is the father of Hagar.

where do we go from here

This is about three boys and a poet.

The poet lived in Spain many years ago and the boys are DJ’s in a club called Minta in a Spanish city once called Madrid.

The boys, they never read poetry. They are POD boys; they read information sheets of play lists at different radio stations, sites of other DJ’s and DJ’s trade magazines.
One, the youngest is 14 years old. His parents don’t know he is djaying in a club.

A club is synonymous with drugs, crime, sex, use and abuse.
His name is Ties too. He never did drugs, he is not interested. He counts the BPM. He has a rare talent to count BPM in his head without any additional instrumentation. (BPM stands for beats per minute).
The clubbers call him BPM Ties too. He walks on the edge whenever it relates to beats.
He feels like he is beating someone, he comes. then, he goes back home.

The other two DJ’s one of them is a singer, don’t know he comes when the beat goes up.
They offer him drugs, guavas, alcohol, women. He quietly refuses, no use he says.
No use with booze.

Ties too’s father is a mechanical engineer. He works in the movies.
Hr finds solutions for the kind of Almodovar, Saora and many other Spanish film directors and producers.
His two young sisters, Cafa and Lafa are at school until afternoon.
Mother left years back with an Arab guy Hamid. They live in Seville.

The other two are Maoro and Dario, Two immigrants from Turkey.
They are lovers. They arrived in the back of a truck that crossed the north beach of the Mediterranean.
They left the truck in Barcelona; as time goes by they realized the long trip made them a duo.
Maoro changed his name to Dalia and Dario kept his name.
Life became very difficult. They did not have papers; they did not speak Catalan or Spanish. Luckily Dalia was Jewish. She spoke Ladino, Spaniolit as we used to call the language used by the Jews arriving from Spanish descent.
This happened to be one of the few occasions when being Jewish is a benefit.
She spoke Ladino which is very close to Spanish, she could communicate.

During the first days she was singing on the streets Ladino songs she learned at home from Grand mother Solana. Dario made the money collection.
The songs were beautiful and people were very generous towards the illegal immigrants.

On a rainy morning on the Ramblas near Placa Catalunia DJ Ties too passed by. He was
blown away with Dalia’s talent.
He offered the duo to join his squad. The rest is history.

Later in the year we shall return to the story with more about the poet whom we don't know yet.

The day I performed with Noa and Sting

Noa, Sting and Gil Dor

I wrote this on March 26,2007

I am going to a place named Toulouse in France. Toulouse is where I played with Noa and Sting without the knowledge of the audience.

The year was 1996. We had a phone call asking Noa to be a guest star on Sting’s concerts in France. It means we are to getting paid, advertised and appear as a guest star, not as open act. There would probably be a duet…

This is a great opportunity.

I immediately asked if we can replace the fee with an open act position on Sting’s tour in the US.
They asked how much funds we have for advertisement. We said $30,000. They wanted more, we could not afford.
While I negotiate the fee for Noa it came to my mind that I always wanted to play with Sting and since my talent has gone only as far as it goes I will probably not have a chance to share the stage with Sting during my life time.

I smelled a rare opportunity. I told Noa’s agent she will do the tour on one condition.
I am going to sing with Sting at least one song. “are you sure?”, “ I am certain”
I answered, Noa feels the same. I called Noa and explained my delicate situation.
She immediately showed full support and said “sure, you must play with Sting”
The next happening is 5 different phone calls with people shouting at me like I never had before.
Gerard Woog, than president of Universal Music France, “ Are you determined to destroy the biggest opportunity you got for you artist?".
Doug Morris CEO of Universal Music” you are an original destructive engine” .

And than, comes Miles Copeland. “I make sure you never work in this business again if you don’t confirm Noa in 10 hours, I have too many great artists anxious to jump on the wagon.You are lucky I like Noa.”
Well, that was not an easy decision to make, but I still felt I should not give up on playing with Sting.

The brilliant idea appeared late night in Tel Aviv when early evening in LA.
I called Miles, I said, “Miles, you are a man of music, you are all about musicians and great guitar players. I know you will accept my solution". He was nearly into shouting again. “I am listening” he said un patiently.
I went “while Noa and Sting are playing Fields of Gold on stage I will play one of my songs behind the curtain with no sound reinforcement and without the knowledge of the audience, this would still justify me writing in my biography that I have shared the stage with both Noa and Sting”
Let it be said Miles Copeland, I knew I got my self a great friend on that very moment.
I think it was December 21th 1996 when I arrived to the venue in Toulouse, Zenith.
I met Sting, Noa and the band, we had a documentary crew but they were too busy with noa and Sting and didn’t care too film my performance. So, there is no recording.

Still, it was a great night. When the first chord of fields if gold was played on stage I entered into a private world of my self and performed my “every day is the day, every place is the place, every stage is the stage and tonight is the night”.

Miles had a security guard to make sure I am not performing any surprises, after all it was the first time he ever saw me.
After the show he became a great Noa fan, and some time afterwards we have made a Hebrew language compilation of Noa’s songs for his world music imprint, Mondo Melodia.

Tonight I return to the so called “crime scene”, I am going to listen to my friend Lara Fabian and to Tears For Fears ay the Zenith in Toulouse.

Lara is great artist, her Albinoni Adagio is unique. Tears for Fears played all the great hits including Shout. What a great night, great music combined with emotional memories.

Blog,

Blog does not come easy.
Blog is a commitment
To com, to communicate, to write,
To do it in away that will make people visit and read.
Not only visit, forward to other people they like, recommend.

How would I make them come for a visit?
I don’t know…

Do not trust these people

Do not trust these people if you see them in a Turkish bath. First on the left is named Arie, Lion, he is not a lion, he is a cyclist. He is married with children.

Second from left to right is Guy yoffe, he is married plus 3, he loughs, 3 children a great job, this guy can lough.
He is the chief sound design with Waves Audio, his recording and mix credit is as long as his 35 years in music.
Do not by a bicycle from this guy....
third is Omer, married with children, he can see if he wants...be careful.

The most dangerous on the right of the picture is me, i keep my mouth under cover...

there is only one the guy on the second photo from the right. His name is Bums, he is to e trusted.
Where ever you go you can trust Bums, he will save you from the other 3.

Please distribute this page to all the people on earth you care for. Ask them to be careful whenever they see one of the above.

As time goes by, I realize

Choresh got married, his mother Miri looks very happy, Nir and Guy my young children are very happy nexst to the bar,
Yom tov Moshe and Noa my friends are happy, and me? no doubt, I am content.

this was more than 5 years ago, today Chpresh is a father to Yaara and
hagar.

No title

The tower, the city

the spirit, the metal structure, the symbolic....life

Paris, the tower from the inside of Branly museum

What if the tower stands like this?
The Branly museum has wonderful art, sculpture, painting, disguises, all so beautiful. I was emotional, I had tears. The museum is having great architecture by Jean Nouvel.
They have in an open display 8 floors of percussion instruments from all around and all ages. This is something I did not think possible

23.3.07 Paris, on our way to the new museum

We went
http://www.quaibranly.fr/index.php?id=1&L=1&S= to the museum, the new Branly Museum
http://www.quaibranly.fr/index.php?id=1&L=1&S= to see different cultures, i saw 8 floors of percussion instrument. if Zohar Fresco was here...he could go away without being able to return.

lucky, I am not a percussion player, i could simply look et it, it is breath taking.

On our way to the museum

On o

ur way to the Branly museum we met a wonderful lettuce in the near by market, while crossing the bridge I took a photo of my Miri. Miri is the woman I love. My wife, friend, boss, sister, mother, lover.
we have 3 children and 2 grand daughters.
this weekend we celebrate Miri's birthday.

Paris, more Paris

On the stret i felt like being arrested, i took this photo of my self in the metro, than i met Yvan, the guy from our french record label, Yvan and i are the most crazy people about Izabo the world around. You can see on our face how crazy we are.

On our way we meet Nurit, how come in a city of so many people you meet Nurit, a great singer
walking with her son.
this is what i call life.

Taratata, Marie 12 years after.

Marie is the most wonderful programer i met.
She makes it all work onthe legendary tv music program Taratata. She moves all the crew, the artists, she is the greatest. I was so excited to see her 12 years after the first time i entered the studio of Taratata with Noa. It is like nothing has changed, yet, my life has changed so much....