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Hadag Nachash  |
Hadag Nahash is Israel’s leading Hip Hop band and has been topping the Israeli music charts since September 2000. Their recent release, “BeEzrat HaJam” (With the Help of the Jam) has produced three # 1 hits and has achieved Platinum status in Israel. The band plays a unique style of music that blends Hip Hop, Funk, Jazz, Electro and Rock with a touch of Middle Eastern flavor. This great musical fusion has garnered Hadag Nahash a large fan-base in Israel and abroad. The band has been touring extensively around the world.
Hadag Nahash was formed in Jerusalem in 1996. After touring Israel for more then four years and generating a large following, they released their first album, “Hamechona Shel HaGroove” (the Groove Machine) in September 2000. The album was very successful and proved that excellent music can go along with important ideas. In 2003 the band released their second album, “Lazuz” (To Move), produced by internationally acclaimed musician Yossi Fine. The album had four # 1 hits and achieved gold status. |
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Hebrew Mamita  |
Actress/Poet/Playwright/Native New Yorker Vanessa Hidary grew up on Manhattan's culturally diverse Upper West Side, graduating from LaGuardia High School of the Arts and Hunter College. Her experiences as a Sephardic Jew with close friends from different ethnic and religious backgrounds inspired her to write "Culture Bandit," a solo show that chronicles Vanessa's coming of age during the golden age of Hip-Hop and her dedication to fostering understanding and friendship between all people. www.hebrewmamita.com |
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Y-Love |
Y-Love (born Yitz Jordan) is an MC unlike any other. He is a black convert into the Bostener sect of chassidus (the mystical branch of Orthodox Judaism). He among the most innovative freestylers on the scene, weaving seamless polyglot rhymes in English, Arabic, Yiddish, and Hebrew. Most unique is Y Love's revival of Aramaic, the ancient language used to discuss Jewish Law. With each word he spits in the tongue of the Talmud, Y-Love breathes new life into Hasidism, and hip-hop one beat at a time. www.modularmoods.com/y-love |
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Ayelet Rose Gottlieb  |
Jerusalem native Ayelet Rose Gottlieb performs music that combines free improvisation with elaborate composition, spicy Middle Eastern scales, and adventurous texts. Gottlieb’s newest album, Mayim Rabim, is a reinterpretation of biblical love poetry from the Song of Songs.www.ayeletrose.com |
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Saz |
Sameh "SAZ" Zakout is a native of Ramle, a predominantly Palestinian Arab city within Israel, reputable for its excessive crime and poverty. Transcending the violence plaguing his people and his city, SAZ chose hip hop as a means to overcome his circumstance, stating, "If I didn't have a music career, I'd probably be in the streets selling drugs and getting shot at." A Muslim descendant of Palestinian Communists who were dispossessed from their village in 1948, SAZ was inspired to write hip hop rhymes by his third grade Arabic teacher. He began performing publicly at the age of 16 and has since become a staple of the Palestinian hip hop scene. SAZ rhymes in Arabic, Hebrew and English and is widely hailed for his beatbox technique. He has been featured in Rolling Stone and on CNN, and was the subject of a 2004 self-titled documentary which was broadcast in over five countries. |
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Yuri Lane  |
Yuri Lane is a Beatbox actor with 2 smash hit solo beatbox plays, "From Tel Aviv to Ramallah", and "Soundtrack City''. Mr Lane has been acting professionally for 20 years. He has appeared in numerous commercials, TV shows and film. Yuri is excited to release his full length beatbox album this summer, filled with his world famous beatbox/harmonica tracks. He continues to tour the Country bringing Beatbox theatre to the masses! www.yurilane.com |
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Divahn |
Front-woman, lead singer, and anthropologist Galeet Dardashti follows a family tradition of distinguished musicianship dating back to 19th-century Persia. But it was down in Austin, Texas, where Divahn's bold all-woman Mizrahi/Sephardi ensemble began dazzling audiences with its Middle Eastern grooves. Today, the NYC-based group has engendered an international following, infusing traditional and original Jewish songs with sophisticated harmonies, entrancing improvisations, and funky arrangements. The group's thrilling live shows include instruments such as tabla, cello, violin, didgeridoo, doumbek, and vocals spanning Hebrew, Judeo-Spanish, Persian, Arabic, and Aramaic. As one of the few groups performing Mizrahi and Judeo-Arab music in the US, Divahn shares with its audiences a beautiful sphere of Jewish and Muslim culture that many have never experienced in person. "Divahn," a common word in Hebrew, Persian, and Arabic, means a collection of songs or poetry. Through their music, the group creatively underscores common ground between diverse Middle Eastern cultures and religions. www.divahn.com | ||||
Shusmo |
"SHUSMO" in Arabic means "what's his name." This project began to take shape in the Fall of 2000, when Palestinian composer Tareq Abboushi started developing a musical language that aims to blend various elements of jazz, Arabic, and Latin music. Over the years, as the sound of the band began to mature, other elements came into play including North African rhythms, Western classical counterpoint, and spoken word. Today, every member brings their own background to add flavor to the compositions, and the result is far beyond what the original goals were. www.shusmo.com |
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Juez |
Juez is a breakbeat-klezmer-jazz band of Orthodox kids from D.C., Chicago and New York. The four-member ensemble's influences range from Yemenite niggunim to hip-hip; from John Zorn to DJ Shadow. Onstage, they resemble a punk band, with manic solos, frenzied interplay, audience call-and-responses and stage-diving. Juez is totally sweet! www.modularmoods.com/juez |
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DJ Rekha  |
Born in London, raised in Queens and Westbury, Long Island, Rekha Malhotra (aka DJ Rekha) is one of the pioneers of New York's South Asian music scene. As founder of Basement Bhangra, Bollywood Disco, Beat Bazaar, and co-founder of Mutiny club nights, she has been instrumental in introducing the sounds of Bhangra and British Asian music to North America. Considered by Jane magazine to be "among the genre's most important players in the United States" Rekha has also been pivotal in forging the international network that sustains Bhangra and other contemporary South Asian music. Accordingly her DJ itinerary includes not only New York and numerous cities across the U.S but also Bombay, New Delhi, Montego Bay, Toronto and London. www.sangament.com |
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DJ Balagan  |
DJ Balagan, a.k.a. Sam Hopkins, has been producing his
own sample-based "Anthropological Dancehall" tracks
since 2003, incorporating Sephardic elements among various other ethnic styles. He served as world music director and hosted Radio Balagan at KJHK radio in Lawrence, Kansas from 2002-2005 and is a freelance music journalist, contributing to Baltimore's City Paper and Wax Poetics magazine among others. www.myspace.com/djbalagan |
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Asefa |
Asefa was founded in 2001 by bandleader and composer Samuel Thomas. From the Hebrew word for "collecting," Asefa brings together diverse worlds. Traversing a wide musical landscape, Asefa travels from Morocco to Persia, Poland to America and back. Thomas' arrangements and original compositions, imbued with contemporary concepts in improvisation and instrumentation, reflect the spirit of music making integral to World history. Blending a reverence for North African traditions with a love for innovative composition and improvisation, Asefa creates a fresh sound that moves your mind, body and spirit. Bandleader, woodwindist and frame drummer Samuel Thomas is joined by Shanir Blumenkrantz on oud, Eric Platz on drumset and Rich Stein on percussion. |
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Ramón Tasat and Fiesta Sefarad |
Exciting songs in Hebrew, Ladino and Aramaic that will make you clap, dance and sing. Cantor Tasat, a vocalist and guitarist, is joined by Ramón Gonzalez on bass, guitar and mandolin, and Steve Bloom on percussion.
Born in Buenos Aires, Cantor Dr. Ramón Tasat learned Ladino, the language of the Sephardic people, at his grandmother’s knee; his style reflects the rich history and drama of this extraordinary culture. Trained in five different countries, he received a doctorate in voice performance from the University of Texas at Austin. His doctoral dissertation is entitled AThe Cantillations and Religious Poems of the Jews of Tangier, Morocco. Cantor Tasat has toured Europe with world-renowned Dr. Robert Shaw and has participated in international festivals on both sides of the Atlantic. |
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Ezra Malakov |
Ezra Malakov was born in 1938 in Shahrisabz, Uzbekistan. During the 1970s and '80s he performed and recorded with the national radio and TV orchestras in Tashkent, singing classical and popular pieces. He moved to Queens in 1992, where he is a key exponent of Bukharian religious music, serving as a hazzan at Congregation Beth Gavriel and producing several recordings. He has recently completed, with the noted maqomist Ari Babakhanov, notations of over one hundred religious songs with accompanying CDs, soon to be published. He is joined tonight by David Davidov on the tar and Osher Baraev on the doira. |
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Nat Rahav aka DJ Busquelo  |
Nat Rahav aka DJ Busquelo is a DJ, producer, & percussionist blending urban dance music with various traditions of improvisational and folk music from around the world. Seeking soulful sounds, unearthing priceless musical gems, and weaving an eclectic path through the global diaspora of funky music, he taps the healing and elevating power of music and movement. www.busquelo.org |
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Pharaoh's Daughter  |
Blending a psychedelic sensibility and a pan-Mediterranean sensuality, Basya Schechter leads her band, Pharaoh's Daughter, through swirling Hasidic chants, Mizrachi and Sephardi folk-rock, and spiritual stylings filtered through percussion, flute, strings and electronica. Basya's sound has been cultivated by her Hasidic music background and a series of trips to the Middle East, Africa, Israel, Egypt, Central Africa, Turkey, Kurdistan and Greece. She began retuning her guitar to sound like a cross between an Arabic oud and a Turkish saz, with harmonic minor melodies, and odd time signatures. With the many amazing musicians, named below and others as well she has recorded three albums as Pharaoh's Daughter. |
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Basya Schechter  |
Basya Schechter leads the popular ensemble Pharaoh’s Daughter which combines Hasidic chants, Mizrachi and Sephardi folk-rock, and spiritual stylings filtered through percussion, flute, strings, and electronica. Pharaoh’s Daughter has toured extensively throughout America, Europe, Greece, and the U.K. www.pharaohsdaughter.com |
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Afro-Semitic Experience  |
The Afro-Semitic Experience began performing in late 1999 as an off-shoot of the creative work of African-American pianist Warren Byrd and Jewish-American bassist David Chevan. In 1999 they were asked if they had a band that could perform their brand of Jewish and African-American music. As much as they liked the idea of expanding the duo to perform large ensemble versions of pieces of sacred music, Chevan and Byrd were also interested in finding a musical setting where they might be able to explore not only the sacred sounds of Jewish and African-American music, but the secular as well. At the time they both belonged to the New Haven based jazz group, Bassology. It was not before they began adding new material to the Bassology set lists. Soon the group was jamming on Klezmer, Gospel songs, spirituals, and Yiddish songs along with their usual assortment of jazz and world music pieces. As word got out they found themselves playing the occasional wedding and Bar Mitzvah (yes! We still do play weddings, Bar Mitzvahs and parties--musicians gotta eat and feed their families!! Plus we have fun bringing joy into the world). People in the New Haven area were thrilled to hear a group that could encompass such a wide range of musical styles and languages. Pretty soon it was obvious that a second band had emerged and that it was no longer Bassology. This is THE AFRO-SEMITIC EXPERIENCE. | ||||
Sarah Aroeste Band |
Sarah Aroeste is the founder of the NY-based Ladino Rock group, the Sarah Aroeste Band. American-born Aroeste, with family roots in Spain and more recently in Salonika, Greece, launched her band to help bring Sephardic music to a new generation. Most influenced by the music and language of her Spanish origins, Aroeste grounds her music in Ladino, an ethnic form of Castilian Spanish developed by Spanish Jews after their expulsion from Spain in 1492. Although this mysterious pan-Mediterranean language has, unfortunately, been fading away, the musical legacy of Spanish Jews highlights the strength of an oral tradition that spans many centuries and crosses many geographic boundaries. Determined to help keep Ladino music alive, Aroeste updates and reinterprets the tradition by fusing it with more modern sensibilities. With its unique Ladino Rock sound, the Sarah Aroeste Band (Sarah Aroeste: vocals; Yotam Bary: electric bass; Yoel Ben-Simhon: oud, piano, backup vocals; Yaron Eilam: electric guitar; Liron Peled: drums, percussion) takes traditional Ladino music from across the Mediterranean and combines it with contemporary influences such as rock, funk, and blues. Since Aroeste launched her band in 2001, she has toured and amassed a loyal following across the nation and abroad, and has worked hard to bring an updated, exciting new sound to Ladino and Sephardic music. www.saraharoeste.com |
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dj handler  |
The brains behind Modular Moods and many of the hyped parties in and around NYC, dj handler's music defies stereotypes. He frequently includes collaborations with non-electronic musicians, creating textural fusions of live and recorded sound. He references Ashkenazic cantorial music, traditional Yemenite melodies and hip hop. dj handler is a multi cultural maestro that spins a mix of Baile Funk and Afro Beat blended with 80's free style and hip hop, which gets the most famous US clubs to resemble the craziest festivals abroad. Erez (dj handler) currently runs Modular Mood Records, an independent record label that produces a variety of hip-hop, rock and klezmer-jazz bands. Modular Moods began in Washington, D.C., but has since moved to New York City where it continues to thrive and collaborate with other artists and organizations all across the board, such as The Workmen's Circle, DJ Rekha, MC Paul Barman, Daniel Carter, and Heeb magazine to promote the arts, and specifically a variety of cultures fused with a modern edge. London Radio's 104.4 FM called him, "One of New York's hottest Jewish musicians" and Heeb Magazine listed him in their "Top Hundred Heeb". He resides and maintains his label, Modular Moods, within the auditory heart of Brooklyn. www.modularmoods.com/djhandler |
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Smadar |
An exciting new voice emerging from the NYC world music scene, Smadar is an |
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Jake Break  |
Jake Break is a souled-out independently affiliated producer. His music bridges Afro Beat, Brazilian jazz and funk rhythms with layers of instruments that stray from your cousin's boom-bap loops. His style is 60's pleats, hairgreased, and satin sheets, 8o's turbo creased, 70's jazz-fusion funked out, 90's bubble fat geese-tommy hilfiger fleece. Basically, he's a record fiend, with vast quanties of tight beats and records of generational genre smashing musicians, from the east. |
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VJ Nico  |
As part of (Projectile Arts) a collective of filmmakers, editors, cross-faders and image junkies, nico (aka Nicole Jaquis) has boiled the process of screening images down to high art. Telling stories through the juxtaposition of raw footage, rare documentary films, and other global sources, this TV turntablist tempts our visual taste buds with treats of impressionistic unpredictability. Nico has performed her live-mixed video projection installations at festivals and clubs throughout U.S. and India. | ||||
Elyakeem Kinstlinger |
Elyakeem Kinstlinger - As Creative Marketing Strategist for the ad agency www.YourSpark.com, he has developed ad campaigns for over 40 Jewish organizational projects. He also runs an events web site www.TheFullHit.com: “Get a full hit of intellectual and spiritual nourishment.” Most recently he has been making Friday night dinners called “New Shabbat Table!” You can email him to find out when the next dinner is scheduled. elyakeem@YourSpark.com |
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Sam Thomas |
Samuel Thomas, performer and ethnomusicologist, holds two degrees from Berklee College of Music in Jazz Composition and Performance and is currently finishing a Ph.D in Ethnomusicology at the City University of New York. His work includes North African musical traditions, Arab music, Jewish music research and jazz, rock and American popular music. He is founder and executive director of JATM (Jewish Awareness Though Music) and bandleader of Asefa, an ensemble devoted to contemporary approaches to composition, improvisation, and fusion drawn from Sephardic and worldwide Jewish musics. He is co-founder of FourMinusOne, a jazz/rock power trio formed in 1997. Recordings with FourMinusOne include At Any Given Moment, Live! and Split Decision. He currently performs worldwide, teachers privately, and is adjunct faculty at CUNY. www.FourMinusOne.com | www.asefamusic.com |
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Jewlia Eisenberg  |
Jewlia Eisenberg is the founder, bandleader, and performer behind Charming Hostess a “klezmer-funk/girly-punk” ensemble. Their music incorporates doo-wop, Balkan harmony, and Andalusian melody. |
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Frantic Turtle |
Frantic Turtle merges poetry, music, and performance into philosophically viral mixtures like existentialist dancehall, punk-prayer, and toasted jazz poetry. We're into strictly avant expression - the over-fed language of the urban god-piece. And jumpy grooves on the background to keep your ids dancing. www.myspace.com/franticturtle |
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Rashanim |
Rashanim is a trio of guitar, bass and drums/percussion drawing on influences including |
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The New York Sephardic Music Festival (NY-SMF) seeks to increase interest in and awareness of the Sephardic culture, including Mizrahi, Yemenite and Ladino traditions, highlighting the diversity that exists within the Sephardic branch of Jewish culture and history. The latest Sephardic musical talents in the U. S. will be showcased, working to reinvigorate the thriving Sephardic culture that exists and is waiting to be re-discovered. Our goal is to give people the opportunity to learn and enjoy this rich, sensual tradition that has the power to make hips shake and souls soar. |
NY-SMF |
CO-SPONSORS |
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