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Chicago Sun-Times, Feature >>
It's an 'ethno-mash'
September 3, 2006
BY HEDY WEISS
Arts Critic Saxophonist Ori Kaplan, a co-founder of the rollicking Balkan Beat Box, was running late when I called him recently. Chatting by cell phone he told me I'd caught him just as he was shopping for sandals at a market in Jaffa, the picturesque seaport adjacent to Tel Aviv, and he would be back at his parents' house (and a land line) soon. He was on a brief stopover in Israel after a boating vacation off the Mediterranean coast of Turkey. And he and his band were now gearing up for a U.S. tour that is to include just a single performance Thursday at The Empty Bottle in Chicago.
This band clearly gets around -- and so does its sound.
Though born in Israel, Kaplan, 35, has lived in New York for more than 15 years and is now a naturalized U.S. citizen. He came to this country to study (first at the New School, then at the Mannes College of Music) and to grow as a musician.
"Israel, as you know, is in the center of a tough neighborhood, and while there is a lot of talent in the country, there is not a lot of money to support the arts," Kaplan said. "Many of us feel we've got to spread our wings."
To get a sense of just how high and wide Kaplan has flown, you need only scan the resumes of the Balkan Beat Box's band members and guest artists, and to examine the vast array of musical influences (klezmer, Arabic, Turkish, Romanian, Bulgarian, Greek, Spanish, North African, gypsy, punk rock, hip-hop, classical ... and the beat goes on) the band has absorbed.
"Our music is an ethno-mash, the sound of the new Mediterranean," said Kaplan. "And a lot of it is stuff I've been exploring since childhood. I was studying classical clarinet when, at 11, I first heard klezmer music. I was so attracted to it that I began transcribing it by ear. Later I tried everything -- bebop, free jazz, punk rock. I'm enamored of gypsy dance music. And I love both the Eastern European sound and the North African and Sephardic music that is so much a part of what you hear in Israel. What our band has tried to do is blend all those sounds and give them a modern, electronic, dance-floor beat."
Kaplan's co-founding partner, drummer-programmer Tamir Muskat (formerly of Firewater), is of Romanian descent and, like Kaplan, he was born in Israel but now lives in New York. Tomer Yosef, the group's vocalist and percussionist, was originally from Yemen, but now lives in Israel where he also enjoys a career as a stand-up comic. (Yosef has a distinct reputation for stirring things up on the dance floors of the clubs where Balkan Beat Box plays.)
Israeli-based Uri Kinrot plays guitar with the group. And on this tour Hagar Ben-Ari (an Israeli bass player who also lives in New York) and Peter Hess, an American sax and horn player, will be part of the mix.
Depending on the special style of the many different guest artists with which it works, the band tends to create each piece in a different way. The group's self-titled 2005 album (on JDub Records) features pieces that were inspired by everything from the text of Hebrew trance prayers to a song sung cappella by the Bulgarian Chicks.
"Sometimes we write a melody first and bring a singer in to perform it," explained Kaplan, who was previously a member of Gogol Bordello, the New York "gypsy punk band" founded in 1999. "Sometimes we give an existing piece our special electronic treatment. In the end, it's all designed for DJs and nonstop dancing."
The music of Balkan Beat Box is easy for Kaplan to talk about, no matter how layered; so is the bonding of musicians and audience that he witnessed during a recent tour.
"When the war in Lebanon and Israel began, we were just leaving for a tour of European festivals -- in Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland," he said. "It was a tense time, I can tell you; some of those in the audience came wearing Hezbollah arm patches and head scarves. But they soon realized we were there for peace, that we want to have a dialogue. We had some very educational conversations in Paris, with refugees from North Africa who came to our show. I think they felt a real release. And we felt the same thing, just as we did when we played in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem later."
Kaplan said he would love to tour to Arabic countries, too, but this is not easy to arrange.
"We met an Iranian musician we'd love to work with, when we were in Sweden; we are making inquiries about participating in the Gnawa Festival in Morocco, and we hope to go to Turkey this winter," said Kaplan. "The influence of Turkish-Ottoman culture is so strong on our music; it's the sound that traveled into much of the Balkans, into Lebanon and to Israel.
"I'm not too much interested in politics, but all the interviews I'm doing now are about the Middle East," said Kaplan, sounding both frustrated and weary.
"I understand that. But in our music we try to erase borders. We hear a utopian world." 09/03/06 >> go there
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