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Artist/Concert Mention
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Afropop Worldwide, Artist/Concert Mention >>
From the moment Ravid Kahalani takes the stage, there’s really no way to avoid being totally mesmerized by his presence, and amazed by the level of musicianship he achieves. I have had the opportunity to see him three times now - first, here in Chicago, as part of the Idan Raichel project, where his primal growl-laden blues and some Mowtown-esque moves (one of his main influences is Stevie Wonder, according to Kahalani) really stole the show. Then, last Fall at WOMEX in Copenhagen, he blew the audience away when he performed with Yemen Blues, an extraordinarily talented super group of nine musicians, which he co-founded with acclaimed bassist and oud player Omer Avital. And another enormously high-energy performance again recently in Chicago! So I can witness to the fact that his artful melange of traditional Yemeni Jewish songs, Saharan blues, avant-garde chamber music and percussion (including thousands of years old tradition of percussing on olive cans) in some mysterious way, despite musical contradictions and juxtapositions, manifests the most captivating universality - as if the human tribe’s music were being expressed in a common song.
“It doesn’t matter where you come from, your language is my language. It doesn’t matter to which God you are praying, because the melody always comes from the heart”, Ravid had said when we spoke on the phone days before his concert. He also quoted the phrase from the stage in the concert. The audience, of all ages and characteristics - a real exemplar of the human tribe - definitely understood the message, and getting up to dance, totally rocked out at the concert. Because as Kahalani also said, “At the end of the day, we all came here to be together and to sing and dance." 03/22/11 >> go there
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