There is a
kind of music that, when it is playing, you don't have to put
on a kipah to feel that it links you up to something big and deep
within you. Whereas the Mizrahi musician links easily and complex-free
to his cultural origins and to the mystical poetry and rhythm
of his parental home, Ashkenazi musicians tend to ignore their
roots - their cultural fathers are Jimmy Hendrix and Bob Dylan,
or Charlie Parker and Stevie Wonder. 'Jewish music' in their case
is anachronistic, smacking of the Galut. But it can also be done
differently - by combining the two.
The Livnat brothers visited the jazz clubs of Poland in order
to discover their origins; they did this in their language - jazz.
I came to Camelot in order to hear sounds that had filled the
air in Poland during March, 2000; Jewish music that had been recorded
there by the jazz station during the tour of two Israeli musicians
with roots stretching back to Warsaw, who tried to strike a chord
on FM106.8. Arik Livnat on saxophone and flute, and his brother
Aviv Livnat on guitar amazed the audiences in Warsaw, Lodz, Cracow,
and Poznan jazz clubs. Their point of departure was a show called
'Songs Hand-Hammered in Copper,' a journey tracing the works of
their grandfather, the artist Arieh Merzer, who immortalized the
Jewish way of life in Poland with his hand-hammered copper reliefs.
On the way they discovered 'Jewish Folk Songs,' a work that contains
12 Jewish motives. The Livnat brothers knew nothing about traditional
Jewish music; they had no Yiddish, but the result of tracking
the hand-hammerings gave birth to Jewish Jazz that was played
in 'The Aquarium' and the 'Blue Note' in Warsaw. In their appearance
in 'Camelot' they generally succeeded in avoiding kitch, despite
the fact that their works contain hackneyed traditional Yiddish
songs. Their orientation is pure jazz. For instance, the discourse
between the saxophone, the guitar and the voice winds towards
the not obviously sentimental in 'Zol Zayn,' a piece with outstandingly
mature fusion. Jazz alone would not have brought out in Arik such
soulful expressiveness. Aviv Livnat is wonderful in the impromptu
dialogue between guitar and voice. In general, the two brothers
are very versatile musicians who have mastered different styles.
They need to polish up the show slightly, with a little less Yiddishkeit
and a little more authentic fusions such as 'Close Your Eyes,'
which was written by a father who lost his daughter in the Holocaust.
But even in its present format the show is a moving attempt at
combining Jewish music with jazz.
Yossi Harsonski
The Livnat
Brothers, 'A Child's Dream' (Golden Peacock)
The first
eight minutes of 'A Child is Dancing' encompasses the essence
of the musical world of the Livnat brothers who, until today,
were known chiefly for their integration of Jewish music with
jazz. This is a melodious piece which starts off in a low-key
and then flows in an emotional and very melancholic strain with
a jazz intonation, and at the same time has a mood of something
French a la Francis Lee and Michel Legrand. Aviv (guitar and melodies)
and Arik (wind instruments, keyboard, and melodies) condensed
in this one disc original music that they wrote for different
media, for dance, movies and theater. The reflective, plaintive
sound of 'A Child's Dream' on soprano saxophone is reminiscent
of Pat Metheny's ambient music. Here, too, the brothers manage
to create a mystic atmosphere embellished with faint piping effects.
The first two pieces are taken from 'A Gesture to Fellini' in
'The Curtain Rises' 1994. The soprano saxophone continues its
yearning also in 'Nostalgia', the music of the film 'Phone Me'
by Barak Shakin; Arik Livnat's flute sounds trillingly in 'Lullaby,'
written for 'Blood Wedding' by Lorca, that was staged at Yoram
Levinstein's School of Acting. A pity the piece came to an end
so quickly - it could have been developed further. And from the
same play, too, came 'Prayer,' with a special low-key element
combined with rhythm.
The Livnat brothers are musicians who take nothing for granted.
They absorbed Jewish music and jazz but are searching all the
while and achieving poetry in a musical fusion full of soul. In
'Good Boys' Aviv has a turn at singing, but to my mind the Livnat
brothers would do well to keep to their instrumentation, which
is much better at radiating feelings and atmosphere than their
vocalization.
All in all, they deliver creative moments of great beauty and
even deep emotion in a disc that presents an array of the best
of their gifts and musical colours.
Yossi Harsonsky
29.9.2002
