Jewish Blues for Peace
By Merav Yudilowitz
The Livnat brothers will take part in the Carpentras Festival in France which will be dedicated to conciliation and the struggle against anti-Semitism.The musicians Aviv and Arik Livnat will perform in an international music festival in which groups from all over the world will appear in a spirit of conciliation, fraternity, and peace. This festival, which is taking place for the second year running in Carpentras, near Marseilles, opens on Sunday (1.7.01), and will last three days. Apparently, this is an initiative of the leaders of the Jewish community in the district to promote the struggle against anti-Semitism and the influence of the extreme right-wing party in the area. Various anti-Semitic incidents erupted in this small town in 1990 and again in 1997; these included desecration of graves in the ancient local cemetery.Among the artists taking part in the festival will be: a chamber trio from Sarajevo, Bosnia; Le Balier d'Avraham, from France; Ensemble Nagilah - a group of Jewish and Moslem musicians from France and Morocco; The Goyim, a group of non-Jewish klezmerists from France; Jacinta from Buenos Aires, and others. The Livnat brothers will appear in a unique jazz event that integrates Jewish melodies with jazz works.
London Awaits the Livnat Brothers
By Merav Yudilowitz
Just before the new album emerges, they will attend the opening in London of the show 'Jacob Jacobson' for which they wrote the music. The Israeli musical group, the brothers Aviv and Arik Livnat, who returned from a special session of the UN General Assembly that was held at the beginning of the month in New York, departed this week for appearances in the Bloomsbury Theater in London, where they will play original music written by them for a new show.The Livnat brothers, who will appear at the Camelot club at the end of the week, are about to release a new disc and, within the next few months, will be making concert tours in Belgium and in the 'Carpentras International Festival of Music' in France. The Livnat brothers were invited at the beginning of the month to the session of the Children's Summit at the UN, where they put on a festive concert and introduced the Raz-Ram Foundation, an association that promotes, by way of the arts, the interests of orphaned and underprivileged children in Israel.The Livnat brothers departed for London in June in order to be present at the premiere of 'Jacob Jacobson,' for which they wrote the music. This Yiddish show which opens on July 18 2002 portrays the life story of the man called 'King of the Trouser Buttons,' who becomes the only survivor of a new world war. This grotesque play was written by Aharon Zeitlin and produced by David Schneider.
Jazz and Fear of Flying
By Merav Yudilowitz
The Livnat brothers are putting on a new show that seeks an equilibrium between the experience of flying and music.
The brothers Aviv and Arik Livnat are launching a new disc and putting on a multimedia show that seeks the point of equilibrium between the experience of flying and music. 'Fugue for Saxophone,' in its abridged version, was first performed in the 'Jazz Blues and Video' festival two years ago, and has now been rewritten as a musical theatrical presentation of dance and jazz accompanied by video clips of aerial combat provided by the Israel Air Force archives. Unlike in previous productions, here Aviv plays guitar and sings, Arik plays wind instruments, Hagai Fershtman drums, and Arnon Friedman keyboard.
"The idea came to us because of the double entendre in the Hebrew title. Aviv had composed a piece he called Fugue for Saxophone, and the connotation of that word put us in mind of the Fouga jet in which our pilot father crashed and was killed during the war," explained Arik (fugue is fouga in Hebrew), and went on to say, "At that time the Fouga was used by the Israel Air Force for aerial displays, and during the Six Day War still served as a combat plane. We asked ourselves if there could be any connection between an aircraft and music, and started looking for an answer without really knowing where we were heading."
Between songs Arik Livnat amuses himself with texts which were specially written for this evening, and which are supposedly spoken by a pilot who dreads flying. "This is about a pilot affected by all the flight disasters, several plane highjackings, and the Twin Towers disaster. He discovers that ever since he left the Israel Air Force and became a commercial airline pilot he feels afraid. He decides to attend a workshop to cure his fears, but to no avail. It's a fantasy, but there's more than a grain of truth in it. As I was writing the text on the fear of flying the day before yesterday, I read in Yedioth Ahronoth that this is a phenomenon that is becoming ever more serious; flight simulation workshops are being opened all the time in an effort to try to reduce the impact of this problem, so you see, it really is topical," declares Arik with a grin.
The show 'Fugue for Saxophone' is scheduled for Thursday (28.11.02), Habimah Heineken Club, around 23.00.
