Since being declared the White City by UNESCO in July 2003, Tel Aviv-Yafo city has been marking the honor in an annual one night fest offering special events (music, theater, dining, etc) for the benefit of the residents and visitors of Tel Aviv.
This year Ive been to a concert held at the CLIFF beach in north Tel Aviv. There were two shows: first was Shem-Tov Levi ensemble, and then Mati Caspi and Shlomo Gronich. I’ve heard and seen Shem-Tov Levi in the Eilat jazz festival, but I’ve never been to a Mati Caspi or Shlomo Gronich shows. The two shows started at 2:00 am and ended at about 5:30 am.
It was two shows that were excellent, in sound, light and place.
Bob Dylan , legendary American singer-songwriter performed in Israel on June 20. The concert was held at the Ramat Gan Stadium as part of Dylan’s world tour.
Dylan for me is one of the most important musicians and icons, in music and human rights activism as well. Just celebrated his 70th birthday in May, Dylan performed in Israel as part of a world tour, which has been launched in Asia (and caused controversies regarding his China concert) and will end in Denmark in late June.
This was Dylan’s third concert in Israel. He performed here in the past in 1987 and 1993, and visited the country during the 1960s.
The concert included songs from Dylan’s entire career. I hope I can see him here back again in the future.
P.S.: regarding the China “controversy”, here’s my 2 cent on this: was he performing for the government of China or for the people of China?
Dylan submitted this response in his web site:
May 13
To my fans and followers
Allow me to clarify a couple of things about this so-called China controversy which has been going on for over a year. First of all, we were never denied permission to play in China. This was all drummed up by a Chinese promoter who was trying to get me to come there after playing Japan and Korea. My guess is that the guy printed up tickets and made promises to certain groups without any agreements being made. We had no intention of playing China at that time, and when it didn’t happen most likely the promoter had to save face by issuing statements that the Chinese Ministry had refused permission for me to play there to get himself off the hook. If anybody had bothered to check with the Chinese authorities, it would have been clear that the Chinese authorities were unaware of the whole thing.
We did go there this year under a different promoter. According to Mojo magazine the concerts were attended mostly by ex-pats and there were a lot of empty seats. Not true. If anybody wants to check with any of the concert-goers they will see that it was mostly Chinese young people that came. Very few ex-pats if any. The ex-pats were mostly in Hong Kong not Beijing. Out of 13,000 seats we sold about 12,000 of them, and the rest of the tickets were given away to orphanages. The Chinese press did tout me as a sixties icon, however, and posted my picture all over the place with Joan Baez, Che Guevara, Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg. The concert attendees probably wouldn’t have known about any of those people. Regardless, they responded enthusiastically to the songs on my last 4 or 5 records. Ask anyone who was there. They were young and my feeling was that they wouldn’t have known my early songs anyway.
As far as censorship goes, the Chinese government had asked for the names of the songs that I would be playing. There’s no logical answer to that, so we sent them the set lists from the previous 3 months. If there were any songs, verses or lines censored, nobody ever told me about it and we played all the songs that we intended to play.
Everybody knows by now that there’s a gazillion books on me either out or coming out in the near future. So I’m encouraging anybody who’s ever met me, heard me or even seen me, to get in on the action and scribble their own book. You never know, somebody might have a great book in them.
One of the songs played in the concert was “Tangled Up In Blue”. Here it is:
Dozens of Hebrew University students participated in the unofficial production of the Queen song “Somebody to Love” performed by the cast of the hit series “GLEE.” This incredible video, filmed in a single shot, is how the Hebrew University students kicked off the start of the school year on 10.10.10!
The Eilat jazz festival 2010 (23-26 August) was a one of a kind experience for me. I went there with a friend for 3 days but stayed 4. Overall I went to 6 shows:
Abate Berihun Quintet – Mr. Abate is an Israeli sax player and a great lead vocalist, who gave a great show of Jazz with African and Mediterranean touches.
Gary Burton Quartet - it took me a while to digest the music and the Vibraphone, which is an unusual instrument in a way it has a very unique sound, and unlike many other instruments, there’s only one method to play it. But as I heard more, concentrated and let the band take me with them, I heard the magic and wanted more.
The Danilo Perez Trio – Danilo’s music is mostly soft and it was the right thing to hear at that evening, It was one of my favorite choices and I enjoyed the artist class he did, earlier that day in Agamim Hotel.
Dave Douglas & Brass Ecstasy – I got to say that this show blew my hat off! it was the most enjoyable and the most live and vibrant. The musicians were excellent and it was obvious they had 100% chemistry with each other. The tuba player was unusual producing jazz to psychedelic sounds. The drummer was one of the best I heard lately and Dave’s playing is extra ordinary.
Shem-Tov Levi ensemble – Shem-Tov Levi is an Israeli musician I havent hear in a long time. He came up with a 6 member band, and the music was Jazz influenced by Arabic music, Balkan, Gypsy and classical. it was a magical show which In retrospective was my second favorite that festival.
Manu Katché Third Round – It’s clear that these guys are great technical players, but I didn’t really connect with their music.
Since being declared the White City by UNESCO in July 2003, Tel Aviv-Yafo city has been marking the honor in an annual one night fest offering special events (music, theater, dining, etc) for the benefit of the residents and visitors of Tel Aviv.
The Eilat jazz festival 2010 (23-26 August) was a one of a kind experience for me. I went there with a friend for 3 days but stayed 4. Overall I went to 6 shows:
Temperature in is: