Boston Globe - Shimon Ben-Shir

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Ajoining-o JMZ
and Jewish music
> JEWISHJAZZ
tional Israeli music into his jazz,
Contintudfrom Page D12
His recent disc, "Homeland
'TVe're taking the elements of the
the modal concePts, the
music
and extendrhythmic concepts
Blues," feels at home alongside
Ben-Shit's, though Rozen's choice
of material is quite eclectic. He
plays mostly originals but throws
in such diverse pieces as Oscar
-
-
ing them and imProvising on
them. Whether
it works or not, I
don't know. Maybe in 20 Years
will say,'Ugh, that sounds
campy.' But for us it works great.
We totally love it. It acts as a solid
ground for the free jazz side of
people
things."
It's miles awaY from the music
of Ben-Shir, whose material is
rooted directlY in boP. But even
though Ben-Shir finds himself
aligned with mainstre arn iazz, he
says it would be unnatural for him
not to fold in music of the Middle
East
- or that of Ia,tin America'
"In my home, I grew uP with a
lot of la,tin music. MY father used
to listen to a lot of real traditional
Latin music," says Ben-Shir, 39,
who lived in Israel until his late
20s, came here to attend the Berk-
lee College of Music, and now
makes his home in Brookline.
"Living in Israel, there's so manY
different things that You can find.
People came from all over the
world, and they brought their culture."
t
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t
Hear audio clips
from tssi Rozen, the
9l
[,
1l
t0
ShimonBen-Shir
Group, and Naftule's Dream
onwww.boston.
com/globe/living
Hammerstein's "SoftlY, as in a
Morning Sunrise" and an Israeli
folk song called "shir Hanoded."
Jewish folk music is a natural
fitfor jazz, Rozen saYs. "It has
strong melodies, mYstical melodies," he says. "It's a very emotionaI music. If you think of Middle
Eastern music and klezmer music,
that's a very emotional music. dnd
jazz is an emotional music. You express. You express what You're
feeling when you're improvising."
Rozen, 35, has longbeen inter-
ested in jazz,bul found that he
was truly expressing himself onlY
when playing the music he grew
up with in TelAviv, where he lived
untilhewas 23.
"I grew up with all kinds of music - blues and rock and Middle
Eastern music and everYthing,"
says Rozen, who moved here to go
to Berklee and nowlives in Brook-
line. "My grandmother is from
Iraq. She used to listen to onlY
Arabic music, and anytime I'm at
her house, that's what I hear.
When I started PlaYtng, I PlaYed
bebop. But that wasn't mY music.
I
wasn't listening to beboP all the
time. But slowlY, as I let mY music
evolve, this llsraeli music] started
coming in. And I found that this is
a better form of exPression for mY
musical background. When
I
us
Ben-Shir's music, the influence is subtle. Ttrnes on his new
[1f'
disc, "Shades," are not recogniz-
with, it better exPresses who I
able as derivative of the Middle
East until you PaY close attention
am,"
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to melodies and chord changes.
Still, even that comes naturallY
to him. 'lilhen I'm writing, I don't
reallythink of the intervals or anything. I write the melody," he says.
"I don't think my music is associated with Jewish music or anYthing.
I'm not a musical snob."
Neither is Issi Rozen, a guitarist who blends elements of tradi-
bring all the influences I grew uP
Shimon Ben-Shir GrouIt, Rules
Jqsz C:Iub, WefuasdW ni'ght at 8.
$8.
Naftule's Drearn, MilhY Waa
Lwngq ThursdnY ni6ht at I 0. $6.
Issi Rozen Quartet, Regattaba'r,
Tlrursdnu night at 8:30. $12.