Gilad Atzmon: Wagner Again

Oi vey, an Israeli orchestra plans to play the music of this meshigine Wagner, whom  Hitler loved so much.

Wagner’s music is considered taboo in Israel, it is years since he made it to top 40’s in the Jewish state. Wagner  also held views that are far from being popular amongst Jews.  He once wrote that Jews were only capable of producing money-making music and not works of art. I guess that  Israelis do not like meshiges with an astute reading of the socio-economy  of the show business.

Wagner’s great-granddaughter Katharina had planned to visit Israel this week to officially invite the orchestra to perform the music at a Wagner festival in Bayreuth in southern Germany.  This  Shikze seems to believe in reconciliation and harmony.  She told the London Guardian that she wanted the Israeli orchestra to play at the German festival in an attempt to “heal wounds,”. What a silly move, once wounds of the past are healed, nothing would be left for the Jews to moan about. 

Click to read more ...

Music and Tones Rise for Gaza By Lauren Booth

 

http://www.paltelegraph.com/

Until now, it' been a real source of  pride amongst Israel's support network that big name musicians have felt 'safe' to appear at Zionist fund raisers. Even whilst Israel commits ever more stomach churning war crimes in Palestine and -as we saw in May with the attack on the Freedom Flotilla - in international waters. 

Aappearing at events  to raise issues related to justice in Palestine was seen as a sure fire way of artists being branded  anti semitic- leading to (so artists were lead to believe) falls in record sales and trouble s booking tour venues.  But, as Gilad Atzmon has aptly named his latest CD ' the tide has changed.'

The Palestine issue is now 'hot' and for the first time, this coming week, a music festival featuring forty world class musicians and bands is taking place in London to send this message far and wide.

JAZZA Fesitval is at the SCALA, London on 12th/13th October,  marks the official launch not only of the much anticipated Robert Wyatt/Atzmon/Ros Stephen album.It brings together for the first time artists from the worlds of jazza, funk, folk and hip hop - for Palestine.

To read more:

http://www.paltelegraph.com/

To book:

http://jazzaproductions.squarespace.com/events/

Gilad Atzmon: Lieberman and the Jewish Political Continuum

Following Israeli FM Avigdor Lieberman’s address at the UN last week, Aluf Benn wrote (1)  in Haaretz:

“During the past few weeks, Netanyahu invested a great deal of effort in trying to convince the leaders of the world that he is serious about peace with the Palestinians. He asked them to ignore the resumption of settlement construction, and convinced Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas not to quit the negotiations.

Now comes Lieberman, Israel’s most senior diplomat, and tells all those leaders that… Netanyahu is faking. Even worse: the foreign minister is implying that Netanyahu’s demand that the Palestinians recognize Israel as a Jewish state is merely cover for the expulsion of Arab citizens.”

Netanyahu, Barak and many other Israelis are often  ‘outraged’ by  FM Lieberman. I guess that Israelis grasp that their senior diplomat  exposes the Israeli ploy: when Israelis talk peace -- what they really mean is war with no end.  When Israeli government spokesmen insist that Lieberman “misrepresents Israeli Government’s policies” -- what they really mean is that he fails to repeat the Israeli official lies.  As it stands, Lieberman’s UN speech few days ago, conveys not only Israeli cabinet vision, it is also a devastating glimpse into the Israeli mindset, worldview and spirit. Lieberman is a transparent image of the Israeli desire for racial and cultural homogeneity. Many Israelis claim to detest him and his ideas: but my guess is that they grasp that Lieberman is actually their true mirror. Otto Weininger wrote in “Sex & Character” that people hate in others that which they detest in themselves. Many Israelis ostensibly oppose Lieberman because he reminds them of the bigot whom they can’t stand in themselves. Some people do not like to look in the mirror; others are devastated when the mirror gazes back at them with pity.

Click to read more ...

Gilad Atzmon: Kosher Oxymoron-Jewish Democracy

Israeli Defense minister Ehud Barak is expected to back amendment to Citizenship Act.

Here is the amended version:

"I hereby declare my loyalty to the State of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state in the spirit of the Declaration of Independence and I pledge to honor state laws."

Barak  said today that "such a declaration will not harm the Arab minority, and declarations of a similar nature are customary in civilized countries around the world"

He is right, such a contradictory declaration cannot harm anyone, for it is logically flawed.

The Israeli cabinet better decide whether they want  their state to be Jewish or democratic, for the two, clearly  contradict each other.

Click to read more ...

Guardian Music Choice: Jazza Festival, London

Jazza Festival, London

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/oct/09/this-weeks-new-live-music

Robert Wyatt. Photograph: Eamonn Mccabe

The inimitable British singer-songwriter Robert Wyatt has had a devoted audience for years, and one that crosses many musical territories. Wyatt's unique downbeat chorister sound is currently being connected to the most unexpected of repertoires for him – the Great American Songbook – and as well as being a benefit and consciousness-raiser for the people of Gaza, the Jazza festival is the launchpad for his new album, For The Ghost Within, a compelling blend of haunting vocal treatments and inspirational arrangement. Wyatt doesn't sing live any more, so the formidable Cleveland Watkiss takes his place in this glittering lineup, alongside Gilad Atzmon's Orient House Ensemble and the Sigamos Strings, plus the Jazza All-Stars (with saxophonist Peter King and Polar Bear's Seb Rochford), singer Sarah Gillespie, folk luminaries Rory Mcleoud and the Unthank Sisters, and more.

The Scala, N1, Tue, Wed

JF

Jazza Music Festival 12 & 13 October 2010 @ THE SCALA

275 Pentonville Road, London

www.scala-london.co.uk

We Need Your Support.

Hello Everybody, Sarah Gillespie, myself and at least 40 other leading artists from UK and Palestine are trying to achieve the impossible next week.

We are promoting and playing together in a massive music festival for Palestine. We are flying musicians to London, we are mixing jazz with folk with hip hop and roots music. We all believe one thing - that artists who support Palestine must say so loudly and proudly using our notes and our voices. Jazza Festival is serious but is also a big party and we want you to join in. 

Jazza Music Festival 12 & 13 October 2010 @ THE SCALA

275 Pentonville Road, London

www.scala-london.co.uk

For line up: click here

From 7.30

The funds raised in these 2 nights will help Free Palestine Movement deliver more and more humanitarian aid to Palestine.

I am also proud and delighted to announce that Shadia Mansour, the Palestinian Hip Hop queen also joined the Jazza Festival line up.

You can listen to the amazing Shadia and mind blowing Stormtrap (ex- Ramalah Underground) singing together on a track I produced recently together with Robert Wyatt and Ros Stephen.

Where Are They Now (Wyatt, Atzmon, Mansur,Stormtrap) by Gilad Atzmon  

Please circulate this message as far as you can

Book Tickets on line for Tuesday, October 12

Book Tickets on line for Wednesday, October 13

You can also send us donations

We need your support. Palestine needs your support.

Music against oppression.

 Gilad



Gilad Atzmon on Press TV-Remember Palestine

interviewed by Lauren Booth
music, Palestine, Jazz, Jazza Festival, Robert Wyatt and Life

JAZZA Festival London 2010

Click to read more ...

Salemnews: Mavi Marmara Witness

The Ugly Details of Israel's Gaza Siege & Attack Against the Mavi Marmara (VIDEO)

Tim King Salem-News.com

Gilad Atzmon: A conversation with Robert Wyatt about Cultural Resistance

From Pond to River

The legendary British music icon Robert Wyatt is a big supporter of Palestine. A few days ago he came down  to London to promote For the Ghosts Within (Wyatt/ Stephen/Atzmon, Domino Records), a new album we produced together with violinist Ros Stephen.  We had a lively chat about Palestine, music, cultural resistance and about the importance of the  coming Jazza Festival.

For Robert Wyatt, music is where “people are introduced to each other”. “People were playing each other’s music long before they were mixing politically or socially” he says. Musicians can anticipate change. “In the deep south, white kids were listening to Black radio stations and Black kids listened to Country Music, long before these kids could share space or even meet”. Music has this unique capacity to cross the divide, to bring people together, to introduce harmony and yet, for some reason, not many musicians are brave enough to jump into the deep water. Not many musicians celebrate their ability to bring change about. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGYctHS02Ac

Click to read more ...

The Tide Has Changed Is Out (UK only)

Amazon.co.uk

…this blistering, beautiful set…a fluid, hypnotic, optimistic blending of sounds from North Africa, the Arabian peninsula, John Surman and Charlie Parker, resulting in a multicultural balm of Gilad to soothe all aching souls.
Andew Male, Mojo, October 2010.

The vivacity, urgency and spontaneity of the best contemporary jazz spurs him always  John Fordham, The Guardian.

Spirituality and time-bending alto-sax virtuosity Mike Hobart Financial Times (4 stars)

Astonishing invention and virtuosity  Robert Shore, Metro

 Riotous mix of oompah music-hall cavortings, slurred-pitch Middle Eastern rhapsodising, luxuriously sensuous clarinet love-songs, and stormy collective blasts reminiscent of the 1960s John Coltrane quartet John Fordham, The Guardian (4 stars)

Intense and involved but at the same time highly entertaining  Alan Joyce This Is Nottingham

Incredible and unprecedented  Rainlores World of Music

Ten years ago I realised that beauty is the way forward. I saw that art is the true means of transformation. Spirit and energy are bricks and mortar. Shapes and colours are hammers and chisels. Rationality is a misleading concept, the melody is the truth,  humanism is a metaphor, consciousness is the devil and amnesia is freedom. The tide has changed and so have we, more than ever, and in spite of all the odds, we laugh.

In the last decade I have managed to surround myself with some of the most incredible musicians around, people who push each other towards the edge of artistic creativity and beyond. I guess that the Orient House Ensemble’s motto is pretty obvious: relentlessly, we remind ourselves why we decided to make music in the first place.

 I thank the Gods for allowing us to proceed so far.

 Gilad Atzmon