Idan Raichel
(Hebrew: ???? ?????
?, b. September 12, 1977) is an Israeli singer-songwriter and a musician, widely acclaimed for his Idan Raichel Project
(Hebrew: ???????? ?? ???? ?????), distinctive for its fusion of electronics, traditional Hebrew texts, Middle Eastern and Ethiopian music. Prior to the Project
, Raichel was a keyboardist, collaborating with top artists such as Ivri Lider. His total sales stand at about 300,000 records. [1]
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IDAN RAICHEL TICKETS
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Biography
Early life
Idan Raichel was born to an
Ashkenazi family in
Kfar Sava,
Israel.
[2] Raichel began to play the accordion at the age of nine.
He was attracted to gypsy music and tango, and studied jazz piano in high school, which improved his improvisational skills and ability to collaborate with other musicians.
Military Service
At 18, Idan went into the
Israeli army, as is compulsory for all Israelis of that age. It was in this military setting that Raichel developed musical skills that later proved vital. Idan joined the Army rock band, touring military bases performing covers of Israeli and Western pop hits. As the musical director of the group, he became adept at arrangements and producing live shows.
Counselling career
Following his military service, Raichel became a counselor at a boarding school for immigrants and troubled youth. The school was attended by many young
Ethiopian Jews, who introduced him to Ethiopian folk and pop music. Whilst many of people in the school rejected their own cultural traditions in an effort to assimilate into mainstream Israeli society, a small core of teenagers remained fans of Ethiopian music, passing around cassettes of songs by
Mahmoud Ahmed,
Aster Aweke and
Gigi. After hearing them, Raichel began to frequent Ethiopian bars and clubs in
Tel Aviv.
In April, 2007, Raichel travelled with
Save a Child's Heart to Rwanda and Ethiopia.
[3]
Musical career
At the same time, Raichel had become a successful backup musician and recording session player for some of Israel’s most popular singers. After a few years of this he decided it was time to pursue a project that reflected his musical ideals, and began working on a demo recording in a small studio he set up in the basement of his parent’s home in Kfar Sava. He thought it would be a good idea to invite a number of different singers and musicians to participate, in order to better demonstrate his different styles and the ways in which he worked with a variety of artists.
Raichel invited 70 different musicians from a wide variety of backgrounds to participate in the recordings now known as the Idan Raichel Project, which includes Ethiopian Jews, Arabs, traditional Yemenite vocalists, a toaster and percussionist from Suriname and a South African singer, among others.
Idan invited seventy of his friends and colleagues from Israel’s diverse music scene to participate in his recordings. Most of the Israeli labels considered his work too “ethnic” and too outside of the norms of the formulaic Israeli pop scene to have any hope of success but one A&R man, Gadi Gidor at
Helicon Records, recognized the potential of Idan’s work and signed him up for an album that became an immediate hit.
Idan Raichel’s Project (2002)
Helicon Records released Idan Raichel's first, eponymous album in 2002. Raichel composed and arranged many of the tracks, performs vocals and plays the keyboard, while collaborating with other vocalists and musicians. Hit singles include
Boi
(
????
/ "Come"),
Im Telech
(
?? ???
/ "If you go") and
M'dab'rim B'sheket
(
?????? ????
/ "Speaking Quietly").
While the majority of Raichel's songs are in
Hebrew, a few are entirely in
Amharic, while others include small passages in Amharic, by male and female voices, setting traditional-sounding tunes to modern music. Love-songs predominate in his Hebrew lyrics, including
Hinech Yafah
(
???? ???
/ "Thou art Fair") based on the
Song of Songs, while the opening track also reaches into the depths of
Jewish liturgy, with
B'rachot L'shanah Chadashah
(
????? ???? ????
/ "Blessings for a new year") sampling voices reciting traditional Jewish blessings.
Following the popularity of the Project, demand for live shows increased. Raichel was booked to perform at the
Tel Aviv Performing Arts Center. Given the number of musicians who participated in the recordings, it would have been impossible to have them all appear on stage, so Raichel selected seven members who were versatile and strong individual artists in their own right. This live show became symbolic of the album, as it brought together a group of people of different backgrounds but of equal standing.
Participants in the Project
In its recordings and on stage, the Idan Raichel Project has involved a wide variety of singers and musicians.
- Kabra Kasai is a singer of Ethiopian origin who was born in a refugee camp in Sudan during her parent’s journey to Israel. She grew up in an immigrant community in southern Israel, and met Idan when they were serving in the Israeli Army.
- Mira Awad who sings on the dramatic Arabic-language track “Azini,” is an Arab citizen of Israel who grew up in the northern city of Haifa. Awad is a well-known singer and actress who has participated in numerous musicals and theatrical productions in Israel.
- Sergio Braams sings on the dancehall inflected track “Brong Faya” (Burn Fire), immigrated to Israel from Suriname on the Caribbean coast of South America. Braams has been one of the key-infusers of the spirit of Caribbean music into the Tel Aviv scene, and was the leader of a reggae band for which Idan played keyboards. Braams is a cofounder of and performer in Mayumana, the Israeli equivalent of the percussion show Stomp.
- Shoshana Damari was an iconic Israeli singer of Yemenite origin. Damari died in 2006 at the age of 83, after making her last recordings as part of the Idan Raichel Project and participating in a number of live concerts with the group.
- Yihia Subara, 76, a Yemenite Jew with strong ties to Yemenite tradition, sings together with his son (Shalom Suberion) in “Im Tahpesa” (If Thou Wisheth), blending traditional music with modern electronic beats and mixes, and performing Westernized versions of lyrics from the Diwan, the traditional Yemenite prayer book.
- Bongani Xulu is a South African singer who performs on the last track of the project. Xulu attended a performance of the Project during a trip to Israel and came up to Idan after the show to compliment him. Idan invited him to participate in “Siyaishaya Ingoma” (Sing Out For Love), a song that symbolizes global cooperation and the Project's underlying message.
- Din Din Aviv, an Israeli singer, famous for performing the song Im Telech
.
Success of the Project
The Idan Raichel Project studio album was certified
3x platinum, selling over 120,000 copies in Israel. In November 2005, the Project headlined at the
Kodak Theatre in
Hollywood and gave two well-received shows at the
Apollo Theater in
Manhattan. While in
New York City, Idan and members of the Project visited a number of schools and churches in
Harlem.
In January, 2006, the Idan Raichel Project traveled to
Ethiopia, the land that inspired so much of its music. Two of the lead singers came to Israel as children during the wave of Ethiopian Jewish immigration to Israel in the 1980s. This was their first return to the land of their birth, and also the first time Israeli artists had performed in Ethiopia. The story of the Project’s emotional trip was filmed and broadcast as a
documentary in 2007.
Mi'ma'amakim (2005)
Idan Raichel released his second album,
Mi'ma'amakim
(??????? / "From the Depths") in 2005, having released the title track at the end of the preceding year. This first track, reminiscent of the opening of (traditionally recited by Jews in times of distress), attracted similar airplay to that of his previous singles.
The first and last tracks on the album feature the popular late Israeli singer
Shoshana Damari.
In addition to more catchy tunes in Hebrew and Amharic, Raichel adds
Arabic (in
Azini
),
Tigrinya (in
Siyaishaya Ingoma
),
Hindi (in
Milim Yafot Me'ele
), and
Yemenite Hebrew to his linguistic repertoire.
International release (2006)
In November 2006, a
greatest hits album launched to target an international audience.
The Idan Raichel Project
is a single CD album published by the new record label Cumbancha and shipped outside Israel to an international audience for the first time. The
liner notes contain English translations of some of the songs while the
enhanced CD contains the band's
music videos.The release was coordinated with a special Putumayo World Music collection featuring Idan Raichel entitled
One World, Many Cultures.
A portion of the proceeds for One World, Many Cultures will go to support the nonprofit organization Search For Common Ground (www.sfcg.org), which works to transform the way the world deals with conflict - away from adversarial approaches and towards collaborative problem solving.
Within My Walls (2008)
His third studio album, named "Ben Kirot Beyti" was released on November 20, 2008. The album is a collaboration with many world musicians, and has so far been certified platinum, with over 40,000 copies sold.
Discography
Albums
Year
| Album
| Israel Certificate
| Sales
|
2002
| The Idan Raichel Project
| 3x Platinum
| 120,000+
|
2005
| Mi'ma'amakim
| 3x Platinum
| 120,000+
|
2006
| The Idan Raichel Project
(International)
| N/A
| N/A
|
2008
| Ben Kirot Beyti
| Platinum
| 40,000
|
References
- Idan Raichel Project at the Orpheum Theatre
- Biography
- [1]