Sarah Gillespie Quartet feat. Gilad Atzmon at Black Mountain Jazz 27/05/12
Reviewed by: Ian Mann Live Review
The best Sarah Gillespie show I've yet seen, with the emphasis more firmly upon the singer.This was her most convincing and assured performance to date.
Sarah Gillespie Quartet featuring Gilad Atzmon, Black Mountain Jazz, Kings Arms, Abergavenny, 27/05/2012.
Tonight’s performance represented a very welcome return for singer/songwriter/guitarist Sarah Gillespie who last visited the club in January 2011 attracting one of the largest crowds seen at BMJ for some time. This evening’s event was less crammed but the attendance was still gratifyingly healthy with Gillespie and the quartet earning a warm reception for their distinctive music. This was the third time I’ve seen Gillespie appear live and for me this was her most convincing and assured performance to date.
Gillespie seemed to emerge from nowhere in 2008 with her acclaimed début album “Stalking Juliet”, a stunning release that also featured the playing, arranging and production skills of multi instrumentalist Gilad Atzmon, a significant recording artist in his own right. This was followed by 2011’s “In The Current Climate”, another strong collection which cemented Gillespie’s reputation as a skilled and highly literate songwriter. Her current tour comes in the wake of the release of “The War On Trevor”, an EP containing a mini suite of four songs which has recently been reviewed elsewhere on this site.
It’s something of a mystery to me that Gillespie is still only a “cult” artist. Her songs are excellent, she possesses a distinctive voice, striking good looks and fronts a characterful band of superb musicians but to date mainstream success seems have eluded her. Perhaps it’s because her songs are too wordy, too musically exotic and too politically uncompromising. Her tunes have great choruses but they’re a far cry from Coldplay’s anodyne stadium anthems, I guess the great British public just doesn’t like to be challenged too much. Their loss is my gain, one of the joys of being a fan of jazz or any other so called “minority” music is getting the opportunity to witness artists of this calibre performing in intimate situations such as a jazz or folk club. Whilst I wish Sarah every success there’s still a part of me that’s grateful that she’s still playing in venues like this.
Ed, David and Glenn
By Gilad Atzmon
A few days ago, in a New Statesman special Jewish edition article, Labour leader Ed Miliband explored his Jewish heritage.
As expected, Ed Miliband confessed that his father, the Marxist historian Ralph Miliband, and his mother, Marion, “raised him to appreciate various aspects of his Jewish heritage. “
But what is Jewish heritage for Ed Miliband, is it the Torah, the Ten Commandment or any particular ethical universal teaching? Not at all, Ed is not a religious Jew and is actually innocent enough to admit that his “relationship with Jewishness is complex.” In fact, it amounts to a combination of suffering mixed with Woody Allen and matzo balls.
On the one hand we follow the standard trail of Jewish anguish and trauma.
“So how can my Jewishness not be part of me?” he says. “It defines how my family was treated. It explains why we came to Britain. I would not be leader of the Labour Party without the trauma of my family history.”
But for Ed suffering is just part of the story, Ed’s Jewishness has some cultural elements in it too:
“My mum got me into Woody Allen; my dad taught me Yiddish phrases, and my grandmother cooked me chicken soup and matzo balls.”
Profound indeed.
Young Miliband is also deeply immersed in Jewish ‘rituals’. Like Zoey, Dictator Aladdeen’s Wife in Sacha Borat Cohen’s new Hasbara film, Justine, Ed’s new wife, also “broke a glass” under their wedding canopy.
The United Jewish Kingdom
By Gilad Atzmon
The Telegraph reported yesterday that “ministers have criticised Britain’s biggest exam board after pupils were asked to explain ‘why some people are prejudiced against Jews’ as part of a GCSE (General Certificate of Secondary Education).
Apparently more than 1,000 teenagers are believed to have sat the religious studies test papers, which challenged pupils to assess the reasons behind anti-Semitism.
The Assessment and Qualifications Alliance, which set the exam, rightly said that the question acknowledged that “some people hold prejudices” – they probably expected the students to examine the reasons that lead to anti Jewish feelings rather than simply justifying them.
Michael Gove, the Education Secretary who is notorious for his pro Israeli stand and his intimate relationships with the Jewish lobby, has managed to produce a particularly lame statement that should disqualify him from any holding any position related to education.
To suggest that anti-Semitism can ever be explained, rather than condemned, is insensitive and, frankly, bizarre,
The First Jazz Review-“The Wandering Who?”
By Ian Mann -TheJazzMann
GA: Ian is one of my favourite Jazz writers, I am delighted to see he liked my book and noticed the bebop in it.
This book is a fascinating insight into what makes Atzmon tick. Yes, it's a polemic but it's a very insightful and entertaining one.
Book Review
Gilad Atzmon
“The Wandering Who?” (A Study of Jewish Identity Politics)
(Zer0 Books)
To jazz fans Gilad Atzmon is best known as a dynamic multi-instrumentalist playing saxophones, clarinets and accordion with equal brilliance. His music encompasses both jazz and middle eastern influences and from time to time he unleashes his rock and roll persona as a member of The Blockheads. Atzmon is one of the hardest working men in the music business, touring and recording constantly both with his own Orient House Ensemble and with singer/songwriter/guitarist Sarah Gillespie. He’s also an in demand producer and his involvement with any project is guaranteed to enhance the end result and grant it a certain frisson.
Atzmon’s music is inextricably linked to his background. Born in Israel into an orthodox Jewish family Atzmon’s grandfather had been a Zionist terrorist in the aftermath of World War 2. The young Gilad was brought up to believe in the supremacy of the Jewish “race” but soon learned to question this notion, embarking on a course that was to lead to his eventual self imposed exile from the state of Israel and the writing of this book subtitled “A Study Of Jewish Identity Politics”.
The book is a political argument and although little of the content is concerned directly with music the latter subject is still a significant factor in Atzmon’s life choices. He first began to question the values of his family and peers at the age of seventeen when he heard Charlie Parker on a late night jazz programme. “Bird With Strings” was literally the record that changed Atzmon’s life and he later paid homage to Parker with his own album “In Loving Memory Of America”(reviewed elsewhere on this site).
Lobby, Tribalism and Jewish Identity
For more information about Zionism, Jewish triblism and
Identity
The Wandering Who? A Study Of Jewish Identity Politics
The book can be ordered on Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk
Ariadna Theokopoulos: Gilad and All That Jazz – Reviewed
Gilad and All That Jazz is an outstanding documentary by G. Kolahi, which presents in only a little over one hour Gilad Atzmon’s evolution as a jazz musician, thinker, writer, humanist, ethicist and, frankly, phenomenon that in a relatively short time has managed not only to become known as one of the best saxophone players on the jazz scene today but also to stir passions and heated debates all over the world on the subjects of Palestinian rights and Jewish identity politics.
There are great jazz musicians and there also are well-known writers and advocates of human rights, but not in one package and not with the quality of a lightning rod that Gilad seems to have.
His book “The Wandering Who?” in which he develops the concept of Jewish identity politics and dissects the inherent problems for Jews and the cultures and groups they interact and collide with has attracted praise form distinguished academics and intellectuals like Meerscheimer, Falk, Pilger, Boyle, Mezvinsky, Qumsiyeh, Bricmont and others, but also activated a vilification response of rarely seen aggressiveness on both sides of the Atlantic, including the accusation of “anti-semitism.”
The film does not quote the by now well-known accolades of the former but does give plenty of footage to the latter, which amounts to giving them enough rope to stridently hang themselves. Some of them provide a measure of comic relief, like the self-professed pro-Palestinian rights BDS zionist who says Gilad’s ideas are “dangerous for young Palestinians” and that…
Welcome to Racist Israel
At a demonstration in south Tel Aviv demanding the immediately expulsion of all non-Jewish African asylum-seekers, a lone Israeli woman who does not agree with the rest of the crowd is shouted down with ferocity and told that she deserves to be raped
Harry Stubberfield Interviews Gilad Atzmon
http://medwayjazz.btck.co.uk/Intrerviewswithmusicians
Harry Stubberfield: what was your first impression of the British jazz scene when you arrived here in 1994?
GIlad Atzmon: I was obviously very impressed. I guess that British panthers do not realise that the scene in this country is pretty massive
H: You, have a great admiration for ‘Bird’, was he the musician who inspired you, and light the flame of jazz in your soul.
G: Totally, it was Bird who showed me the light, and it is Bird who manages to refuel me with aesthetic enthusiasm, when my creative energy falls behind.
H: One of your many projects over the last few years has been ‘Parker with Strings’ Do you think this is one of his best periods
G: It is certainly the Album he loved the most. I think that Bird with Strings is one of the most incredible fusion albums. I think that it is a spectacle of American artistic might. The freedom and brilliance of the individual Bird flying around within the context of accurate lush strings played beautifully and accurately.
H: “In Loving Memory of America” was highly praised by the British music press, What part of or period on American music gave you the idea off this album, or was it something else initially.
G: I really wanted to work with Ros Stephen after we completed a Tango Siempre’s Tour and we thought that a tribute to Bird would excite us both. We were correct. It did and it excited many others. It made a very successful album and some very successful tours.
GILAD AND ALL THAT JAZZ Gala night @ The London International Documentary Festival
GILAD AND ALL THAT JAZZ
http://www.lidf.co.uk/film/gilad-and-all-that-jazz/
To buy ticket click
Golriz Kolahi | United Kingdom | 62 mins
“Gilad and all that Jazz” is a portrait of one of the modern era’s best saxophonists; a man who has stolen hearts with the sounds of his sax and angered many with his political activities.
A gentle giant, warm, charismatic and somewhat shy, Gilad Atzmon is a complex character. Born into an Israeli, pro-Zionist family and serving briefly in the first Lebanon War of 1982, Gilad had a dramatic turnaround; he quit the army, picked up his sax and exiled himself to London, declaring himself an enemy to the Israeli state. Since then he has produced some of the modern era's greatest Jazz albums, and collaborated with the likes of Ian Dury, Paul McCartney and Sinead O' Connor.
In music he is a 'feisty improviser' as one critic put it, comparing him to the likes of Charlie Parker. In his political and philosophical ideas, he is blunt and outspoken. His ideas on Israel and "Jewishness" have upset many people. He has enemies from every camp; the left, Pro-Palestinians believe he is feeding the Zionist machine with his anti Semitic ideas and that he is damaging the cause of the Palestinians. The right, pro-Zionists are upset by his “anti-Semitic” rhetoric and his growing popularity within the Arab world.
Izabo (Israel): 'Time' - 2012 Eurovision Song Contest Semi Final Live
And the verdict is - they really don't belong to the region!!!
They Love Themselves Loving Themselves
By Gilad Atzmon
In this this debate two rabid Zionist enthusiasts (Jeremy Ben Ami and Alan Dershowitz) who openly support the existence of the ‘Jews only State’, pretend to disagree on some minor issues.
Interestingly enough, neither Ben Ami nor Dershowitz happen to be concerned with ethical or moral issues. They are largely interested in the image of Israel and its impact on American Jews.
I would really like to know how many American Jews support Israel becoming a ‘State of its citizens’. How many American Jews support the Palestinian right of return*? Is there any Jewish progressive organisation committed to universal ethical thinking?
* As far as I am aware even the IJAN (international ‘Jews only’ Anti-zionist network) seems to adhere to the concept of the Right of Return, yet fails to specify whether it supports the return of the Palestinians to their land, homes, villages and cities. Is it also possible that like left Zionists, IJAN also supports the return of Palestinian refugees to the future 'Palestinian State'?
Hafez Aladdeen is an Israeli Patriot
The Dictator-A Film Review by Gilad Atzmon
On the face of it, Baron Cohen’s The Dictator is a horrid film. It is vulgar, it isn’t funny and if it has five good jokes in it, they appear in the two minute official trailer. In short, save your time and money – unless of course, you are interested in Jewish identity politics and neurosis.
Similar to Cohen’s previous work, The Dictator is, once again, a glimpse into Cohen’s own tribal morbidity. After all, the person and the spirit behind this embarrassing comedy is a proud self-loving character who never misses an opportunity to express his intimate affinity to his people, their unique comic talent and their beloved Jewish state. But let’s face it, Cohen isn’t alone, after all, he has created The Dictator together with a Hollywood studio. So, it’s reasonable to say that what we see here is just one more Hollywood-orchestrated effort to vilify the Arab, the Muslim and the Orient.
I guess that Arab rulers, regimes and politics are an ideal subject for a satirical take, still, one may wonder what exactly does Sacha Baron Cohen know about the Arab World? As far as the film can tell, not much. Instead, Cohen projects his own Zionist and tribal symptoms onto the people of Arabia and their leaders.
In the film, Cohen plays General Hafez Aladeen, the Arab ruler of the oil-rich North African rogue state Wadiya. On the face of it, he is the satirical version of Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi, but in reality, Aladeen’s actions are no less than a vast amplification of the crimes committed by Israel and its war criminals such as Shimon Peres, Ehud Olmert and Tzipi Livni.
Jeff Blankfort to AZZ Gabriel Ash
Introduction by Gilad Atzmon: A few days ago we came across a vile email exchange between three, so-called, Jewish ‘anti’ Zionists and Dr. Maizn Qumsiyeh, leading Palestinian intellectual and peace activist. Regretfully, the three Jewish ethnic campaigners used an abusive and patronizing language that left some of us bewildered and hurt. But Dr Qumsiyeh didn’t shy away, compassionately he answered the AZZ (Anti Zionist Zionists) putting into play every possible rule of reason. But his words were in vein. The infamous Tony Greenstein foolishly circulated the exchange and made his level of abusive language once again into public knowledge. I myself passed the exchange to Jeff Blankfort and a few others. Here is Blankfort’s open letter to Gabriel Ash. Once realising that he is about to be exposed, Ash tried to stop the publication of the following letter. However, Jeff Blankfort is made of a different material. His integrity is never compromised. This letter is published with Mr. Blankfort’s Consent.
Gabriel
Last night, Gilad forwarded to me the correspondence that is apparently being circulated by Tony Greenstein, he of the poison pen, among you, Abraham Weizfeld, and Mazin Qumsiyeh regarding an upcoming conference in Munich on the future of Palestine in which Mazin is participating together with Ghada Karmi, Norton Mezvinsky, and Oren Ben Dor with whom I am not familiar, and the objections to this conference on your part, as well as Greenstein and Weizfeld, based upon the latter's discovery that Mazin was not a signatory to that unforgivable and contemptible letter circulated, to his everlasting discredit, by Ali Abumimah, denouncing, in terms, worthy of Joe McCarthy, Alan Dershowitz, and Abe Foxman, the estimable Gilad Atzmon who you and your fellow Jewish tribalists seem to see as the éminence grise behind the conference.
Before reading your contribution to this exchange, despite our disagreements over the role of the American Jewish establishment in dictating US Middle East policy, I had otherwise respected you but our point of disagreement turned out to be more important than I first thought. It is considerably more than a red line being nothing less than the division between political realists and one hand and Jewish tribalists on the other, and you have shown that you are just as eager to circle the wagons when Jews are criticized collectively as any full throated Zionist yahoo. That you have further besmirched yourself by comparing Atzmon with Meir Kahane is therefore fully consistent with where you, Greenstein and Weizfeld appear on the political spectrum. Weizfeld, who I have long considered a certifiable nutcase, founded something called "The Jewish People's Liberation Organization," (ROTFLMAO) and claims to "have functioned as an intermediary on behalf of the Palestinians to the Western (North American) societies and, on behalf of the Jewish People to the Palestinian and Arab Nations since 1968." <http://www.angelfire.com/co3/alaqsaintifada/auth3.html> I need not bother to point out further the arrogance of such a statement since it speaks for itself. As for Greenstein, he has written that attacks on the pro-Israel Lobby "are the first step towards holocaust denial." You certainly are in fine company, Gabriel.
Postcolonial Theory, Whiteness & Palestine
By Gilad Atzmon
Postcolonial, feminist and gay studies share many similarities to the extent that some academics regard these fields as theoretically and ideologically complementary. These fields of study are primarily concerned with politics, the structure of hegemony, the oppressed and the mechanism that brings about injustice. It is only natural then, that these realms of thought, primarily concerned with prejudice and injustice, would become key instruments in our understanding of Zionism and Israeli oppression.
Without questioning the intellectual validity and the theoretical substance of the postcolonial spectrum of thought, it is clear that some contemporary leading trends within this realm of studies emphasize the role of ‘White male’ and the ‘phallus’ as being at the core of contemporary Western society’s malaise. So the next question is almost inevitable –Where does it leave the ‘White male’? Or more anecdotally, am I, a person who happens to be wrapped in pale skin and is also attached to a white phallic organ, do I bear responsibility for centuries of European genocides? Would my responsibility lessen once I decide to chop my male organ off? Am I, or any other White male, left with any authentic ethical role? Or are we biologically doomed to be the epitome of every wrongdoing of the Western society for generations? The astute postcolonial theorist may suggest that ‘Masculinity’, ‘Whiteness’ and the ‘Phallus’ are mere symbolic representations rather than ‘things in themselves’.
Some postcolonial and feminist theoreticians would argue that imperialism, like patriarchy is, after all, a ‘phallo-centric’, ‘supremacist’, ‘White’ ideology that subjugates and dominates its subjects. This is an interesting and even intriguing statement, yet I am not so sure that it is valid or at all relevant to our understanding of Zionism and the crimes committed by the Jewish state. Zionism and Israel are clearly supremacist ideologies, yet is AIPAC’s push for a war against Iran ‘phallo-centric’? Is the Zionist appetite for Palestinian land ‘patriarchal’, or inspired by any form of ‘phallic’ enthusiasm or even ‘Whiteness’? Is the ‘War against Terror’ that left about one and a half million fatalities in Iraq and Afghanistan, ‘phallicly’ orientated or is it the White male again?
Thoughts After Interviewing Gilad Atzmon
Thoughts After Interviewing Gilad Atzmon: March 13, 2012, Geneva New York
by Pat Carmeli
From the wrath expressed by many in the solidarity movement at the mere mention of his name, I was expecting to dislike Gilad Atzmon or at least feel I would have to challenge much of his comments during our upcoming interview. Since my local group, CNY Working for a Just Peace in Palestine & Israel was first approached about sponsoring his concert in Geneva, NY, I’d done the crash course in Atzmon including reading his statements, the heated words of his detractors, and his new book The Wandering Who…(Zero Books, 2011). The man I found was pretty much a kindred spirit but with an exception: Although I often fail at it, I try to support anyone involved in the fight for Palestinian human rights and leave my harshest criticism for the “other side”. Atzmon seems very adept at getting under the skin of our friends.
Explaining his awakening to the “Palestinian diaspora” while a member of the Israeli Defense Forces in Lebanon, you could see the pain written on his face. Having been raised in a middle-class working family in Israel on the values of respect for others – values he felt his country shared – the shock of a new understanding was palpable. Gilad relayed seeing the inhumane treatment of injured Lebanese and Syrians by some Israeli soldiers. Once, he saw small concrete cubes out in the burning mid-day sun. He questioned the Israeli guard saying “How could you keep dogs in this weather?” When the guard answered that these were for Palestinian POWs to be kept in solitary confinement, he eventually had to ask himself, “What kind of people are we?” Gradually he decided to leave the land of his birth to settle in Europe and vowed not to return until Israel became a “land for all its’ people”. He now resides in London and tours on concert with his saxophone.