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| Award Winning Roots Music From the Global Crossroads. Global tour de force, Jaffa Road are thrilled, elated and humbledaboutthe news that their latest release (2012) Where the Light Gets earned a Canadian Folk Music Award last night.Produced by Chris Gartner, the disc was released to a packed house at Toronto hub, Hugh's Room in Oct 2012. With pulsating dub grooves, ambient electronic textures, and enough rollicking rhythms to make your belly dance, Jaffa Road's carefully crafted original songs and highly original arrangements of traditional folks songs transport listeners to the Middle East, India, Spain, North America and all points in between. WHERE THE LIGHT GETS IN was also nominated for a 2013 JUNO AWARD, and an Independent Music Awardit also won a Songs From the Heart Award from FOLK MUSIC ONTARIO. For their debut CD SUNPLACE (2009) they are also winners of a John Lennon Songwriting Award, and"Best World Music Artist" at the Toronto Independent Music Awards. Sunplace, was also nominated for a JUNO award(2010)andfeatured on CBC's Canada Live. Aptly named for one of the oldest streets in Jerusalem, Jaffa Road unites multiple cultures and nationalities as it winds its way towards the port of Jaffa. Hebrew, Ladino, English, Arabic and French lyrics blend with genres of Sephardic, Arabic and Indian music, intertwined with jazz, blues, electronica, dub and rock. Theirs is world music on a mission – peace through an unparalleled musical experience that, just like the road they're named for, brings us together as one people. Jaffa Road is the unforgettable, entrancing vocals of Aviva Chernick, the rare musicianship of Aaron Lightstone(band founder, oud, guitar, synthesizer), Chris Gartner(bass, producer), Jeffrey Wilson(percussion), and Sundar Viswanathansaxophone/flute/vocals). The distinctive sound of Lightstone's oud opens "Ana El Na", bathed in Chernick's warm, liquid vocals while the band follows with deep bass, exotic percussive technique, synth, violin and bansuri. Six key words translate to "please heal her" –forming an addictive, chanted plea to heal Mother Earth. The more upbeat "Sim Shalom", adapted from an ancient Jewish prayer continues the hope for world peace, leaning more heavily on guitar and Chernick's stunning vocal, complete with a breakaway, jazz-like detour. The track "Avre Los Ojos" is an interpretation of a centuries-old Turkish song –an early protest song first recorded in 1907, and not since until now! "On Your Way" might be the closest thing to a hit single if there were such a thing, riding on Chernick's pure chorus, while oud, bass violin and propulsive percussion keep it beyond buoyant and highly accessible. Guest Yair Dalal's violin on "Hamidbar Medaber" casts a hypnotic spell across this distinctly Indian-spiced dream sequence while Chernick's vocal duets with Viswanathan's sax in their depiction of sky above the Namibian desert ("Rakia"). You can literally hear warm sand drifting. The songsbased on the band's collaborative compositional process createa road far more active than any typical 2-way street –it's multi-lane, allowing for many detours along its length, offering up cutting-edge music at the global crossroads "Jaffa Road blends Jewish, jazz, Indian and Arabic music with electronica and dub. The result is fantastic." CBC Radio One Fresh Air "a fearless band of creative souls with the personnel to do just about anything they can imagine. That is Jaffa Road!" Vancouver Folk Music Festival. "Jaffa Road plumbs the history of diverse cultures for inspiration, reviving ancient wisdom in ways resonant with a cosmopolitan city like contemporary Toronto...there are ideas there that apply as much to the making of a community, and a world, as they do to making music". Jim Coyle –Toronto Star An ace band that churns out a highly textured cinematic fusion of Arabic, Indian, Jazz, Blues, electronica, and rock. That list might make your head spin, but rest assured that Jaffa Road's thoughtful, beautifully crafted music will not. - Errol Nazareth, Music Columnist CBC Radio and Toronto Sun. write your comments about the article :: © 2013 Jazz News :: home page |