Sephardic Music Festival 2008: Then and Now
Myriam Schottenstein
Issue date: 2/26/09 Section: Features
In a season rife with holly jolly jingles, Santa hats and the promise of being 'the most wonderful time of the year,' there's no denying that holiday spirit gets cramped for ample Chanukah attention. Thanks to the mastermind Erez Safar, better known as Diwon, the Sephardic Music Festival has given Jews and non-Jews alike an excuse to kick back, celebrate and listen to quality music in New York City.
The Sephardic Music Festival showcased a genre of Jewish music, which Time Out NY called, "not just your grandpa's klez." Although the Sephardic Music Festival, which most recently ran from Dec 21 to the 28th, is annually planned to coincide with Chanukah, the goal is to contemporize Sephardic music, making it hip, thus creating an audience of all ages and backgrounds. It aims to educate and show listeners with a diverse range of sound and rhythm what Sephardic music has to offer. Over seven of the eight nights of the holiday, the festival hosted an array of musicians varying from rock band Pharoh's Daughter, guitar master Piamenta, Dan Nadel's Flamenco, to jazz from Anistar and Anthony Coleman's Sephardic Tinge. Events also included hip-hop and DJ performances by Y-Love, DJ Balagan and Safar himself. The venues were equally as diverse as the musicians, with locations scattered across New York City: Zebulon, the Drom, Highline Ballroom in Chelsea, the Center for Jewish History, the Spanish Portuguese Synagogue and more.
If the crowded pubs, lounges and museums, which hosted the different events aren't proof enough of the festival's success, the buzz generated has deemed it an event to be reckoned with by listeners and critics. The Sephardic Festival of 2008 was given media coverage by NY1, National Public Radio, The Forward, Heeb Magazine, Brooklyn Vegan and other Internet media.
At Zebulon, a dimly light bar in Williamsburg, Brooklyn on the second night of Chanukah the audience for Sephardic music had extended far beyond its original community. While the band Asefa, which is noted for its historical based approach to music, churned out a fusion of a Moroccan- Spanish melody with imported string instruments, Frieda Stock, a nursing student of Eastern-European background sat back to listen. "I may not be Sephardic," she pointed out, "but when it comes to this music I can feel it in my soul."
The Sephardic Music Festival showcased a genre of Jewish music, which Time Out NY called, "not just your grandpa's klez." Although the Sephardic Music Festival, which most recently ran from Dec 21 to the 28th, is annually planned to coincide with Chanukah, the goal is to contemporize Sephardic music, making it hip, thus creating an audience of all ages and backgrounds. It aims to educate and show listeners with a diverse range of sound and rhythm what Sephardic music has to offer. Over seven of the eight nights of the holiday, the festival hosted an array of musicians varying from rock band Pharoh's Daughter, guitar master Piamenta, Dan Nadel's Flamenco, to jazz from Anistar and Anthony Coleman's Sephardic Tinge. Events also included hip-hop and DJ performances by Y-Love, DJ Balagan and Safar himself. The venues were equally as diverse as the musicians, with locations scattered across New York City: Zebulon, the Drom, Highline Ballroom in Chelsea, the Center for Jewish History, the Spanish Portuguese Synagogue and more.
If the crowded pubs, lounges and museums, which hosted the different events aren't proof enough of the festival's success, the buzz generated has deemed it an event to be reckoned with by listeners and critics. The Sephardic Festival of 2008 was given media coverage by NY1, National Public Radio, The Forward, Heeb Magazine, Brooklyn Vegan and other Internet media.
At Zebulon, a dimly light bar in Williamsburg, Brooklyn on the second night of Chanukah the audience for Sephardic music had extended far beyond its original community. While the band Asefa, which is noted for its historical based approach to music, churned out a fusion of a Moroccan- Spanish melody with imported string instruments, Frieda Stock, a nursing student of Eastern-European background sat back to listen. "I may not be Sephardic," she pointed out, "but when it comes to this music I can feel it in my soul."
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