Manny About Town
The Idan Raichel Project

By Manny Meland

Idan Raichel with his band

My companion and I attended a concert by the Idan Raichel Project on Sunday January 28, at the Knight Center in Miami. It was an anthropological experience as well as thrilling night of music.

The Idan Raichel Project burst onto the Israeli music scene in 2002, greatly influencing the popular music of that country and offering a message of love and tolerance  in a region of the world too often dominated by conflict. Raichel, 29, plays keyboards. He learned to play the accordion when he was 9 years old. Even at that age, he was attracted to diverse sounds, such as gypsy music and tango. He started to play the keyboard in high school, where he also studied jazz. He was fascinated by antique instruments and sounds hich have been passed down through the centuries. 

Over the course of the concert, this Israeli musician/composer/arranger presented us with his collection of ancient and exotic sounds from the cultural melting pot of modern Israel. His ensemble included musicians and singers of Ethiopian, Arabic, African and Yemenite origin. His eclectic music makes a rich and stirring stew.

Most importantly, Raichel is a masterful keyboardist. His digital keyboard set-up is surprisingly simple. No synthesizer. No programmers. No pile of electronic stuff.  His fast pass rapid- fire unison passages between his left and right hand left us breathless as he overlaid a western scale and beat on these mournful eastern sounds which he ably blended using equal temperament tuning.

Singer with the Idan Raichel Project

Singers usually command my attention, but because I did not understand the mainly Hebrew or Ethiopian lyrics, I found that I instead focused on the artistry of these talented musicians and their extraordinary instruments. The singers blended with the other instruments that Raichel incorporated into his brilliant arrangements. The guitarist, for example, had a string instrument with a neck that seemed to stretch beyond his reach. The percussionist played a dome-like instrument that sounded like a claves, and another that appeared to be a bowl of water contained in a larger bowl which he slapped producing a surprising rhythmic sloshing sound.

Raichel played very few solos, preferring to present his music through his collaborators. His featured Ethiopian singer transported us on a magic carpet to the pungent hills of Addis Ababa. A sultry undulating Arab Israeli chanteuse cast her exotic spell on us, and I rejoiced that the Israelis rescued the petite beauty from Yemen who sang to us of other mysteries.