Wartime Diaries
Episode 38
“Mixtape” Part III – Eastward Bound
- 47:50
- 2018
In a music scene dominated by Ashkenazi culture, Mizrahi singers had to patiently pave their way to the Israeli mainstream one song at a time. In Part III of our miniseries, we meet two Yemenite trailblazers, who took very different approaches to their heritage.
In Israel today, Mizrahi – or “Eastern” – music is ubiquitous. In fact, to many, it is practically synonymous with Israeli music. But that wasn’t always the case. For decades, Israeli radio stations ignored Mizrahi tunes and exclusively played music rooted in Ashkenazi traditions. That began to change in the late-1970s and early-1980s, due – in no small part – to a few veritable trailblazers.
Prologue: A Mona Lisa Called Abanibi
Exactly forty years before Netta Barzilai’s feminist hymn, “Toy,” won the Eurovision Song Contest and propelled thousands of fully clothed Israelis to jump into the pool in Tel Aviv’s Rabin Sqaure, another Israeli youngster conquered Europe with a set of bizarre utterances. He was skinny, had dark skin, a black curly ‘fro, and a million-dollar smile. His name was Izhar Cohen. Mishy Harman tells the story of the ongoing love affair between Israel and the ‘Olympics’ of cheesy pop melodies.
Act I: The Flower of My Garden
You may never have heard of Zohar Argov, but to Israelis he’s a kind of mix between Elvis Presley, Amy Winehouse and Billie Holiday. “The King,” as he was called, forever changed the face of Israeli music. But he also paid for it with his life. Yochai Maital brings us the tragic rags-to-riches-to-rags story of a sparrow who flew too close to the sun. A man whose angelic gift thrust him into the national spotlight and whose demons brought him crashing down. This story was produced together with Judah Kauffman.
Credits
The original music in this episode was composed, arranged and performed by the Mixtape Band, led by Ari Jacob and Dotan Moshanov, together with Ruth Danon, Eden Djamchid and Ronnie Wagner-Schmidt. The final song, Ad Matay Elohay (Till When My G-d) was written by Uzi Chitman and sung by Zohar Argov. The episode was edited by Yochai Maital, recorded by Tony Hernandez at the Off Record Studios in New York, and mixed by Sela Waisblum. It is based on our latest live show, “Mixtape.” You can listen to Part I of the miniseries here and Part II here.
Thanks to Dan Dotan and Dalia Mevorach, the creators of the excellent film trilogy “The Sad and Foretold End of Zohar Argov,” and to Bar Sananes, Chrissy Rinehart and Carlos Montero of Palm Beach, Florida, Yael Bermano and Jon Mills-Winkler in Princeton, New Jersey, and Valentina Khmenko, Rachel Schy and Rebekah Steinfeld in Amherst, Massachusetts. A special thanks to Dalit Ofer, who advised us on the music selections, as well as to Sheila Lambert, Hanoch Piven, Naomi Schneider and Shlomo Maital.
