by Aaron Shneyer
YES! We have videos online! These clips are from our 3rd and 4th meetings. The first shows the band playing and improvising over a classical Arabic song called Lama Bada Yata Sanna. Wissam Murad taught the song to the group to give them a taste of the Arabic scales and rhythms and to get them improvising. Clearly he succeeded on both accounts. The song is in 10/8, which for all you non-musicians means that it’s not an easy rhythm, especially for any student of Western music. The students in the band picked it up with no problem. I especially love how you can hear the jazz backgrounds of a few of our players coming through their solos and fitting in perfectly, bringing the song to new places. I’m sure this song has never sounded like this before!
The second video is a sample of one of the group’s slightly more recent jams/songwriting sessions. These fellas have been working on the song for a few weeks, but this video is from the original jam. Our hip hop emcee, Mohammed (aka Beat Box), has strong words to say about the situation in Jerusalem, particularly concerning the life of Muslims in the city. So far, the group has been reluctant to get into politics, out of concern that if we start talking politics, no one’s political opinion will change and we’ll just walk away from the meeting angry at each other. Mohammed has given the group some brief explanations of the words he is saying, but both the Israeli and Palestinian participants have been hesitant to get too deeply into his lyrics, for fear of causing useless rifts between the group. Especially given this week’s escalation of violence, I don’t think the group can afford to avoid the conflict any longer. This Thursday will be interesting…
I hope you enjoy the videos.Peace
Aaron
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