[Dixielandjazz] The Tel-Aviv "Jazz" Festival

[Marek Boym]

Hello Listmates,
My friends and I went to that festival yesterday.  Why the official
"concerts" do not offer anything which, even remotely, akin to jazz
(hence the quotation marks in the subject), yesterday there were two
OKOM groups in the lobby.  The first was scheduled as an open air
event, but the weather did not permit that, so it was moved inside.
We missed the first show - too ealy in the morning for us (12:15 PM),
but we caught the second one, from 2:15 to 3:00).  The Good Time Jazz
in an excellent band, with Jacques Sany - soprano, tenor and leader,
Idan (pronounced Eedan) Vallish - trombone, fluglehorn and trumpet,
Rami Han - co-leader, drums, and two subs: Dima (can't recall his
surname) - bass and Nahum Perefrikovitch -piano (unfortunately -
electric).  The repertoire was mainly standards (on tenor) and songs
associated with Sidney Bechet (soprano).  Jacques is a past master of
the soprano, and has twice been featured at the Sidney Bechet
Society's concerts in New York.  For the last number, Nahum started
moaning in organ mode (on of the many drawbacks feature of an electric
piano), Jacques said "Brothers and sisters, halleluja!", and the band
tore into "The Preacher."  Excellent, despite the "organ" solo of the
pianist.
We were back in the evening, to hear The Bechet Project, which played
under the nicjname of "The French Quarter Five," since the organizers
objectd to the original name (have you ever heard of the Bourjeois
Scum?).
Composed of Amnon Ben-Artzi - trombone, leader (and the oldest member
of the band, probably over 50 by now, not sure), Shay Brenner -
soprano, co-leader, Oren Sagy - bass, a pianist and a derummer, it
played a programme of numbers composed by, or associated with, Sidney
Bechet.  While Shay is not Jacques, he is still young and likely to
learn.  After all, the band is quite young, and not only because of
the age of its members - it has been around for less than a year.  At
its first public concert, Shay played too many be-bop runs (to me, it
sounded as if he were just playing scales).  not yesterday.  He might
have here and there, but not much.  The band has greatly improved and
shows great potential.  It played two "between the shows" shows, and
we enjoyed both very much.  At the later show there were just a few
repetitions from the first on, including the inevitable Petit Fleur.
It's good to see and hear young musicians attracted to OKOM.  The
audience was qquite large, with lots of young people, and very
enthusiastic.
Are you reading it, Steve?
Cheers