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One of the most gripping and fun live bands in contemporary music today, Yemen Blues’ original sound draws from the great traditions of Jewish and Arabic culture and each note sings with a love for common humanity coexing in both the past and present, at once timeless and modern. There’s a certain magic to the way the four musicians in the band interact. On one hand, their music is timeless, extending itself back through millennia. But they’re also a radical break with the past, a four-part space where freedom is the only goal.
Listening to Yemen Blues is like eating a rich, Middle Eastern soup made of only four ingredients – each flavor is profound, forever changing yet forever in balance.
The first seed of this project was planted by Ravid Kalahani – the founder, and talismanic guru behind Yemen Blues who sings and plays gimbri.
Ravid grew up in a traditional Yemenite family and learned the language and the traditional chants of his origin. He is joined by percussionist Rony Iwryn an Israeli artist from Uruguay; giant in New York’s avant-garde scene, who’s worked on more than 150 albums, is oud and bass player Shanir Blumenkranz and percussionist Dan Mayo brings a hip-hop crunch, a concentrated hunger for fun, a machine-like sense of the human groove. Their latest studio album ‘Shabazai – A Tribute To The Poet’, is an evocation of legendary Yemeni poet Shalom Shabazi.
Yemen Blues is a contradiction in plain sight. They’re a puzzle you unlock by finding the solution inside yourself. Solo voices in unison; a collective in many parts. On one level, it’s music at its most direct, it’s most emotionally emphatic. On another, it’s a spiritual quest, both enlightening and perplexing. A project that spans continents while preaching the universal, they obey multiple traditions while forging their own.
Doors open 1 hour before show.
Refreshments and snacks available.
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
16 John St , Saugerties, NY, United States, New York 12477
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