This is how Mizrahi music began
The history of Mizrahi music in Israel rests on two biographical foundations – each a fascinating story in itself.
When placed side by side, they form an amazing narrative about two musicians who arrived in Israel between 1956-57, just a few months apart, and both left 13 years later, again just a few months apart, without any coordination.
One: Yosef (Joe) Amar. A young, religious Jewish man, wearing a kippah, who immigrated from Morocco to Israel driven by Zionist and nationalistic motivations.
The other: Aris San. A young Greek man, not Jewish, who immigrated to Israel for unknown, even mysterious, reasons.
Both burst into Israeli consciousness immediately after their arrival, and within a short period, introduced an innovative style into Israeli culture and its music. Each achieved immense local success, until they decided to leave the country – to leverage that success for musical endeavors in the United States. There, both together, and each individually, could enjoy the winning combination of money and fame.
Both were pioneers, ahead of their time.
They came to a young country, just before Israel celebrated its first decade. At that time, most of the country's residents were immigrants from various countries and continents, speaking different languages and having diverse customs. These immigrants were required to integrate into a "melting pot" whose purpose was: to forge an Israeli society with shared values for all. Its infrastructure had already been prepared decades earlier, and had existed here for decades, even before the establishment of the state. Its principles were inspired by values and principles imported from Russia and Germany, from England and the United States.
Leisure culture was limited in those years – one central, state-run radio channel (Kol Israel) and another half-channel (Galei Tzahal), two or three record companies, a small number of singers, and a short list of Hebrew songs. The songs were sung in the accepted format of those days: with a precise rhythm, without vocal embellishments. With vocal and instrumental harmony, with notes, performed politely and restrainedly. Like in Europe, like in America.
And then these two, who emerged from the margins, burst stormily into the mainstream of the melting pot, breaking the accepted framework, giving a different meaning to the emotions that could be expressed in song, and stretching them, each in a different direction:
Joe Amar brought with him the traditional heritage of North African Jewish communities. This included traditional musical instruments – oud, qanun, and darbuka, a combination of religious cantorial and liturgical singing, mawawil (vocal improvisations) and high musical scales from Arabic music, a high and deep tenor voice, and the prominent guttural pronunciation of the letters 'chet' and 'ayin' – the trademark of immigrants from Islamic countries who were labeled as "Mizrahi communities."
Aris San brought music with Balkan flavors, the kind that is sung and played with a bouzouki in Greek taverns, the kind that has no defined boundaries, moving between Turkish melancholy and a lively Gypsy hafla (party). All of these he skillfully synthesized – he replaced the bouzouki with an electric guitar so that the sound would be modern, and he shortened the vocal embellishments so they wouldn't overly interfere with the precision of the intervals between notes. And when he sang his songs in his velvety voice, one could fly in imagination to a Greek taverna and meet Zorba the Greek from the famous movie – an upgraded folk style with sharp life wisdom and supreme feelings of joy that could instantly turn into deep sadness, and back again.
And then... one day, both of them got up and left.
Everything they brought, they took with them to America, leaving behind a supportive audience, enthusiastic fans, and a musical void that lasted for a few years.
The void was filled a few years later by successors who took a bit of Joe Amar and a bit of Aris San, mixed them together, seasoned it with Turkish music, added a little "San Remo" from Italy and some French chanson – and from all these emerged "Mizrahi music" that would sweep and shake Israeli society, ignite a burst of emotions, and be played across all media channels in Israel and worldwide.
Here is their story, of Joe Amar and Aris San.
