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Joe Amar's Musical Style
Joe Amar was a gifted and versatile musician.
He became famous in Israel for Hebrew songs in the light entertainment field, which were only part of his art.
His first records were recorded in Morocco, and included songs in Moroccan language and Andalusian style. In this style, well-known and beloved in Jewish communities in North Africa, he sang songs and piyyutim (liturgical poems) from Jewish prayers.
When he arrived in Israel, and when he was already a well-known singer in the light entertainment field, he also connected to Ashkenazi Hazzanut (cantorial music), and combined it with Moroccan piyyutim.
Religious music was in his soul.
He performed with it in Israel and abroad, as a Hazzan (cantor) in Ashkenazi synagogues and as a paytan (liturgical poet/singer) in Mizrahi synagogues. For many years he also taught Hazzanut, as if it were an inseparable part of his musical world. In his performances before Jews in their communities, he incorporated songs in their unique languages, such as Ladino and Yiddish.
Joe Amar sings in Yiddish
To watch directly on YouTube click here
Joe Amar combines Hazzanut and piyyut
To watch directly on YouTube click here
In the history of Israeli music, he is mainly known for songs he composed and performed to Hebrew lyrics he wrote, such as: "Barcelona," "Shir HaShikor" (The Drunkard's Song), and "My Star Has Set." The radio played him again and again, and the records sold, and people sang his songs and hummed and swayed their heads from side to side to the rhythm of the chorus. These were unusual songs in Hebrew singing of the late 1950s.
Hysterical hits, at a time when no one dared to define any song. The word Hit was not in the lexicon. Generally, songs in the format familiar to us today, three or four minutes, plus or minus – were then considered inferior art, compared to literature and poetic poetry, painting and sculpture. Commercial songs were categorized as "light music," a kind of entertainment for the masses. And the direction was to the West, to Europe and America, from where the inspiration for rhythm, lyrics, and arrangements came.
The music industry in israel was then very limited – two or three record companies, and one state radio channel.
The industry involved a small handful of male and female singers, and a few more Israeli military ensembles. These adapted their songs to Western culture, to the ears of musical connoisseurs, to journalists who wrote reviews, to seasoned musicians and "experts" who strove to determine the musical taste and to pave the cultural path.
They sang in secular Hebrew, according to the rules of Hebrew grammar, in precise rhymes, in precise musical scales. They sang love songs and patriotic songs, army songs and youth movement songs. They sang songs written in organized notes, in scales accepted according to Western standards.
Joe Amar went against the current and broke conventions.
His music came from his deep throat in a tenor voice with a prominent emphasis on "CHET" and "Ayin," with texts and melodies that did not exactly match the accepted patterns. He accompanied it with musical instruments heard in Arabic-speaking countries.
He brought a prominent presence of another culture, unfamiliar to the mainstream of Israeli society. The culture of the new immigrants from Morocco, Iraq, and all Islamic countries. These immigrants were a very large segment of the population, who had just arrived in Israel and found themselves in a difficult reality. To ways of life, language and customs that were foreign to them. They did not manage to integrate into the economy, politics and culture, and had to make do with what they had, to earn a living and start a new life in the Jewish state.
Joe Amar offered them comfort. He was flesh of their flesh, "dialna" (ours), and in his music they could find solace.
The song "Nathan"
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Mizrahi communities were his loyal home audience, but not only them.
Very quickly Joe Amar's music penetrated the hearts of listeners from all strata of Israeli society. Even families from Europe, Ashkenazim – those who did not accept cultural authority and no "musical guidance" from artistic connoisseurs, and did not read the educational articles of music critics in the printed press.
He sang beautifully, in a clear and pleasant voice; the song made them feel good in their soul. Even when he sang about the drunkard who drinks glass after glass, or about an employment office that refuses to provide him with work because he is Mizrahi.
The proof was evident: his songs were played incessantly on radio stations, and his records sold well.
His performances also filled large halls.
The masses, consumers of entertainment, dictated the musical taste. Not the establishment nor the cultural pathfinders. The listeners chose Joe Amar, as well as Naomi Shemer and Moshe Vilensky and the Nahal Band and all the creators and performers of those days.
The masses were also the ones who thanked him for his artistic contribution, and moved on to the next stars.
In the mid-sixties, the music market grew rapidly, and filled with so many diverse styles that the ear only needs to choose and listen.
Whoever innovated, soared upwards, and whoever remained stuck, their star set.
Joe Amar - My Star Has Set
To listen on YouTube click here
Joe Amar was alone in his musical path.
No one rose to follow in his footsteps and continue the Mizrahi style. On the contrary: musicians who grew out of the communities of new immigrants, Mizrahim, connected to the new, Western styles.
Singers like: Yigal Bashan and Avi Toledano – preferred the safe path to success, of the military band. Others were active partners in "rhythm bands" that played inspired by similar bands abroad. Among them: Gabi Shoshan and Nissim Saroussi (The Goldfingers band), Haim Saban (The Lions), Shlomo Mizrahi and Eli Tobol ("The Electric Stage").
The children of the new immigrants who wanted to pursue a musical career, integrated into the spreading trend of the young generation's rebellion, in Israel and abroad – abandoned traditional, conservative music, and left it to their parents, to reminisce about it with nostalgia.
Joe Amar did not wait to be kicked out.
He himself cut short his musical career in Israel, and went to America to continue it there. There he could also enrich his repertoire and combine Hebrew songs, his own and others', together with Hazzanut and religious piyyutim.
Joe Amar's Mizrahi style went on hiatus for a few years.
In the early 70s, the Mizrahi Song Festival began, then singers like Haim Moshe and Ofra Haza and Shimi Tavori, and creators like Avihu Medina and Ahuva Ozeri, came to the stage, and brought the style back to the consciousness of Israelis.
...And the rest is history.
This is the last chapter in A Musical Biography of Joe Amar – a singer, composer, musical creator who laid the foundations for Mizrahi music in Israel, defined it, and introduced it to the ears of Israelis.
For reading all chapters of the series in the table of contents, click on the following link:
Joe Amar - Introduction to Mizrahi Music in Israel
(5 chapters - separate link for each chapter)
