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Gilad Atzmon
גלעד עצמון
Gilad Atzmon
Born
Gilad Atzmon

(1963-06-09) June 9, 1963 (age 61)
Tel Aviv, Israel
NationalityIsraeli and British[1]
EducationRubin Academy of Music
OccupationMusician
Known forMusician, Israel-related political activism[neutrality is disputed]
Websitewww.gilad.co.uk

Gilad Atzmon (Hebrew: גלעד עצמון, born June 9, 1963, Israel) is an Israeli-born British jazz musician and an anti-Zionist author and activist.[2] His album Exile was BBC jazz album of the year in 2003,[3] and he has been described as "one of London's finest saxophonists".[4] Playing over 100 dates a year,[4] he has been called "surely the hardest-gigging man in British jazz".[5] His albums, of which he has recorded nine to date,[4] often explore political themes and the music of the Middle East. He has also written two novels, which have been translated into over 20 languages.[6]

Atzmon's anti-Zionist political activism has received world-wide attention, to the point where his musical career is becoming overshadowed by it;[4] in early 2009 he was even quoted by the Prime Minister of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.[4] Whilst much of Atzmon's activism is directed specifically at the behaviour of Israel, some speaks more broadly to the role of Jews in the world and in supporting Israel, and he has often been accused of anti-Semitism. Atzmon, noting that he is a secular Jew married to a Jewish woman and in a band with three Jews,[2] rejects the charge. "Let's get some things very clear. I never attack Jews, I hardly criticise Judaism – I never criticise people for their beliefs. But I can criticise conduct."[2]

Early life

He was born a secular Israeli Jew in Tel Aviv, and trained at the Rubin Academy of Music in Jerusalem.[7] His service as a paramedic in the Israeli military during the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon made him reach the conclusion that "I was part of a colonial state, the result of plundering and ethnic cleansing."[1][4] In 1994,[8] Atzmon emigrated from Israel to London, where he studied philosophy,[3][7] and has lived there since,[2] becoming a British citizen in 2002.[1]

Atzmon first became interested in British jazz when he discovered some in a British record shop in Jerusalem in the 1970s. He initially was inspired by the work of Ronnie Scott and Tubby Hayes and regarded London as “the Mecca of Jazz.”[3] He was inspired to become a jazz musician by the work of Charlie Parker, in particular Charlie Parker with Strings, recorded with a string section in 1949. Atzmon said of the album that he "loved the way the music is both beautiful and subversive - they way he basks in the strings but also fights against them."[4]

Music

While Atzmon's main instrument is the alto saxophone, he also plays soprano, tenor and baritone saxophones and clarinet, sol, zurna and flute.[7] Atzmon's jazz style has been described as bebop/hard bop, with forays into free jazz and swing, and seemingly inspired by John Coltrane and Miles Davis.[8] Atzmon sometimes plays the alto and soprano sax simultaneously.[8]

Atzmon's works have also explored the music of the Middle East, North Africa, and Eastern Europe.[9] He draws on Arabic music (which unlike Western music needs to be internalised - "there is no way to write Arabic music"[4]) to emphasise "reverting to the primacy of the ear",[4] encouraging students to sing jazz and bebop lines before picking up their instruments.[4] "Atzmon's musical method has been to play with notions of cultural identity, flirting with genres such as tango and klezmer as well as various Arabic, Balkan, Gypsy and Ladino folk forms."[4] Atzmon's recordings differ from his live shows. Atzom told The Guardian that this is "very deliberate. I don't think that anyone can sit in a house, at home, and listen to me play a full-on bebop solo. It's too intense. My albums need to be less manic."[4]

Atzmon has fused his roles as a political artist and musician by creating the character Artie Fishel, on the album Artie Fishel & the Promised Band.[10] With traditional klezmer music, dialogue, and jokes, the album features Atzmon on saxophone, John Turville on keys and electronics, Yaron Stavi on bass, and Asaf Sirkis on drums.[11][12] Other artists include vocalist Guillermo Rozenthuler, Koby Israelite on vocals and accordion, and Ovidiu Fratila on violin.[13]

Collaborations and groups

Atzmon is a member of the veteran punk rock band The Blockheads, having joined when Ian Dury was still performing with them.[7] He has also recorded and performed with Shane McGowan, Robbie Williams, Sinéad O'Connor, Robert Wyatt and Paul McCartney.[7][9] He has recorded two albums with Robert Wyatt, who describes him as "one of the few musical geniuses I've ever met".[4]

Atzmon has collaborated, recorded and performed with musicians from all around the world, including the Palestinian singer, Reem Kelani, Tunisian singer and oud player Dhafer Youssef, violinist Marcel Mamaliga, accordion player Romano Viazzani, bassist Yaron Stavi, violinist and trumpet-violin player, Dumitru Ovidiu Fratila, and Guillermo Rozenthuler on vocals.[8]

Atzmon founded the Orient House Ensemble band in London in the 1990s and is currently touring with them.[9] The band includes Asaf Sirkis on drums, Yaron Stavi on bass and Frank Harrison on keyboard.[9] It has produced five albums in eight years.[14]

Atzmon is on the creative panel of the Global Music Foundation,[7] a non-profit organization formed in December 2004 which runs residential educational and performance workshops and events in different countries around the world.[15], and also offers personal workshops to students.[16]

Reviews

Atzmon and his ensemble have received favorable reviews from Hi-Fi World, Financial Times, The Scotsman, The Guardian, Birmingham Post, The Sunday Times and The Independent.[17] Reviews of his 2007 album Refuge included:

Manchester Evening News: The individuality of the music is extraordinary. No one is more willing to serve his music with raw political passion, and that curious cantor-like tone on clarinet is immediately arresting, like Artie Shaw writhing in his death throes.[18]
EjazzNews: "For sheer improvisational fireworks, quirky humour and genre-defying invention, one will be hard-pressed to find a bandleader as unique as Gilad Atzmon." ("EjazzNews," September 2008)[19]
BBC: "...the OHE is finding its voice in an increasingly subtle blend of East and West, that’s brutal and beautiful."[14]

In November 2008 Chris Searle launched his book Forward Groove: Jazz and the Real World from Louis Armstrong to Gilad Atzmon at the London Jazz Festival. It "chronicles the development of jazz and its great exponents" alongside social developments and political protest movements. The reviewer noted that “the torch continues to be carried by contemporary musicians such as Israeli-born alto saxman Gilad Atzmon who dreams of a free and united Palestine.”[20]

In February 2009 The Guardian music critic John Fordham reviewed Atzmon's newest album In loving memory of America which Atzmon describes as "a memory of America I had cherished in my mind for many years". It includes five standards and six originals "inspired by the sumptuous harmonies and impassioned sax-playing of (Charlie) Parker's late-40s recordings with classical strings".[21]

While John Lewis praises much of Atzmon's work, he notes that "trenchant politics often sit uneasily alongside music, particularly when that music is instrumental."[4] "Only one of his albums has been truly bad—his 2006 comedy klezmer project, Artie Fishel and the Promised Band, a clumsy satire on what he regards as the artificial nature of Jewish identity politics—but even his best albums have a slightly tame, homogenous feel that shares little with his blistering live performances."[4]

Awards

Atzmon was the recipient of the HMV Top Dog Award at the Birmingham International Jazz Festival in 1996–1998.[8] Gilad Atzmon's Exile was BBC jazz album of the year in 2003.[3]

Novels

Atzmon's novels have been published in 22 languages. His first novel A Guide to the Perplexed, published in 2001, is set in a future where by 2052 Israel has been replaced by a Palestinian state for 40 years.[1] The novel deals with the commercialization of the Holocaust - the central character's grandfather warns him "There no business like Shoah business."[1] - and "argues that the Holocaust is invoked as a kind of reflexive propaganda designed to shield the Zionist state from responsibility for any transgression against Palestinians."[1] The central character's "bizarre escapades through the tangled nature of political and military bureaucracies" have been called "worthy of Joseph Heller",[1] the book as a whole has been described as a "vividly written satire, infused with a ribald sense of humor and an unsparing critique of the incendiary political cauldron of the Mideast."[1] Equally, it has been called "viciously black satire on Israeli life... grandiose, childish and nasty".[22] The original Hebrew version was a candidate for Israel's 2003 Geffen Award for science fiction.[23]

His second novel, My One and Only Love was published in 2005, and features as a protagonist a trumpeter who chooses to play only one note (extremely well) as well as a spy who uncovers Nazi war criminals and locks them inside double bass cases which then tour permanently in the protagonist's orchestra's luggage.[24] The book is a psychological and political commentary which explores the "personal conflict between being true to one’s heart and being loyal to 'The Jews.'" The book makes fun of leading Zionist historical figures, incidents and propaganda techniques. According to one reviewer, it is a "genuinely entertaining book [which] illustrates many ironies of Jewish existence, in particular the opportunistic use of Jewish suffering to promote the State of Israel."[25]

Politics

Atzmon has made his political views known in a variety of ways, includng talks and publications, and his own website. Publications in which Atzmon's political writings have appeared include CounterPunch,[26] Al Jazeera, Uruknet, Middle East On Line, Dissident Voice, and Atlantic Free Press. Many of his published papers are available on his personal website.[27] He is a co-founder of and contributor to the web site Palestine Think Tank,[4] established in May 2008, aiming "to educate those who don't know what Zionism is so that they are able to see how damaging it is and how it is a just cause to stop it".[28]

Broadly, Atzmon is opposed to Zionism, and supports the Palestinian Right of Return as well as the establishment of a single state in Israel/Palestine.[29] Atzmon's harsh criticisms of Zionism and its Jewish supporters, the state of Israel and its supporters, and of some other anti-Zionists, have led to allegations of antisemitism. He has publicly speculated that as a result of his views, Israel's secret service, Mossad, might kill him.[6]

Views

In early 2009 Atzmon explained that during his time in the Israeli military he saw the "scale of the atrocities that are committed on my behalf by the Israelis in the name of the Israeli state, with the support of the Jewish people around the world."[6] He criticized for Israel "threatening the entire region with their idiotic nuclear bombs"[6] and said "I think Jewish ideology is driving our planet into a catastrophe."[6] He has said that because of Israel's "crimes" since its creation, as well as the "murderous extravaganza of the past weeks"[6] (2008–2009 Israel–Gaza conflict), the state of Israel "should be dismantled immediately before they turn our planet into a fireball."[6] Perhaps most controversially, Atzmon has argued that Israel's foreign policy is more evil than Nazi Germany's was, because, he argues, Hitler sought rational objectives (conquering other countries for Lebensraum[30], while Israel merely seeks to destroy its neighbours (notably Gaza and Lebanon); and in addition, "Nazi Germany was a tyranny, Israel is a democracy..."[31][32] Of the 2006 Israeli bombing of Lebanon Atzmon wrote that "The current Israeli brutality is nothing but evilness for the sake of evilness. Retribution that knows no mercy. Israel is a devastating collective resurrection of the Biblical Samson."[32]

Whilst much of Atzmon's writings are directed specifically at the behaviour of Israel, he often also speaks more broadly to the role of Jews in the world and in supporting Israel (the two are often linked, particularly through what Atzmon argues is the Israel Lobby's power in the United States over the hyperpower's Middle East policy). Thus he has said that disputes about the veracity of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion are moot, because "American Jews do try to control the world, by proxy. So far they are doing pretty well for themselves at least."[33][34][35] As a result of these beliefs on Jewish power, he has said that "whether it is right or not to burn down a synagogue, I can see that it is a rational act,"[36][37] and that "the reasoning behind resentment towards Israel and Jews is rational."[38][39] After the Board of Deputies of British Jews highlighted the former comment, Atzmon clarified in a letter to The Observer that he did not "justify any form of violence against Jews, Jewish interests or any innocent people." He explained the context of his comment as "debating the question of rationality of anti-semitism. I claimed that since Israel presents itself as the 'state of the Jewish people', and bearing in mind the atrocities committed by the Jewish state against the Palestinians, any form of anti-Jewish activity may be seen as political retaliation. This does not make it right."[40]

Perhaps most controversially, Atzmon has compared Israel's actions to the Holocaust, and Jewish ideology to Nazi ideology; and (in his writings and in his novels) criticized the use of the Holocaust in Zionism and Jewish identity. "In Israel, 80 to 93 percent of people support this genocide of the Palestinian people, and by the way, the Israeli state is a theological state so it is in the name of the Jewish people - we are dealing here with a major criminal, political identity."[6] Atzmon has commented on the stigma attached to discussing any details of the Holocaust, not least the usual "6 million Jews killed" figure, even though the Holocaust museum Yad Vashem mentions several figures between 5 and 5.5m; in public debate the 6m figure has become an "abstract fetish", as if a somewhat smaller number could make the Holocaust harmless.[41] In discussing the Holocaust Atzmon has distributed a paper to his mailing list by Paul Eisen,[29] which was alleged by Tony Greenstein to be Holocaust revisionist/denialist,[29] leading to accusations against Atzmon of Holocaust denial,[29][34][31][42] which Atzmon has rejected.[41]

Allegations of antisemitism and responses

As a result of expressing these views on Zionism and Jewish identity, Atzmon has repeatedly been accused of antisemitism. Such allegations have come from a number of quarters, including two UK commentators, David Aaronovitch (in a June 2005 The Times opinion piece)[34] and David Hirsh (in a November 2006 blog on The Guardian's Comment is Free website,[43] which allowed Atzmon a response[44]). Jewish organisations have campaigned against him, including Jews Against Zionism, which asked for the Socialist Workers Party to withdraw an invitation to Atzmon to speak at the Marxism 2005 conference,[29] and the Board of Deputies of British Jews, which in May 2005 issued a dossier alleging widespread antisemitism at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London, including a quote from a talk delivered by Atzmon. The Socialist Workers Party has since distanced itself from Atzmon.[4]

Criticism has also come from further afield; for example the Swedish Committee Against Anti-Semitism complained when Atzmon spoke at a 2007 seminar in Stockholm, at the invitation of the Christian Social Democrats: "It is of course legitimate to criticize Israel's politics, but democratic forces need to react when debate about the Middle East is used to legitimize the hatred of Jews." The CSD responded by saying: "Gilad Atzmon is himself a Jew, and when the Swedish Committee Against Anti-Semitism starts calling Jews anti-Semites there is a risk that they undermine the term anti-Semite and do the fight against anti-Semitism a disservice."[45] Atzmon has also been criticized for saying that the Jews killed Jesus.[31][35]

As a result of expressing these views on Zionism and Jewish identity, Atzmon has repeatedly been accused of antisemitism. Atzmon addresses the various accusations against him at the “1001 Lies About Gilad Atzmon” page on his web site.[46] There he responds to accusations of antisemitism, as he has done elsewhere, by questioning the existence of antisemitism itself, writing: "Because Anti-Semite is an empty signifier, no one actually can be an Anti-Semite and this includes me of course. In short, you are either a racist which I am not or have an ideological disagreement with Zionism, which I have."[47] In an article entitled "Think Tribal, Speak Universal" Atzmon wrote: "Surely, the most effective way to confront a thinker is through open intellectual debate. But somehow, this is precisely what those who oppose me refuse to do. Instead, they employ various tactics aimed at silencing me."[48] Atzmon has explained his writing thus: "I write about things that I find while looking into myself. This is indeed very dangerous for people who try to promote some collective dogmatic and ethnic tribalism."[48] Regarding what he considers to be attempts to silence him through charges of being antisemitic he replied: "I've got nothing against the Semite people, I don't have anything against people - I'm anti-Jewish, not anti-Jews."[6] He has called himself a "proud self-hating Jew",[6] comparing himself with Spinoza, Marx and Jesus: "Why? Because of growing up in this kind of racist, nationalist, tribalist, chauvinist, supremacist society - and this is exactly what they stood up against."[6]

Discography

  • "In loving memory of America" - Label: Enja - January 2009
  • Refuge - Label: Enja - October 2007
  • Artie Fishel and the Promised Band - Label: WMD - September 2006
  • MusiK - Label: Enja - October 2004
  • Exile - Label: Enja - March 2004
  • Nostalgico - Label: Enja - January 2001
  • Gilad Atzmon &The Orient House Ensemble - Label: Enja - 2000
  • Juizz Muzic- Label: FruitBeard - 1999
  • Take it or Leave It - Label: Face Jazz - 1999
  • Spiel- Both Sides - Label: MCI - 1995
  • Spiel Acid Jazz Band- Label: MCI - 1995
  • Spiel- Label: In Acoustic&H.M. Acoustica - 1993

Books

  • A guide to the perplexed, English translation by Philip Simpson. London : Serpent's Tail, 2002. ISBN 1852428260
  • My one and only love. London : Saqi, 2005. ISBN 0863565077 (pbk.). ISBN 9780863565076 (pbk.)

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h St. Clair, Jeffery (July 19, 2003). "You Must Leave Home, Again: Gilad Atzmon's "A Guide to the Perplexed"". CounterPunch. Retrieved 2008-10-28.
  2. ^ a b c d Gilchrist, Jim (22 February 2008). "'I thought music could heal the wounds of the past. I may have got that wrong'". The Scotsman. Retrieved 2009-03-21.
  3. ^ a b c d Gilad Atzmon, How jazz got hot again, The Telegraph, October 13, 2005.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q "Manic beat preacher" interview with John Lewis, The Guardian, March 6, 2009.
  5. ^ The Times, 6 March 2009, Gilad Atzmon: In Loving Memory of America
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Gibson, Martin (23 January 2009). "No choice but to speak out - Israeli musician 'a proud self-hating Jew'". Gisborne Herald. Retrieved 2009-03-21.
  7. ^ a b c d e f "Gilad Atzmon". People. Global Music Foundation. Retrieved 2008-10-28.
  8. ^ a b c d e "Profile - Gilad Atzmon". Rainlore's World of Music. March 21, 2003. Retrieved 2008-10-28.
  9. ^ a b c d Atzmon, Gilad (2007). "GILAD ATZMON - MUSICIAN, COMPOSER, PRODUCER, EDUCATOR, WRITER". Gilad Atzmon. Retrieved 2008-10-28.
  10. ^ Shackleton, Kathryn (October 16, 2006). "Gilad Atzmon: Artie Fishel And The Promised Band". BBC. Retrieved 2008-10-28.
  11. ^ Atzmon, Gilad (2007). "ARTIE FISHEL & THE PROMISED BAND". Gilad Atzmon. Retrieved 2008-10-28.
  12. ^ Gilad Atzmon, Not Strictly Kosher, Jazzwise, January 17, 2007.
  13. ^ Mixing it feature, BBC Radio, October 6, 2006.
  14. ^ a b Kathryn Shackleton, Gilad Atzmon & The Orient House Ensemble, Refuge, BBC, October 1, 2007.
  15. ^ "About GMF". Global Music Foundation. Retrieved 2008-10-28.
  16. ^ Atzmon, Gilad (2007). "MUSIC EDUCATION". Gilad Atzmon. Retrieved 2008-10-28.
  17. ^ Gilad Atzmon web site.
  18. ^ Alan Brownlee, Gilad Atzmon & The Orient House Ensemble - Refuge (Enja), Manchester Evening News, August 30, 2007.
  19. ^ John Stevenson, Gilad Atzmon liberates the Americans: Orient House Ensemble, Ronnie Scott’s London, August 30th 2008, EJazzNews.com, September 01, 2008.
  20. ^ Ian Soutar, Former head chronicles a passion for jazz and justice, Sheffield Telegraph, November 14, 2008.
  21. ^ John Fordham, Gilad Atzmon: In Loving Memory of America, The Guardian, February 27, 2009.
  22. ^ Matthew Reisz, The Independent, 7 Decmber 2002, A crude - and rude - assault on Israel misfires
  23. ^ "Locus online;The Geffen Awards". Retrieved 2007-01-24.
  24. ^ Sholto Byrnes,, The Independent, 25 March 2005, Talking Jazz
  25. ^ Karin Friedemann, Review of Gilad Atzmon's My One and Only Love, 2005, referred to in BBC book launch announcement, BBC, Jun 3, 2005
  26. ^ Gilad Atzmon, 28 August 2003, Collective Self-Deception: The Most Common Mistakes of Israelis
  27. ^ Politiks at Gilad Atzmon web site.
  28. ^ About PalestineThinkTank.com page.
  29. ^ a b c d e Mary Rizzo, The Gag Artists, Who's Afraid of Gilad Atzmon?, CounterPunch, June 17, 2005
  30. ^ "Nazis were indeed proper expansionists, they were trying to take towns and land intact. Carpet bombing and total erasure of populated areas that is so trendy amongst Israeli military and politicians (as well as Anglo-Americans) has never been a Nazi tactic or strategy." (Atzmon, Al Jazeera, 12 August 2006 [1])
  31. ^ a b c Paul, Jonny (November 12, 2008). "Israeli ambassador speaks at UK university despite pressure to cancel". Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 2009-03-21.
  32. ^ a b Atzmon in Al Jazeera
  33. ^ Kamm, Oliver (April 25, 2006). "Agreed, we shouldn't vote for the BNP – but its twin, Respect, is just as bad". The Times. Retrieved 2009-03-21.
  34. ^ a b c Aaronovitch, David (June 28, 2005). "How did the far Left manage to slip into bed with the Jew-hating Right?". The Times. Retrieved 2009-03-21.
  35. ^ a b Atzmon, Gilad. "On Anti-Semitism". Retrieved 2009-03-21.
  36. ^ Paul, Jonny (October 20, 2006). "London pizzeria hosts allegedly anti-Semitic musician. Gilad Atzmon called burning down synagogues 'a rational act;' Board of Deputies of British Jews lodges complaint". Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 2009-03-21.
  37. ^ Doward, Jamie (17 April 2005). "Boycott threat to Israeli colleges". The Observer. Retrieved 2009-03-21. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  38. ^ Kamm, Oliver (March 9, 2009). "Jazz and the anti-Jew, redux". TimesOnline. Retrieved 2009-03-21.
  39. ^ http://palestinethinktank.com/2009/03/07/hatred-has-turned-him-into-a-jew-deconstructing-nick-cohen/
  40. ^ Observer Letters to the Editor, The Guardian, April 24, 2005.
  41. ^ a b Atzmon in Uruknet
  42. ^ "Trying on a new religion for size". Reuters. April 4, 2007. Retrieved 2009-03-21.
  43. ^ David Hirsh, Openly embracing prejudice, The Guardian, November 30, 2006.
  44. ^ Gilad Atzmon, The Guardian 12 December 2006, A response to David Hirsh
  45. ^ Social Democrats invited known anti-Semite to seminar, The Local, March 23, 2007.
  46. ^ Gilad Atzmon, gilad.co.uk, 1001 Lies
  47. ^ Gilad Atzmon profile
  48. ^ a b Gilad Atzmon, Dissident Voice, 12 December 2006, Think Tribal, Speak Universal.

External links


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source: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gilad_Atzmon&oldid=279367760

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