Founder and lead vocalist of Yemen Blues Ravid Kahalani wants people to embrace the beauty of every culture. He speaks to Shrabasti Mallik about his life and how he wishes to spread the message of love through music
Do you feel connected to a place you’ve never set a foot beforeIJ Ravid Kahalani believes you can. The singer has never spent a second of his life in Yemen yet his music carries the language and essence of the Arabic land. “I grew up in the culture, with that way of singing, that way of eating, that way of speaking,” Kahalani says. It is in the prayers and rituals of his parents, who belong to a large community of Yemenites living in Israel.
The music that Kahalani makes with his band Yemen Blues has not only found fans in his country but in the entire world. “My father is from Yemen and there are very few Jewish Yemenites there. So I have always felt a sense of belonging. That, I believe, opened my mind to the genre of jazz and blues. Eventually I started singing them. And surprisingly, it came very naturally to me,” he says. He grew up singing the Yemenite chants and prayers vocalised by his religious father. But by the time he was a teen, he stumbled onto blues singers Blind Willie Johnson, Big Mama Thornton and leadbelly.
He formed the band in 2010 with the aim of bringing a change in the culture which is rigid about what they choose to hear. And he have been successful. Mixes of Yemenite and West African influences with contemporary beats from funk to mambo, within the deep soul of old chants describe the music that Yemen Blues presents. Though the seven-member band was formed in Israel, their members keep changing. He points out, “Our team keeps changing from time to time but there is a core group of members who keep Yemen Blues pulsating all the time.” This Israeli band’s rare mix developed over time.
Their sound hardly limits itself to music from the Arabian Peninsula. As half their name tips off, there’s a strong influence from US Blues as well as soul and funk. To this, they add hard beats from West Africa and wild quavers from North Africa — specifically the gnawa culture of Morocco. (Kahalani plays the guembri, a twangy, three-stringed instrument made partly of camel skin.)
“I fell in love with it,” he says. “It hit me right away — the clear connection between Blues and Africa and all this Arabic music. The whole thing came together for me as one. Blues is a very big and general word. But what it describes isn’t a scale or a way of singing. It’s a feeling.”
Music to him is a way of life. It is his religion through which he sees the world. “I see things in a very simple way and that feeling takes me to a very basic place, which is beyond religion or politics. It does not matter what you are going after. We should remember that we come from the same place and will end up at that very same place. Its only music that is above most of the things,” he explains.
Kahalani began writing songs with that principle in mind. He brought them to a friend, Omer Avital, an arranger and bassist who has worked around the world with jazz artists as celebrated as Wynton Marsalis and Brad Mehldau. “We started jamming for hours, creating this music,” the singer says, “We never said, ‘let’s combine this with this and make a certain fusion’.” Instead they kept bringing in musicians and let each of their influences take the music wherever it would go.
Whether he sings in Yemenite, Hebrew or French, Kahalani brings an emotional depth to his singing. The rhythm of his singing and his pronunciation, connect to a deep history of Yemenite music in Israel. However, his artistes have their own distinct accent. They’re also well known for their singing, having spawned many of Israel’s top vocalists, noteworthy among them is legendary singer Ofra Haza’s percussionist who now plays with Yemen Blues.
There are specific moments in life which inspires his lyrics. He adds, “My lyrics come with a message. My songs question the basic feelings of human beings. I don’t write when there is violence around. I prefer spreading energy.” The only exception, though, is their latest jig, Insaniya, which expresses his feelings towards the growing violence all over the world. “I see governments at war and all the violence that do nothing but destruct the world. We don’t realise that collectively we can bring a change,” he adds.
With a diverse background as his, one might wonder how he connects to his global audience, “Where people come from does not matter. Music transcends all that. What is needed is to connect to any one aspect of it — be it the music, the lyrics or the beats. The best thing I can do is to focus on which sounds and words can do good. People are touched by passion,” he rounds off.
Yemen Blues will be performing in Jaipur, Jodhpur, IIT Kanpur and lucknow before wrapping up their India tour with their final performance in Delhi.