Music label owner and producer Jacob Edgar shares with SM Verghis how he tripped on Israeli music and discovered his American roots while filming a TV show
We continue from last week when we carried an interview with the host of Music Voyager on NDTV Good Times, discussing his views about the music in India, featured on his show. As well as his trips through Bob Marley country, (Jamaica), louisiana and the Grammys. This time he takes us to other parts of the world.
I’m curious about what took you to Israel. How much of the music you feature is influenced by geo-politics of the region. And will you feature Palestine and Pakistan — which also produces great musicians who are appreciated hugely in India tooIJ
I have long been fascinated by the Israel music scene and greatly enjoyed filming Music Voyager episodes there. As you have experienced with the appearance of Idan Raichel in India, the Israeli government and travel industry recognises the importance of music for building bridges and cultural diplomacy, so they were very supportive in helping the shoot.
We were never told what we could and could not say, which artists to feature or given restrictions on the content of our show. We included many moments that addressed the political situation in Israel and the surrounding region. At the same time, we also observed first hand how reality on ground, the reality in real people’s lives, is different from television news.
All the Israeli musicians we met were passionate about peaceful coexistence with their neighbours.
Many of them collaborate frequently with Palestinian musicians and from different cultures and religions. On the other hand, you also find people and musicians just seeking to escape reality, to party like there is no tomorrow (after all, there might not be!) and just lose themselves in the moment.
The music scene in Israel is diverse, like the people, who come from different cultural backgrounds.We would love to visit Palestine and Pakistan, and I hope we have the opportunity in the future. There are many places in the world that we have yet to feature on Music Voyager and hopefully the show will exist long enough to allow us to cover as much of this fascinating planet as possible.
When you visited say Tenessee, and did your chronicling, did you find it easy to discriminate genres within a genre, like a ‘Bayou’ sound, or ‘New Orleans’ soundIJ And how much of the new material from there is completely free of influence from the older musicIJ
One of the things I have been really thankful for with Music Voyager is the opportunity it has given me to explore the music of my own country. In the past, when people asked me if I knew anything about country music I’d respond, “Of course, what countryIJ” Ironically, I know more about obscure African, Indian or Brazilian music then I do the traditional and popular music of my own country. Our trips to Tennessee, louisiana, Florida and elsewhere have been perhaps more educational to me then they have our viewers. As you pointed out, no matter where you travel there are regional differences that only locals can really distinguish. And everywhere in this globalised world there is contemporary music that has no connection to the cultural roots of its area. But, as I’ve mentioned before, part of our mission with Music Voyager is to focus on those styles and expressions that make a place unique, that define its character and that will inspire others to want to learn more.
When will you return to do better justice to IndiaIJ
We would be very happy to come back and film 10, 20, 30 more episodes in India some day. Even then, I don’t think we will ever be able to do it justice in the eyes of some! By the time we finished, we would have to start all over again to cover everything new that had developed since we began.
(The series ends)