Musical feast at Shir Madness
TOP Israeli pop star Mosh Ben Ari joins a host of leading Australian performers including Deborah Conway, Old Man River, Tim Freedman, Simon Tedeschi and Aria-Award-winning group Monsieur Camembert in the star-studded line-up for the Shir Madness Jewish Music Festival in Sydney on March 25.
According to director Nicola Ossher, this year’s festival promises to be bigger than 2010’s inaugural event at the Bondi Pavilion.
“I am confident that anyone who was there last time is going to be blown away when they see the upgrade for this one,” she said.
“We had a fabulous line-up the first year, but we’ve stepped up about 10 notches instead of one.”
Ossher said the line-up includes everyone on her wish list.
“I am absolutely stoked with the headline acts that we’ve got, from the amazing piano prodigy Simon Tedeschi to one of Israel’s pop stars, Mosh Ben Ari. I’m super excited we’ve got Tim Freedman, who’s one of Australia’s iconic singers.”
Ossher said that with the large number of applications received from artists, organisers took the approach of not repeating acts that featured in 2010, with the exception of Monsieur Camembert and Deborah Conway.
“I’m very excited to have them back on the bill, as they’re pretty big names and I think they’ll go off again,” she said.
Another act she is excited about is Victoria’s The Barons of Tang.
“Their music is very interesting and hard to define,” she said. “It’s a huge band with horns, percussion and drums, and they’re just a wild-looking band of young people playing a kind of klezmer-inspired music and extended into other genres. So they’re a wild festival band if people feel like a dance and getting into some great music.
“Another very exciting group is Dereb the Ambassador, which is an Ethiopian funk band. It’s fronted by an Ethiopian guy named Dereb, but the rest of the band are all top musicians from Sydney, including Daniel Pliner who is a fantastic Jewish pianist. They’re playing at the WOMADelaide festival this month, and they play the top festivals around Australia as well, so we’re very excited to have them.”
This year the performance area at the Shir Madness festival has increased from four stages to five. “I’m also very excited about our new DJ space, where we will be featuring a novel silent disco,” she said.
“A silent disco is basically still run by DJs but everybody has their own headphones. Its quite a spectacle because you walk into the room and people are just dancing, but it’s a dead space – there’s no music, there’s no sound, and it’s just hilarious.
“There’s often more than one music channel. Somebody might be dancing to this crazy, upbeat techno and somebody else might be dancing to some slow, chilled-out reggae song.”
Another new feature of the festival is the Chai tent.
“It is a really nice chilled stage where people can get their chai or their coffee and relax and listen to some acoustic music,” Ossher explained.
The Chai tent will also offer a chance for some up-and-coming performers to gain experience.
“It’s a pretty exciting opportunity for any young singer-songwriters who haven’t got a full 40 minutes worth of material, but they’ve got a couple of songs that they’ve written, or their favourite cover songs, and this just gives them an opportunity to perform at a professional music festival and build a bit of confidence,” said Ossher.
“We’ve just put the word out to all the music departments in all the Jewish schools and to the universities that this is available.”
The silent disco and the up-and-coming slots are also part of the festival organisers’ plan to attract a younger audience.
“One of the aims this year was to increase the appeal to the younger audience,” she said.
“For many people who don’t know a lot of the performers, they go and discover some amazing music. That’s part of the fun of the festival.”
Organisers are also hoping to increase non-Jewish audience numbers, Ossher added.
“It’s a Jewish cultural event for the community, but it is also for the wider community, and one of our aims is to build a positive Jewish image,” she said.
“Music transcends religious and cultural differences, and it’s a great way for building bridges, so we would love to have more non-Jewish people there to enjoy the music, enjoy the culture and just to create a bit of good Jewish kudos.”
The AJN is a sponsor of the Shir Madness Jewish Music Festival.
The Shir Madness Jewish Music Festival is on March 25 at Bondi Pavilion from 11am-10pm. Enquiries: www.shirmadness.com.
REPORT: Gareth Narunsky
PHOTO: Aria-Award-winning group Monsieur Camembert
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