YEMENI STREET FUNK WITH JUNKYARD INSTRUMENTS
Eyal el Wahab, the bandleader/cellist/composer at the core of El Khat, brings us a raucous, clattering songbook of retro-futurist melodies inspired by the Golden Age of Yemeni music in the 60s.
Using an orchestra of instruments old and new, many repurposed from junk objects and turned into instruments that sound similar to traditional Arabic and North African lutes and percussion, Tel Aviv based El Khat have imagined an indelible stamp of polyphonic, harmony soaked, pan-Arabic braindance.
Careful listeners will pick up on strains reminiscent of Omar Souleyman’s dabke; Ethiopiques organ sounds a la Mulatu Astatke; and unashamedly sing-along choruses, albeit in Arabic, reminiscent of Bowie or McCartney.
THE BIRTH OF EL KHAT
El Wahad has always been a man of invention. A self-taught busker-musician, he landed a gig as lead cellist for the Jerusalem Andalusian Orchestra in 2012 by dodging an audition and learning the repertoire by ear.
Five years later, Eyal wrapped up his tenure and also resigned from his flamenco-inspired band El Gran Mar — he needed a complete creative reboot. He began exploring his Yemeni cultural roots. Like so many other Jewish Yemenites, his grandparents had fled from there to Israel in 1949-50 after several waves of persecution in that country.
He began learning Arabic. Meditating on his hardscrabble ancestry, he began crafting Yemeni-style instruments out of trash he collected on the street. The auspicious discovery of an LP called “Qat, Coffee, and Qambus: Raw 45s from Yemen” became a huge inspiration for the creation of El Khat — named after the addictive leaf that has been chewed socially in Yemen for over 600 years. The Khat leaf symbolizes community, resilience, and relaxation in the face of hardship. It has mildly psychedelic properties.
WATCH EL KHAT LIVE
SMALL ROOM. PLAN AHEAD.
We’ll be at the Parlor Room in downtown Northampton for this one — standing room style, with chairs against the wall. It’s one of the smallest spaces we’ll be in this season, so please make sure to RSVP (or un-RSVP, if you realize you can’t come).
(Due to limited seating, I recommend you send me a note if you’d like seats reserved)
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