Music: While his Eastern guitar gently frets

Letting the pull of the oud take over at the international festival, November 12-21.

By BARRY DAVIS
Pantelis Thalassinos (photo credit: PR)
Pantelis Thalassinos
(photo credit: PR)
World music, as a genre, has its staunch devotees and fierce critics.
The former dig the added sonic and energetic value to be gleaned from a fusion of all kinds of cultural strands, while the latter take a more purist approach and prefer their ethnic stuff neat.
As far as Eliyahu Dagmi is concerned, an artist simply has to feed off his or her roots, regardless of whether these pertain to a single cultural avenue or take in a multitude of sensibilities.
As far as the 50-something Jerusalemite guitarist and baglama – Turkish stringed instrument – player is concerned, growing up in this part of the world you just have to absorb the sounds of the cultural melting pot around you.
That comes across in spades on Dagmi’s debut album, Eliyahu, which will form the bedrock of his forthcoming concert which will take place at the Yellow Submarine on November 17 (10 p.m.), as part of this year’s Confederation House-initiated Jerusalem International Oud Festival.
Despite hailing from an Iraqi home, Dagmi took his first steps through the intricacies and mysteries of music-making on classical guitar.
“I grew up on Western music – rock, jazz and classical music,” he says.
“But at home, like in most Iraqi families, they played records by [Egyptian diva] Umm Kulthum, although I didn’t consciously pay too much attention to that.”
Things began to change for Dagmi just as he was getting a serious handle on formal Western music.
“I was learning Western classical composition when I was around 18, and then I fell in love with the sound of the oud. I don’t know why; it just grabbed me.”
Dagmi went through all the requisite stations on his Western musical evolutionary path. Led Zeppelin was a hallowed object of admiration, particularly lead guitarist Jimmy Page.
“I had a double-neck guitar just like him, and I also played it with a bow like him,” Dagmi recalls with a smile. “When I was a kid, I even went to his house in Windsor [near London] and knocked on the door. Unfortunately, he wasn’t home at the time.”
A couple of decades or so ago, Dagmi got a golden opportunity to try out his skills on oud and also on saz – the Persian version of the baglama – when he joined pioneering East-West music band Habrera Hativit (Natural Choice), led by celebrated percussionist-vocalist Shlomo Bar.
“I used to listen to Turkey Radio,” says Dagmi. “It really had a pull on me. I couldn’t explain it back then.”
Dagmi’s musical epiphany struck him one day when he was sauntering through the flea market in Jaffa.
“I saw a saz hanging on a wall there. I just touched one of the strings and it did something to me. I just knew that I had to play the instrument.”
His eastward path continued apace, and he learned to play oud.
“I lived in Ramat Gan, and there were all these Iraqi musicians and their ensembles, so I was exposed to the music. But it was when I started learning to play saz that things got really interesting for me.”
Dagmi had time on his hands during his army service, and he put his off-duty hours to good purpose by broadening his artistic base and studying Western classical composition.
While he may have gotten some formal training on the writing side of things, his instrumental skills were largely self-earned.
“I am an autodidact,” he declares. “I taught myself to play saz. When I was into rock, I learned lots of guitar solos by heart, and I did the same with saz. I copied solos from Eastern music.”
That was before the likes of now internationally renowned oud player and violinist Yair Dalal, who will also star in this year’s Oud Festival, rediscovered their Iraqi or other Eastern roots and made the transition from rock and pop to the ethnic sector.
“Anyway, there were really no teachers around back then,” Dagmi notes. “I’d go to Jaffa and buy cassettes with Turkish music – there were only cassettes back then. Today it’s so easy to access any kind of music you want, but in those days it was a desert.”
Plying his own path, asserts Dagmi, offered significant benefits.
“I think I played saz in a more original way back then. Today, I am more influenced by other people. I think that maybe I lost something, some originality, along the way.”
He must have made good progress as an up-and-coming 20-something-year-old, because he eventually came to the attention of Bar, who was looking to add an Eastern stringed instrument to the Habrera Hativit lineup.
That, notes Dagmi happily, brought him to the attention to one of his boyhood idols.
“I played on [1993 album] Black Beats and someone said, ‘Now Jimmy Page will hear what you can do.’ Apparently, Page heard the band a few years beforehand and he asked that the record company send him every new album we did. That was a kind of closure for me.”
The Page factor or, at least, Dagmi’s rock upbringing, shines through on Eliyahu, as do all the cultural influences that have colored his life and artistic growth. The 12-track CD is a fine offering shot through with high energy, delicate Eastern coloring, plaintive passages and more than a modicum of let-it-all-hang-out rock-like seasoning.
“Ktoret,” for example, has a palpable groove to it, underscored by Yehuda Ashash’s subtle yet highly tangible bass guitar lines. There is also something of a bluesy feel to the work. “Yashev Ruho” is similarly driven, while “Samai” is mellifluous joy for the ears.
Betwixt the percussion contributions of the likes of Asaf Zamir and Dagmi’s son David Hananel, it is telling that Ofer Benita plays a drum set on many of the tracks.
Dagmi also dips into Persian climes on “Hallelujah,” with substantial support from ney – Persian flute – player Itamar Shachar. There is even the odd guitar distortion departure along the way.
Dagmi took his East-West endeavor a physical step further some years ago by tailoring his trusty guitar to his eclectic ethos.
“Around 15 years ago I added frets to my guitar, which enables me to play the quarter- tones you get in Eastern music,” he explains. “I sort of proselytized it,” he adds with a laugh. “That’s what I do on the CD. I play what is really Eastern guitar.”
And he does that to great effect, which no doubt will also be the case at the Oud Festival show on the 17th.
The Jerusalem International Oud Festival runs until November 21. For tickets and more information: (02) 624-5206 ext. 4 and *6226, tickets.bimot.co.il/ and www.facebook.com/conhouseisrael?fref=ts