Yemen Blues

Ravid Kahalani comes from a Yemenite Jewish family which boasted several strong-voiced cantors. He, too, began singing in the Synagogue. Today, he says “music is my religion”, because he has also been influenced by the songs of the Serbian Orthodox Church – and by his altogether secular studies as a countertenor.

Once Kahalani got to know Desert Blues and, almost simultaneously, Palestinian musical traditions, the foundations had been laid for Yemen Blues, the band he heads up alongside the contrabass virtuoso and oud player, Omer Avital. The eleven-piece band, featuring traditional Yemeni instruments and a grooving brass and percussion section, combines Arab sounds with variations of Jewish prayer melodies. Yemen Blues’ hectic tour schedule has turned them into cultural ambassadors of an imagined Yemeni homeland in which the Arab Spring is struggling to blossom.