Israeli musician plays world music beat

A marimba and percussionist artists will perform in Mumbai for the first time this week. Ziv Eitan, will do a charity performance at the remand home in Umerkhadi on Tuesday, to celebrate the 61st anniversary of the state of Israel.

The next day he will perform from his first album Journey into Rhythm at the NCPA Tata Theatre, alongside a cellist and second percussionist.

At the age of 12, the 39-year-old started learning the marimba, an African percussionist instrument.

Since then, he has studied every musical genre —classical to romantic to contemporary and created his own unique sound fusing that with electronic and world music. One of his songs, The Girl From Calcutta, has a Hindi vocalist.

“My music is a combination of classical, electronic and world music,” he said. “I am proud to represent Israel. I want my music to communicate to people that we are all equal. It can speak to the hearts of people on the streets as much as to intellectuals.”

The arts in Israel are multi-coloured — you will find everything from Arabic pop to Bollywood to classical to French in just one small stretch of Tel Aviv — a dense and more traditional crowded area of small shops in Israeli city.
“Mumbai reminds me of the south of Tel Aviv,” he added, sipping a coffee at a south Mumbai hotel.

“I like to see everything and enrich myself. It is important to me as an artist,” Eitan said. He would be spending Tuesday touring Mumbai, which would include visiting Dhobi Ghats, and possibly, Nariman House.

Wednesday’s performance will be a mix of baroque, Arabic, classical, electronic and acid jazz written by a range of top composers from Japan to America.

Isaac Sagiv, cultural attaché at the Consulate General of Israel in Mumbai, which organised the performance with the Indian Council for Cultural Relations, said: “We wanted to give a different flavour of Israel. His music is a mix of classical, rhythmic and contemporary and he can perform everything from Bach to dance music. Israel is a mix of cultures from over the world, which has an innovative open-minded culture and so he brings to India what Israel is all about.”