"Prime Minister's Award? When I was 12 I could not even dream of it"

When Amit Friedman was in third grade, he saw his cousin play the trumpet, and was drawn to the world of jazz.

Today, after winning the most important award given to composers in Israel, he observes his journey as a musician, recounts his surprising collaborations, and insists: "Everyone can connect to jazz."

Interview

Yotam Ziv

13/01/2022

Thursday, January 13, 2022, 12:00 p.m.

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At the age of 12, during the summer vacation, Amit Friedman attended a summer camp for young musicians (Matan). The experiences he gained there changed his life. "I grew up in Ashdod and until I arrived at the camp, I thought I was a wonderful player. But after hearing saxophonists from all over the country, I realized I was not in the right direction at all and this discovery made me come to the Thelma Yellin School to get better and become a musician. It is also the place that leads me in everything related to music education, which I am very involved in. It's sad to me that the gaps I felt between the center and the periphery still exist today, in Israel of 2020. "

Quite a few years have passed since then. Prime Minister for Composers - Considered the most important award in Israel for composers, of all musical fields.

The judging panel of jazz musicians - musicians Menachem Wiesenberg, Amikam Kimelman and Chen Levy - noted in the award that "Amit Friedman's work is well rooted in the classical tradition of jazz on the one hand and brings a contemporary statement that combines Israeli and Mediterranean elements, and sometimes influences from music. The Renaissance period, especially in its harmonic aspects.On the other hand, Amit is educated to combine complex rhythms and intelligent and sophisticated development of the melodic lines in his work into a challenging and imaginative statement that appeals to both intellect and emotion. His players. "

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He is considered one of the most celebrated Israeli musicians in the world.

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Accessible and pleasant music, but also full of depth and complexity.

Friedman (Photo: Yossi Zucker)

"It's a great compliment and a great honor to win an award that has been a recognition for me of my musical endeavors over the years," says Friedman.

"I remembered the initial experience I had when I discovered music. It's nice to think of a 12-year-old colleague who discovers a new world and with a lot of support from home but with very little background and understanding and thanks to passion and a lot of hard work, manages to reach that respectable status. I even dared to dream about it. "

"I never had to leave"

In an interview ahead of receiving the important award, Friedman defines himself as self-taught and as someone who has paved his own jazz path. Maybe that's why his music is so accessible and pleasant, but also full of depth and complexity. Friedman released his debut album "Sunrise" in 2012 - one of the best Israeli jazz albums of the last decade - after which he released two more equally great albums. The Corona crisis has interrupted his appearances abroad, but in the last two years he has often performed all over the country.

"When I was in third grade, I saw my cousin, a few years older than me, playing the trumpet and I was amazed. That week I went with my mother to the Ashdod Conservatory and asked to play the trumpet. I was told I was too young and should play the flute for two years. "And I said I would be back in two years. Then came the compromise: if I could make a sound on the saxophone - I could start with it. I succeeded and since then I have been with him. Every now and then I wonder what would have happened if they had allowed me to learn trumpet.

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The children are dreaming

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Unlike other jazz musicians of his generation, Friedman has established his life in Israel and invests a significant portion of his time in making jazz accessible to young people.

“I never had to leave,” he says, “I thought I would do the track most musicians do and study abroad, but the truth is that at no point did I feel the move I wanted to make.

"Jazz is freedom, daring, and especially a style that makes me feel at home."

"His melodies are full of love and hope for humanity."

Friedman (Photo: Alon Garini)

For the past 14 years, Friedman, together with Lior Levin, his partner and musician herself, has been leading a jazz series and world music at "The Eighth Star" in Herzliya.

In his adulthood, he returned to Thelma Yellin as a teacher, also taught in Herzliya and today is a music major at Tel Mond and Kadima-Zoran.

"I believe everyone can connect to jazz, it's just a matter of proper exposure," he says.

"For example, I had a student whose whole musical world was 'The Weiss', 'The Next Star' and the rest of the reality shows. After a short time in the music department she has already done a recital in jazz and today it's totally part of her playlist. "Absolutely this thing called jazz, mainly because of lack of knowledge, and after they become acquainted with it - they become consumers of culture with incredible openness."

As a composer and performer, Friedman - whose roots are deeply rooted in jazz as noted by members of the judging panel - does not commit himself to a specific genre and continues to expand and collaborate with musicians from all fields. For example, on his second album, he collaborated with singer Ravid Kahlani (Yaman Blues) who sang and wrote lyrics to Frieden's melody, in a song selected as one of the 88FM radio station's songs of the year.

Even today, years after the album was released, Kahlani remembers well the joint work. "Amit is an excellent musician who lives music as a whole, and he is one of the most pleasant and humble people I have ever met and it goes through his music clearly," says Kahlani. According to him, working with a colleague was a real pleasure, and the song itself is one of his favorite songs at home. "I am very happy with all my heart for the award he received, because his melodies are full of love and hope for humanity," the singer added.

Also on his latest and most personal album, "Unconditional Love" which came out at the height of the corona waves, Friedman embedded two songs with lyrics. One of them, performed by singer Doron Talmore, was chosen as the song of the year in the online music magazine "Columbus".

Friedman has another fascinating collaboration with musician Tamar Eisenman. The two met in the "Night Band" band that appeared on Lior Schlein's TV show from 2009-2006. "During one of the performances with the songs from 'Sunrise,' Tamar Eisenman, who was in the audience, approached me and told me that she had written a song that was very similar to the music I had written for the album's theme song," says Friedman. "We met after the next day's TV show on Lior Schlein's show. I played my version and she's hers at the same time, and it just fit perfectly. We made small changes and played it together. It's a song written twice, and as they say: the whole is bigger than all its parts."

"I heard Amit's Sunrise at the show and did not believe what I was hearing," Eisenman recalls. "The same chords, the same scale, a very similar melody, the same 'elephant' of a song I started working on and walked around with in my head for a few days. I remember I had a chill and was very excited. I did not understand how it could be? Friedman read my thoughts? We wrote the Same song? There were very similar elements and a few different ones, but I could not resist and right after the show I told Friedman that I think we wrote the same song! He laughed and got excited like me. He did not believe it was possible, but totally gave it a chance. For me, it's one The most special songs I have created with another artist and I am very proud of us for this adventure, "she says.

You often collaborate with musicians who are not identified with jazz and also sing quite a bit.

Where does this come from in your work?

"I get excited about music in general, not just jazz. I feel that limiting myself to one genre means not giving expression to other sides. Sometimes I write a melody and it's immediately clear to me that it's a song, 'and then depending on its style I fantasize who the singer I was was. I want him to sing it. Doron Talmore, Tamar Eisenman, Ravid Kahlani and Joca Perpignan are such amazing artists that the collaboration with them is just refreshing and successful than what I would create on my own. They bring sound, personality and sometimes words, and this encounter always excites me. "Like a miracle. As for me, I miss singing, especially materials I have written and have not yet been published yet. I feel it is an integral part of who I am and my work. It is important for me to bring them out no less than my jazz melodies."

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