When the name of the singer, pianist and composer Gila Hasid is mentioned, it is in the context of a varied repertoire, ranging from jazz to ladino songs and between songs that stem from her Greek roots, as the daughter of parents who immigrated from Thessaloniki, and a touch of classical music. Now she is expanding the canvas with a mini-album of Leah Goldberg’s songs, which she recently released with her own compositions, alongside her moving performance of the classic Miki Gabrielov song for the song “Arab Mol HaGalad”.
What happened to Leah Goldberg?
“It’s not sudden, but something for which I owe thanks to…Corona. When there were no performances, I could devote myself more to contemporary composition and also rediscover songs I composed many years ago, such as ‘Dimmy’, the opening song of the mini-album, with which I was accepted to the academy to music 35 years ago.”
Do you have an explanation for why you keep coming back to her songs?
“It may be because they are timeless, songs about loneliness and love, which are always returned to, and with Oded Asner’s musical production, they take on a classic color.”
Oded Asner, who has a connection with “Nina”, an album you released 16 years ago in which you embraced your parents’ Greek roots.
“Indeed, if at that time his father, Uzi Asner, with whom I have been in contact since the army and with whom I worked a lot, was the music producer, over time I moved to Oded, that there is something in his musical work beyond his age, also as a composer with grace. I can say with humor that through my work with his father , Oded grew up on me. Despite the age gap, we found that we were broadcasting on the same wave.”
That’s quite the audacity to renew “Arab Mol Gilead”.
“Indeed, the song is identified with Eric Einstein, and if I dared, it’s because I feel he is in my soul. He was God to me and I regret that I never met him. I have the feeling that by renewing the song I bring my own touch.”
As mentioned, this is a mini-album, in the arrangements of young Asner, you get a multitude of influences, from classical music to a touch of Brazilian bossa nova. While listening to it, one even discovers echoes from Igor Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring”. “Actually, it’s Oded’s idea during our search for motifs from classical music,” she notes.
If most of the audience meets Hasid, 63, when behind the piano she fulfills in her smiling way the role of musical director, she says that it seems that the time has come to give more expression to the singer in her. “I try to diversify what I do,” comments Hasid. “It is possible that in everything I apply Leah Goldberg’s motto – otherwise I will have a day on my feet.”
Todo Boom?
“It’s over, isn’t it? I see ‘The Next Star,’ I admit. There’s a lot of talent there. Music? – I don’t know.”