Perhaps it is important to say already about the beginning – it did not start with the music. I was not captivated by Shoshana Demari’s deep voice, the magical string arrangements, the fascinating melodies or the lyrics, each of which is pure gold. No, it happened later. At the time, all this beauty passed me by and somehow never penetrated. It started long before, from my own preoccupation with myself, about my pains, about the misses, about being a woman, about growing far, about defending and fighting. During this period, it happened that one Saturday morning I went to see the movie about Shoshana Demari “Malka Shoshana”.
The film about her revealed a character I never knew. An extremely powerful woman, brave on a level that even while writing these lines I remember and admire, a woman in great pain, and most importantly – a woman who knows. She knows who she is, she recognizes her gift and she is brave enough to bear this knowledge, and fulfill herself at any cost. It touched me on so many levels that I could not remain indifferent.
When I returned home, I began to dive into her life: I saw countless interviews with her, read the texts she chose to sing, listened to podcasts, watched music videos, and suddenly I really saw her. Suddenly I was able to listen beyond the everyday, rude, earthy H and E. Suddenly in the gentle curves of her voice I heard a story, in the drama that so characterized her I felt pain, and in the excessive confidence she displayed I recognized a broad faith, as well as an internal struggle with great demons. And at once I wanted too.
If I’m being honest, the decision to write arrangements of her songs, form a band, record an album, shoot music videos and release singles, all of this is actually a desperate attempt to be infected by her ability to create a different reality, by her great courage to know who she is and go all the way. I was amazed to discover (again) that when you are connected to your essence, “attentive to the heart” as they say, then the rest of the things become meaningless – there is no meaning to language, or style, to color or sex, and that’s how in the movie you enjoy watching Shoshana the Yemenite connect with Nina Simon and teach her to sing “Land of milk and honey”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGuXEWuZLlw
Later Shoshana even connected with Dizzy Gillespie and his orchestra, and that’s how I discovered that she was in fact connected by thick ties to the values of jazz – a deep pain in her voice transforms into beauty and the inner restlessness that accompanied her all her life, the constant search for freedom. Maybe in another reality she was actually a jazz player.
Shoshana’s image still hovers over me. She is like some endless teacher who whispers to me that the spring is always the same spring, you don’t have to choose just stay connected to it and allow it to flow, she reminds me to believe that I have something to give, she tells me – come on, I have already started to pave a way for you. Come, walk with me.
Queenta Ensemble’s album “Shoshana” is available on all streaming services. A show celebrating the album will be launched at the Red Sea Jazz Festival on 25.2 in Eilat, and will even come to the Snail Club in Tel Aviv on 8.3