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The Melody of
Dreams: An Evening with Noa By Maxine Dovere
In an intimate setting in the Loft at the Tribeca Grill in New York
City, Achinoam Nini, the singer known as Noa, and performance
partner Gil Dor, presented the first in a series of concerts
designed to celebrate Israel’s 60th anniversary.
A concert sung by NOA is an experience in vocal diversity. Singing
in English and Hebrew, Noa is the consummate performer. Her melodies
exhibit wide stylistic diversity, with clear influences from the
Yemenite tradition, references to the melodies of prayer, and
melodies influenced by Hebrew and American folk music, classic
musical forms and contemporary Israeli strains. This exciting, yet
gracious performer has been composing, creating both music and
lyrics, since childhood. “Music,’ she says “is a most
important part of my identity.” Her lyrics are written largely in
English: as the basis for her Hebrew songs, she often turns to
poetry, generally by Israeli woman poets, as well as the lyrical
creations of musical partner Gil Dor.
There is elegance in Noa’s performance rarely seen on any stage.
She carries her audience with grace and warmth, inviting all to soar
with her in “Now I Know,” to “fly high in the sky.’
Enthusiastically self-accompanied on a set of waist-high Conga drums,
this spirited vocal-instrumental experience shows strong traditional
roots. “Shalom, Shalom,” composed by the artist, reflects her
search for peace and communication. The prayerful lyric and melody
are audibly influenced by Paul Simon, “my number one hero… I am
very inspired by him,” she says, adding that he, together with
Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen, “are my trilogy.
In one melody, Noa creates a “percussion of the body” accenting
her songs with drum- like sound originating within her own chest.
Asked about the concept of the body as a percussion instrument,
accompanist Gil Dor notes that such pounding of the chest is
characteristic of mourning rituals but rarely heard in singing.
“Music has been a wonderful way to reconcile” the many facets of
her identity, says Noa. As a Yemenite Israeli child growing up in
New York, a secular child in a religious school, Noa has had to
contend with many conflicts within herself. Pursuing her musical
studies, she enrolled in the multi-dimensional Rimon School of Music,
where co-founder Gil Dor says the philosophy is “an over-all view
that music is one, and you can choose your direction.” There, in
1989, she met guitarist Dor, a deeply serious musician. He has been
her teacher, colleague, composing partner and friend for almost two
decades. He has been called a “technically perfect player” whose
arrangements for Noa are “breathtaking.
Dor says the crystallization of musical creation demands “an
internal compass that must dictate, must choose the direction
without any other force taking you ….If it doesn’t hit you in
the heart and you don’t feel its resonance, then you don’t do it!”
As her professional contribution to the 60th Anniversary
celebrations, Noa is planning a “multi-media, Lori Anderson
inspired show based on Yemenite music, complete with many originals
songs - a “dream” she plans to actualize in 2008.
“How can you give compliments to someone who deserves all of them?”
asks Yoram Morad, Cultural Attaché at the Israeli Consulate in New
York. “She keeps amazing me over and over again… (it’s) like
witnessing a miracle.” He expressed strong support for producer
Michael Dorf’s “60 @ 60” concert plans, noting that “there
are great things going on with Israeli culture.” The Consul placed
special emphasis on Israeli music, calling it the “jewel” of
Israeli culture. Dorf, he notes, will enable “people here to have
the benefit of enjoying the wonderful music of Israel” throughout
the 60th anniversary celebration.
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An
Intimate concert with Achinoam Nini (NY) Special event, March 19th
