Revitalizing the Roots: An interview with Itamar Borochov

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In honor of David Ribacoff, a distinguished member of The American Sephardi Federation’s Board of Directors

8 February 2016

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Sephardi Ideas Monthly is a continuing series of essays from the rich, multi-dimensional world of Sephardi thought that is delivered to your inbox on the second Monday of every month.

For the past nine months, Sephardi Ideas Monthly has been focusing on piyyut ─ Sephardi liturgical poetry and (soul) music ─ from explorations of Andalusian Spain’s “Golden Age” to interviews with leading figures in Israel’s piyyut revival.

For our February issue, Sephardi Ideas Monthly spoke with Itamar Borochov, a critically-acclaimed, Israeli-born, and Brooklyn-based jazz trumpeter who, thanks in large part to the piyyut revival, has added piyyutim to his musical repertoire. For instance, in 2010 Borochov took part in the New Jerusalem Orchestra’s jazz-inflected interpretations of Andalusian piyyutim, “Eternal Love” (featured in last month’s issue of Sephardi Ideas Monthly). And last year, he immersed himself in the world of Bukhari piyyutim for, “Borochov Dynasty” (A Fantasy of Bukharian Sacred Music), a musical project that allowed Borochov to explore his family’s heritage and to collaborate with his famous, multi-instrumentalist father, Israel Borochov, and oud and bass-playing brother, Avri. Borochov’s next jazz disk will feature an interpretation of the traditional Tunisian version of the piyyut, “Adon Olam”.

Borochov graciously agreed to perform at the ASF’s “Daniel Pearl Concert” in 2014 and, in 2015, played at the opening of “Sephardic Journeys: An Evening of Exploration,” celebrating the launch of the eponymous exhibit in The David Berg Rare Book Room. (28 May 2015, The Center or Jewish History, Photo courtesy of Irina Tsukerman)

Itamar Borochov

Borochov’s connection to piyyut ─ an expression of musical curiosity and spiritual affinities, but not religious in any conventional sense ─ reflects the degree to which piyyutim have become an integral part of the Israeli cultural landscape, providing artists of various stripes with material, inspiration, and a sense of rootedness.

Sephardi Ideas Monthly: You grew up in a very musical house. What kinds of music were you exposed to as a young man?

Borochov: The records I remember that were playing on the turntable were Edith Piaf, Weather Report, Nusrat Fatah Ali Khan – the great Qawwali musician from Pakistan – in my early childhood this is what I remember. And Prince. My Dad loved Prince, and we all loved Prince.

SIM: Right, a lot of Prince is, at bottom, blues.

Borochov: I knew that I liked blues. A few years later I started listening to BB King and John Lee Hooker when I started playing guitar. We never listened to radio in my house. We used to go to the synagogue, but that’s very subconscious. I didn’t go every Shabbat, so it was very special.

SIM: Was piyyut part of the soundscape of your youth?

Borochov: No.

SIM: When did you first begin hearing piyyutim?

Borochov: Good question. I wasn’t aware of the word piyyut until I was in my early twenties, when people started using the word. I knew them as the songs from the synagogue.

Itamar Borochov (Photo courtesy of Itamar Borochov)

SIM: You started hearing the term when the piyyut revival began around 10-15 years ago?

Borochov: I think so. My Dad did a show called “East-West Ensemble: Kabbala Music - the Hidden Spirituals,” that was part of the Israel Festival when I was around 19. That was before it was even popular. It was sort of a precursor to the piyyut movement. My father didn’t even use the term. I don’t know what he called it. Yair Harel told me it had a big impact on him. I loved it.

I only started getting actively involved much later when I was a professional musician. There were a few things here and there, but I really got involved when Omer Avital got in touch with me and we played with Rabbi Haim Louk and an ensemble, which led to the creation of the New Jerusalem Orchestra. I had already become interested and I knew a lot of the songs. I was actively going to a Sephardi synagogue in Jaffa when I was in my 20’s. There’s a small Yemenite synagogue. It was hard core. It was like going to outer space. And then “Ahavat Olamim” (“Eternal Love”) happened.

This is what I feel about piyyut: I felt it was my birthright. I can’t pinpoint the first time I heard a maqam [SIM: the Eastern system of musical scales upon which many piyyutim are based] and identified it as such. But I knew it existed, and the minute I played it, it felt completely natural… My Dad asked me if I can play quarter-tones on my trumpet and I said let’s find out… Now I do it all the time.

SIM: What was the experience like for you playing with R’ Louk?

Borochov: It’s a deep experience to be in the presence of, and to play with, a true great master, and that is what he is. The first time, before the New Jerusalem Orchestra, that’s when I fell in love with Andalusian music. That’s something I knew but had never studied.

We had a show in Israel – I was between a few tours. The whole month before playing with R’ Louk I brainwashed myself. I listened to R’ Louk on repeat while I was sleeping. So every night I was listening all night. During the first rehearsal everyone was blown away that I knew the music and the scales. I played in the right maqam. Everyone wanted to know how I knew. I feel completely in love with the music. Emotionally for me it had everything for me. I could hear everything I was looking for in that music. It’s very sophisticated and very earthy. I was so focused on it for that show that it became my whole world for that time. Playing with R’ Louk was playing with a great master.

SIM: Do you listen to piyyutim today?

Borochov: It changes for me all the time… It depends. I have a CD of R’ Louk – Qasidot. I used to listen to it.

In making “Borochov Dynasty” (A Fantasy of Bukharian Sacred Music) I listened to a lot of piyyutim. It’s an incredible world. A vast, strange world. Also kind of outer-spacey. It’s very different from what we know and grasp. Some of it sounds Chinese. Some sounds Persian. Some sounds Arab.

Immersing myself in piyyut was primarily a musical experience. It also felt very natural, but in a different way. I’ll give you an example. We sing with the Bukhari accent. Now, I don’t have a Bukhari accent. But I’ve heard Bukhari accents before. And I sing with a very good Bukharian accent. When you do something that’s your own – spiritually or genetically – then it just happens. You have stories from converts – I had never been to Israel, etc., but this is me. That was my feeling with all of these things: playing maqam on the trumpet, singing Bukhari music. I love western classical music, I’ve been listening all my life, but I don’t feel like it’s me. It should have taken me five years to master maqam, but it took me five months.

SIM: You’re almost finished recording your 2nd disk; are there any piyyutim on the disk?

Borochov: I have “Adon Olam” in a Tunisian melody. And “Mi Yitneni Of” (“Wanderer Song”) – an old Bukhari melody that became an Israeli folk song.

SIM: How does all of this affect you as a jazz musician?

Borochov: It does greatly. As time goes by, I don’t identify so much with divisions, I just play what I play. I have great respect and admiration and love for the traditional – traditional culture and music. I always look for the roots. That’s true of everything that I do. I love playing trad-jazz gigs. I connected to it in a very similar way that I connected to the maqam, Andalusian music. I had listened to Pops, Sidney Bichet, New Orleans music, Harlem stride school. I love that and have been listening to it forever. I went to hear in Williamsburg Jessie Carolina and the Hot Mess, with a great banjo player, Blind Boy Paxton, and I sat in. We played Sweet Georgia Brown and I sounded great. The language was in me, in a way more than Bebop. I had to study Bebop. Playing trad-jazz was a breeze, I had it naturally. I feel comfortable hanging at the roots, but me, myself, Itamar, is not a traditional guy. I don’t play classical anything – not classical, Arab, and not a real New Orleans musician. At the end of the day I have my own world, and it’s hard to categorize.

American Sephardi Federation

Sephardi Ideas Monthly

Flory's Flame: The Life and Music of Balkan Sephardic Composer Flory Jagoda

February 16th at 7PM
at The Center for Jewish History
15 West 16th Street, New York, NY

Join The American Jewish Historical Society and American Sephardi Federation for a viewing of Flory’s Flame, a compelling one-hour documentary about the life and music of renowned 90-year old Sephardic composer and performer Flory Jagoda. The documentary interlaces Flory’s personal narrative with selections from her moving September 2013 Celebration Concert at the US Library of Congress.

Post-screening conversation with Flory Jagoda!

Purchase tickets here
Cost: ($7 AJHS/ASF Members; $10 General Admission)

The Spanish Inquisition to the Present: A Search for Jewish Roots

February 21st at 2PM
at The Center for Jewish History
15 West 16th Street, New York, NY

Join The Jewish Genealogical Society of New York and American Sephardi Federation to hear Genie Milgrom discuss her unparalleled work of genealogy, documenting an unbroken maternal lineage back to 1480 in Pre-Inquisition Spain and Portugal. Born in Havana, Cuba, into a Roman Catholic family of Spanish Ancestry, Genie was always interested in her family genealogy, but when she learned of the possibility of having converso Jewish roots, her search for the truth about her family’s past took on a deeper significance.

Come at 12:30PM and bring your own lunch for our Lunch & Learn. We will be meeting in the Kovno Room. Genie Milgrom will be joining us early to answer questions on Spanish & Portuguese citizenship laws and Jewish genealogy.

Cost: $5 at the door

Shirat Baqashot ve-Hazzanut

February 22nd at 7:30PM
at The Center for Jewish History
15 West 16th Street, New York, NY

According to the nusach of the Moroccan Jews
Presented by the hazzan and payytan, Rabbi Avraham Amar

The American Sephardi Federation is pleased to announce a new class exploring the Baqashot (‘Songs of Seeking’ in Edwin Seroussi’s wonderful translation), a musical tradition whose roots are in Andalusian Spain. R’Amar, a student of R’David Buzaglo, considered the greatest Hebrew liturgical poet of the 20th century, will guide students through the theory and practice of the Baqashot:

1). Their purpose, when and how they are used in the liturgy--how they are attached to weekly parshiyot (Shabbat Torah readings)
2). The musical maqamim (Arabic melodic mode) used in the singing of the Baqashot
3). The great composers of this traditional art form

Students will be instructed in the chanting of each of the baqashot according to the weekly parshiyot and maqam.

Please click here to RSVP for the introductory session

Come visit ASF’s Leon Levy Gallery at The Center for Jewish History (15 West 16th Street) to view our new exhibition: “Baghdadis & The Bene Israel in Bollywood & Beyond: Indian Jews in the Movies”
on display now through March 2016

Click here for viewing hours and additional information

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