Israeli rhythm dynamos Balkan Beat Box will be making their Toronto debut at the upcoming Ashkenaz Festival.

The band will appear at Harbourfront Centre’s Sirius Stage on Sunday, September 5.

Renowned for their high-energy electric live shows, Balkan Beat Box serves up a funky fusion of reggae, rock and electronic dance music. There are distinct Mediterranean influences in their beats and the band prides itself on offering a “new breed of 21^st century music.”

Band members include drummer Tamir Muskat, vocalist Tomer Yosef, Ori Kaplan on sax and Jeremiah Lockwood playing the guitar.

Audiences at festivals such as Paleo, Roskilde and Bonaroo have been dazzled by the groups pumped up live performances. Much anticipation awaits their night on the big stage at Ashkenaz Festival, the largest Jewish cultural event in Canada.

The Israeli-born Moshav Band will be bringing their distinct genre of music to an upcoming festival in Montreal.

The group will appear in concert on September 2 at The Main: Montreal’s Jewish Music Festival which will showcase a broad spectrum of international Jewish music.

Featuring a captivating sound, the band fuses the melodic spiritual tunes of their main influence, the late famed musician/Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, with the alternative, grunge rock grooves of the hugely popular American band, Pearl Jam.

Original Moshav members grew up in Moshav Mevo Modi’im, a musical village in Israel founded by Carlebach. They first appeared in concert together at Jerusalem’s Mike’s Place in 1996 and have appeared at music festivals throughout the world over the years.

The Main runs from Aug. 31 to Sept. 2. The Moshav Band’s concert will take place at L’Astral.

She’s been the voice of Israeli Barbie and the Israeli Smurfette, sung in Israel from the age of 13, recorded albums and played countless shows. But after Gitit Shoval moved to Toronto seven years ago, she became a stay-at-home mom to her four kids and an assistant to her husband’s company, GRD International, which dubs cartoons worldwide.

Now she’s preparing to get back on the stage, this time with her family in tow. The Shoval family – husband on the piano and children Tutti, 19, and Shaqed, 14, singing and playing percussion, will be performing at York University’s Tribute Hall this week and then launching an American tour. Their show is titled From Gershwin to Dylan: The Genius of Jewish Song Writers. “The influence of the Jewish people on global music is unbelievable,” Shoval told the Canadian Jewish News. “we’re such a small nation… There’s so many hits.”

Shoval has decided that every note of her performance will go to a good cause. This week’s concert proceeds will be donated to the Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon, Israel. The show also includes performances from students at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, where Shoval’s daughter Tutti participated in a five-week program.

To buy tickets, click here or call 416-736-5888

The 15^th annual Israel Day Festival was held in Toronto’s Mel Lastman Square last Sunday. Performers included the Toronto Jewish Male Choir, singer Limore Ziskind and Roy’s Star Band. Sponsors for the event were Na’amat Canada and the Canadian Zionist Federation.

Israel Day Festivities. Photo Credit: Andy Levy

Juggler at Israel Day. Photo Credit: Andy Levy

Juggler at Israel Day 2. Photo Credit: Andy Levy

Rihanna performed a sold out show in Tel Aviv earlier this week. Being her first time visiting the country, she spent two days before the concert touring Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, where she held press conferences (one of which is below) and met some fans.

Concert attendants had to spend a day volunteering in Israel in order to get a ticket.

Check out the encore at the concert:

A colourful convergence of two world music masters – Israeli artist Yair Dalal and Toronto’s Jaffa Road – are teaming up on stage for a unique concert.

The musicians will perform on April 25 at Hugh’s Room located at 2261 Dundas Street West in Toronto for an eclectic and entertaining show.

Dalal, an Israeli of Iraqi background who plays the violin and sings, infuses his heritage into his creative compositions, weaving together Middle Eastern sounds with an assortment of world influences, ranging as far as India and the Balkans.

Nominated for the 2010 Juno world music album of the year, Jaffa Road’s success is anchored in a penchant for busting out multiple genres, singing in Hebrew, Spanish and English.

The band routinely electrifies audiences with everything from belly dance grooves to electronic rhythms.

For tickets, call Hugh’s Room at 416 531-6604.

To learn more about the artists, visit www.yairdalal.com or www.jaffaroad.com.  Here’s a sample of Jaffa Road’s music:

The team at Canada’s Israel would like to wish Israel a very happy 62nd birthday!

Here is a video of Harel Skaat, Israel’s nominee for the 2010 Eurovision song contest (to be held May 25-29 in Oslo, Norway).

Let’s show Skaat and Israel our support!

Some folks who’ve experienced celebrity look completely different in person to how they look on stage or on the covers of the albums, – but Idan Raichel is not one of them. A few days ago I had the opportunity of meeting him back stage at the UBC Chan Centre for the Performing Arts as he prepared for an 8pm performance, his first and only one in Vancouver. Raichel was chatty, friendly, and identical to his picture.

Raichel said he and his fellow musicians were incredibly jetlagged after arriving in Vancouver via Seattle. They were off to Boston on Friday and New York after that, stopping only briefly in Israel before heading to Europe. But he was completely unfazed by the travel schedule.

“You lose sense of time when you’re on tour, and it’s a great feeling, – not exhausting at all,” he confessed. “We’re so used to being tied to a schedule. Two years ago my sister left for a Brazilian island where she’s opened a bar on the beach. She has no concept of time anymore and she called us to say she’s not coming back.”

Luckily for Israel, Raichel has every intention of going home eventually, when his tour ends. He’s thinking about creating a DVD of his music in the coming months, set in the shadow of the King David Tower in Jerusalem. “I’d like to play there and in-between the songs, to talk to people and discuss the music,” he muses. “I’m trying to find an interesting concept.”

His performance on Thursday night entertained a packed audience where Hebrew was an oft-heard language – both on stage and among the audience. It was the opening night of the 2010 Chutzpah Festival and though many spectators were Jewish, Raichel was quick to point out that his is not a Jewish project.

“Sure, we have Jewish influences, for example we had a cantor, Yehia Tsubara, join us for a few songs. But before anything else, I see myself as an Israeli artist. Not everyone in the group is Israeli, but it’s definitely an Israeli project.”

Raichel was joined on stage by five of the many musicians who form part of the Idan Raichel Project. There are some 75 musicians who have participated in the project, some as young as 16 and others in their 80s. Each song changes shape, style and sound, incorporating different languages and the rhythms of the countries represented by the musicians. Raichel composes and arranges many of the tracks, plays the keyboard and collaborates with the other vocalists and musicians.

“I really suck at playing the piano,” he confessed. “I’m not a pianist, just a piano player.” But you wouldn’t have known it to listen to his music, though, nor to watch him perform. Raichel hunched over the piano, focusing intensely and deliberately on the sounds emanating from it. He was so absorbed in his music that when it came time for intermission, he was quite willing to skip it.

The audience applauded loudly and when he asked if anyone wanted an intermission, everyone expressed a preference to keep listening to his music. The Chan Centre staff weren’t about to forego their opportunity to make a few bucks at the concession, though. They gave Raichel another five minutes for a last song and then insisted the group take a break.

The Idan Raichel Project is a band whose music consistently tingles my skin and makes me yearn to get back to Israel. So I was thrilled to learn that Raichel and his team will be traveling to Vancouver March 4 to perform for the opening night of the Chutzpah Festival at the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver.

Raichel, 32, has sold some 300,000 records since he launched his first album eight years ago. He started out playing backup for other Israeli pop singers but after a while determined he would follow his own musical ideals, which encompass a variety of musical styles.

His recordings for the Idan Raichel project in 2002 include the sounds of 70 different musicians – Ethiopian Jews, Arabs, traditional Yemenite vocalists, a Suriname percussionist and a South African singer among them. Raichel composed and arranged many of the tracks. He plays the keyboard and collaborated with the other vocalists and musicians.

There are love songs in Hebrew, songs in Amharic and traditional sounding tunes set to modern music. But each track on the album feels distinctly different, which makes for great listening. You don’t get the sense of sameness and repetition that haunts many other artists.

My favourite of his songs is Mi’ma’amakim, (“From the Depths”) which was the title track of his second album, launched in 2005. This album also has songs in Arabic, Zulu, Hindi and Yemenite Hebrew. With this rich mixture of voices and dialects, it’s easy to tell that Raichel appreciates the beauty and musicality of language.

High on my to-do list is to get my hands on a copy of Within My Walls, his third studio album launched in 2008. I’ll be applauding Raichel from the audience March 4 and blogging about his music the next day.

Do you remember the funny flick from the early 90’s entitled Cool Runnings?

Starring the late Canadian iconic actor John Candy, the film loosely portrayed the real-life comedic tale of Jamaica’s national bobsled team and their odyssey at the 1988 Calgary Olympics.

Well, a new version of this funny and somewhat fascinating story is playing itself out and this time, all of the cool runnings are being done on behalf of Israel.

That’s right, Israel has its own national bobsled team and a key member of the group, who happens to be a Winnipegger, will be in Vancouver as part of the run-up to the 2010 Winter Games.

David Greaves, the team’s loan Canuck, is slated to appear at the Vancouver chapter of Magen David Adom Canada to be a keynote speaker.

The pre-Olympics event will take place on February 11 and attendees will include the Israeli Olympic team, as well as several dignitaries.

The so-called Frozen Chosen won’t be competing at this year’s Olympics, but they will share their special story, which dates back to 2002 when the Israeli Bobsled Federation officially formed.

Since then, the athletes, who proudly race in a bobsled sporting Israel’s colours, have competed at two world championships, endured countless crashes, became Israeli citizens(none are originally from Israel) and have proudly shown their devotion both to Israel and this fast-paced sport.

Although they won’t be racing down the track in Whistler, they are surely cool runners for all of us to admire.