Though freedom has always been a theme for Ravitz, her album could have used more time in the studio and a little less on the beach.
As part of the four-disc set "Avoda Ivrit," released four years ago to celebrate Israel's 60th anniversary, Yehudit Ravitz performed "Tzipor Midbar" ("Desert Bird" ), originally done by Ethnix. Why did she choose this song over all others?
We can only guess. Maybe she just likes Ethnix; perhaps the band's instrumental work on this track fascinated her. Yet we might hazard the theory that the main reason Ravitz selected "Desert Bird" is its winning line: "Like a bird, you are free, free to touch the sky."
Freedom, it seems, is what has interested Ravitz more than anything else in recent years. That's what she is looking for in the sixth decade of her life (she'll turn 56 later this year ).
Ravitz has not released an album of original work in the past five years yet has remained creatively active. A spirit of freedom and experimentation has pulsated in her work during this time; indeed, the free spirit underlying the music is uncharacteristic for performers of her age and stature.
Ravitz has frequently become involved in musical projects undertaken by younger musicians who don't belong to the mainstream.
In some cases, she has gone out on an artistic limb and taken real creative chances. This happened in her 2009 collaboration with Avi Belleli, and it was particularly evident in the number she sang in Arabic on the 2011 disc "Dudu Tassa and the Kuwaitis."
Ravitz's desire to be free also manifests itself outside the music scene. The most conspicuous demonstration is, of course, the disclosure of her relationship with another woman, but that is not the only sign. Ravitz, for instance, did not hesitate to openly declare that radio stations do not need to broadcast songs by veteran performers simply because of their stature.
"You can tell Arik Einstein, 'Thanks for what you were,' but it is wrong to save broadcast time for something mediocre that he has done in the present, on the basis of his past track record," she told journalist Shai Lahav. That statement caused a brief furor, but the sentiment was legitimate, and it was not directed personally against Einstein, but was rather a reflection on any performer who has become an icon. More than anything, Ravitz was speaking about herself. That spirit of freedom and experimentation, coupled with the fact that her latest CD, "Sand Storms," was produced by Berry Sakharof, has raised expectations about it. The public is hoping for a free bird, a beautiful bird. But these expectations are not fulfilled. Not a full-length work Speaking objectively, an album that features just seven songs and lasts just 25 minutes cannot be deemed a full-scale masterpiece.
The CD is complemented by another disc comprising seven tracks Ravitz has recorded in recent years, usually as a guest singer (these include songs from the Tassa album and the Ethnix number ). The second disc is released under the umbrella of "collected songs" but is basically a "bonus disc" and cannot really alter the fact that Ravitz's new creation is not really a full-length work. It is an EP, a mini-disc. Both in form and content, the new disc seems to lack anything truly impressive. It opens with a promising track, "I Came Empty Handed." This is a quiet, confessional song (that embodies the complexity of the fact that Ravitz has been influenced by Rona Kenan, who was herself clearly influenced by Ravitz ). Yet just as the listener concludes that he now knows exactly what to expect - a quiet, introverted disc following in the footsteps of its predecessor ("Small City," Ravitz's 2007 release, which was plagued, in my opinion, by bland arrangements and uninspired instrumental work ) - Ravitz veers steeply in another direction, heads for the beach, takes off her sandals and presents four consecutive songs that are anything but quiet and introverted. Two of these tunes are specifically set at seaside. "Go to the Sea" could serve as the official anthem of an Israeli hydrotherapy association ("Maybe you'll find relief for your soul / from the water and sun, wind and sand" ). "Waves, Waves," meanwhile, is an ode to summer songs sprinkled with disco-punk influences from the New York music scene. It's not exactly "Once in a Lifetime" by Talking Heads, nor is it really up to the standards of Alon Oleartchik. Yet you have to take your hat off to Ravitz for having dared to move in this unexpected direction, indulging rap-like techniques and a mechanical beat. Creative courage is a laudatory quality, but do these songs (including two other odes to freedom, "On the Beach" and "Sand Storms" ) really hold water in aesthetic terms? A preliminary evaluation says no. On first listening, they seem lacking, and Sakharof's production seems dull. Yet on further listening, the songs display some melodic quality, particularly "Go to the Sea" and "On the Beach." The truth is that I'm still equivocating about this disc. This is not aesthetic genius, but neither are these one-dimensional songs.
Once you credit them with the element of surprise and also acknowledge Ravitz's creative daring - and also the fact that she and her colleagues clearly enjoyed themselves in the recording studio - one can judge "Sand Storms" to be a small-scale, albeit successful disc. It could have been better, however. An example is "Waves, Waves." Sakharof and Ravitz could have pushed the disco-punk character to the limit; if you want to go wild, then you really ought to go wild.
The guitar work on this track is not as sharp and original as it might have been; here, Sakharof's production work simply seems lame. The disc's last track, "Milky Way," returns the album to the soft, melodic atmosphere of its first two songs. Yet the song does not live up to its potential. It could have been a terrific, five-minute concluding track, but it ends too abruptly, without showing its true beauty.
Developing a full album that lives up to its potential would have meant that Ravitz could not have spent so much time enjoying herself on the beach - she would have had to devote some of those hours to the recording studio. So what's more important: to release a terrific album while sacrificing some pleasures of life, or enjoying those pleasures to the full and releasing a pretty good disc?
"You can tell Arik Einstein, 'Thanks for what you were,' but it is wrong to save broadcast time for something mediocre that he has done in the present, on the basis of his past track record," she told journalist Shai Lahav. That statement caused a brief furor, but the sentiment was legitimate, and it was not directed personally against Einstein, but was rather a reflection on any performer who has become an icon. More than anything, Ravitz was speaking about herself. That spirit of freedom and experimentation, coupled with the fact that her latest CD, "Sand Storms," was produced by Berry Sakharof, has raised expectations about it. The public is hoping for a free bird, a beautiful bird. But these expectations are not fulfilled. Not a full-length work Speaking objectively, an album that features just seven songs and lasts just 25 minutes cannot be deemed a full-scale masterpiece.
The CD is complemented by another disc comprising seven tracks Ravitz has recorded in recent years, usually as a guest singer (these include songs from the Tassa album and the Ethnix number ). The second disc is released under the umbrella of "collected songs" but is basically a "bonus disc" and cannot really alter the fact that Ravitz's new creation is not really a full-length work. It is an EP, a mini-disc. Both in form and content, the new disc seems to lack anything truly impressive. It opens with a promising track, "I Came Empty Handed." This is a quiet, confessional song (that embodies the complexity of the fact that Ravitz has been influenced by Rona Kenan, who was herself clearly influenced by Ravitz ). Yet just as the listener concludes that he now knows exactly what to expect - a quiet, introverted disc following in the footsteps of its predecessor ("Small City," Ravitz's 2007 release, which was plagued, in my opinion, by bland arrangements and uninspired instrumental work ) - Ravitz veers steeply in another direction, heads for the beach, takes off her sandals and presents four consecutive songs that are anything but quiet and introverted. Two of these tunes are specifically set at seaside. "Go to the Sea" could serve as the official anthem of an Israeli hydrotherapy association ("Maybe you'll find relief for your soul / from the water and sun, wind and sand" ). "Waves, Waves," meanwhile, is an ode to summer songs sprinkled with disco-punk influences from the New York music scene. It's not exactly "Once in a Lifetime" by Talking Heads, nor is it really up to the standards of Alon Oleartchik. Yet you have to take your hat off to Ravitz for having dared to move in this unexpected direction, indulging rap-like techniques and a mechanical beat. Creative courage is a laudatory quality, but do these songs (including two other odes to freedom, "On the Beach" and "Sand Storms" ) really hold water in aesthetic terms? A preliminary evaluation says no. On first listening, they seem lacking, and Sakharof's production seems dull. Yet on further listening, the songs display some melodic quality, particularly "Go to the Sea" and "On the Beach." The truth is that I'm still equivocating about this disc. This is not aesthetic genius, but neither are these one-dimensional songs.
Once you credit them with the element of surprise and also acknowledge Ravitz's creative daring - and also the fact that she and her colleagues clearly enjoyed themselves in the recording studio - one can judge "Sand Storms" to be a small-scale, albeit successful disc. It could have been better, however. An example is "Waves, Waves." Sakharof and Ravitz could have pushed the disco-punk character to the limit; if you want to go wild, then you really ought to go wild.
The guitar work on this track is not as sharp and original as it might have been; here, Sakharof's production work simply seems lame. The disc's last track, "Milky Way," returns the album to the soft, melodic atmosphere of its first two songs. Yet the song does not live up to its potential. It could have been a terrific, five-minute concluding track, but it ends too abruptly, without showing its true beauty.
Developing a full album that lives up to its potential would have meant that Ravitz could not have spent so much time enjoying herself on the beach - she would have had to devote some of those hours to the recording studio. So what's more important: to release a terrific album while sacrificing some pleasures of life, or enjoying those pleasures to the full and releasing a pretty good disc?
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