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Gilad Atzmon

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Gilad Atzmon
גלעד עצמון
Gilad Atzmon
BornGilad Atzmon
(1963-06-09) June 9, 1963 (age 61)
Tel Aviv, Israel
NationalityIsraeli
EducationRubin Academy of Music
OccupationMusician
Known forMusician, political activism, antisemitism
Websitehttp://www.gilad.co.uk/

Gilad Atzmon (Template:Lang-he, born June 9, 1963, Israel) is a jazz musician and an anti-Zionist author who renounced his Judaism and has often been accused of anti-Semitism, including by fellow anti-Zionists.

Gilad Atzmon's Exile was BBC jazz album of the year in 2003, and has been called one of London's finest saxophonists. His albums often explore political themes and the music of the Middle East. He has also written two novels, which have been translated into over 20 languages.

His anti-Zionist political activism, including the founding and editing of the Palestine Think Tank website, have received world attention, even being quoted by the prime minister of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Atzmon calls himself a "proud self-hating Jew", and his comments about Jews have included claiming that the Protocols of the Elders of Zion is accurate, that Jews are trying to take over the world, that the Jews killed Jesus, that the burning of synagogues was "rational," and that "resentment towards... Jews is rational." Atzmon has also written "To regard Hitler as the wickedest man and the Third Reich as the embodiment of evilness is to let Israel off the hook," and supported Paul Eisen, leading to accusations of Holocaust denial. Atzmon responds by saying "Because Anti-Semite is an empty signifier, no one actually can be an Anti-Semite and this includes me of course."

Early life

He was born a secular Israeli Jew in Tel Aviv, and trained at the Rubin Academy of Music in Jerusalem. His service as a paramedic in the Israeli military during the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon made him realize "I was part of a colonial state, the result of plundering and ethnic cleansing." In 1994, Atzmon emigrated from Israel to London, where he studied philosophy, and has lived there since.

Music

Atzmon first became interested in British jazz he discovered in a British record shop in Jerusalem. He initially was inspired by the work of Ronnie Scott and Tubby Hayes and regarded London as “the Mecca of Jazz.”

Instruments and style

While Atzmon's main instrument is the alto saxophone, he also plays soprano, tenor and baritone saxophones and clarinet, sol, zurna and flute. Atzmon's jazz style has been described as bebop/hard bop, with forays into free jazz and swing, and seemingly inspired by John Coltrane and Miles Davis. Atzmon sometimes plays the alto and soprano sax simultaneously.

Atzmon's works have also explored the music of the Middle East, North Africa, and Eastern Europe.

Atzmon has fused his roles as a political artist and musician by creating the character Artie Fishel, on the album Artie Fishel & the Promised Band. With traditional klezmer music, dialogue, and jokes, the album features Atzmon on saxophone, John Turville on keys and electronics, Yaron Stavi on bass, and Asaf Sirkis on drums. Other artists include vocalist Guillermo Rozenthuler, Koby Israelite on vocals and accordion, and Ovidiu Fratila on violin.

Collaborations and groups

Atzmon is a member of the veteran punk rock band The Blockheads, having joined when Ian Dury was still performing with them. He has also recorded and performed with Shane McGowan, Robbie Williams, Sinéad O'Connor, Robert Wyatt and Paul McCartney.

Atzmon has collaborated, recorded and performed with musicians from all around the world, including the Palestinian singer, Reem Kelani, Tunisian singer and oud player Dhafer Youssef, violinist Marcel Mamaliga, accordion player Romano Viazzani, bassist Yaron Stavi, violinist and trumpet-violin player, Dumitru Ovidiu Fratila, and Guillermo Rozenthuler on vocals.

Atzmon founded the Orient House Ensemble band in London, and has toured all over the world with them. in the 1990s and is currently touring with them. The band includes Asaf Sirkis on Drums, Yaron Stavi on Bass and Frank Harrison on keyboard. It has produced five albums in eight years.

Atzmon is on the creative panel of the Global Music Foundation, a non-profit organization formed in December 2004 which runs residential educational and performance workshops and events in different countries around the world., and also offers personal workshops to students.

Reviews

Atzmon and his ensemble have received favorable reviews from Hi-Fi World, Financial Times, The Scotsman, The Guardian, Birmingham Post, The Sunday Times and The Independent. Reviews of his 2007 album “Refuge” included:

Manchester Evening News: The individuality of the music is extraordinary. No one is more willing to serve his music with raw political passion, and that curious cantor-like tone on clarinet is immediately arresting, like Artie Shaw writhing in his death throes.
EjazzNews: "For sheer improvisational fireworks, quirky humour and genre-defying invention, one will be hard-pressed to find a bandleader as unique as Gilad Atzmon." ("EjazzNews," September 2008)
BBC: "...the OHE is finding its voice in an increasingly subtle blend of East and West, that’s brutal and beautiful."

In November 2008 Chris Searle launched his book Forward Groove: Jazz and the Real World from Louis Armstrong to Gilad Atzmon at the London Jazz Festival. It "chronicles the development of jazz and its great exponents" alongside social developments and political protest movements. The reviewer noted that “the torch continues to be carried by contemporary musicians such as Israeli-born alto saxman Gilad Atzmon who dreams of a free and united Palestine.”

In February 2009 The Guardian music critic John Fordham reviewed Atzmon's newest album "In loving memory of America" which Atzmon describes as "a memory of America I had cherished in my mind for many years". It includes five standards and six originals "inspired by the sumptuous harmonies and impassioned sax-playing of (Charlie) Parker's late-40s recordings with classical strings.

Awards

Atzmon was the recipient of the HMV Top Dog Award at the Birmingham International Jazz Festival in 1996–1998. Gilad Atzmon's Exile was BBC jazz album of the year in 2003.

Novels

Atzmon is also a novelist whose books have been published in 22 languages. His first novel A Guide to the Perplexed, published in 2001, takes place in a near future where Israel has ceased to exist. Atzmon “excoriates the commercialization of the Holocaust" and “argues that the Holocaust is invoked as a kind of reflexive propaganda designed to shield the Zionist state from responsibility for any transgression against Palestinians.” His book has been described as a “vividly written satire, infused with a ribald sense of humor and an unsparing critique of the incendiary political cauldron of the Mideast.” The original Hebrew version was a candidate for Israel's 2003 Geffen Award for science fiction.

His second novel was My One and Only Love published in 2005. The book is a psychological and political commentary which explores the "personal conflict between being true to one’s heart and being loyal to 'The Jews.'" The book makes fun of leading Zionist historical figures, incidents and propaganda techniques. It "illustrates many ironies of Jewish existence, in particular the opportunistic use of Jewish suffering to promote the State of Israel."

Politics

Atzmon's harsh criticisms of Jewish Identity, Zionism, the state of Israel and its supporters, and of some other anti-Zionists, have led to allegations of antisemitism.

Publications in which Atzmon's political writings have appeared include CounterPunch, Al Jazeera, Uruknet, Middle East On Line, Dissident Voice, and Atlantic Free Press. Many of his published papers are available on his personal website.

He is a co-founder of and contributor to the web site Palestine Think Tank, established in May 2008. It publishes articles and offers videos promoting the belief that "Zionism is wrong. Zionism is racism. For Zionism to happen, it means the ethnic cleansing of the indigenous people of the land of Palestine." Other contributors include Khalid Amayreh and Carlos Latuff.

Atzmon denounces all secular forms of Jewish identity and supports the Palestinian Right of Return as well as the establishment of a single state in Israel/Palestine.

Allegations of antisemitism and responses

In an October 2005 JazzTimes column, David Adler quoted several of Atzmon's more incendiary remarks, and wrote, "The plight of the Palestinians is real, but Atzmon has crossed the line into anti-Jewish bigotry, and it’s disappointing to see how few in the jazz world have noticed."

In May 2005 the Board of Deputies of British Jews issued a dossier alleging widespread antisemitism at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London, including this quote from a talk delivered by Atzmon: "I'm not going to say whether it is right or not to burn down a synagogue, I can see that it is a rational act." Atzmon responded in a letter to The Observer that he did not "justify any form of violence against Jews, Jewish interests or any innocent people." He explained the context of his comment as "debating the question of rationality of anti-semitism. I claimed that since Israel presents itself as the 'state of the Jewish people', and bearing in mind the atrocities committed by the Jewish state against the Palestinians, any form of anti-Jewish activity may be seen as political retaliation. This does not make it right."

In June 2005 David Aaronovitch in a The Times opinion piece criticized the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) for inviting Atzmon to speak at their "Marxism 2005" annual event. He described Atzmon’s controversial statement accusing American Jews of trying to control the world "by proxy" and his support for Israel Shamir, whom Aaronovitch labeled a "Swedish fascist." He also questioned Atzmon's support for the Jewish director of Britain’s Deir Yassin Remembered, Paul Eisen, who questioned the existence of Nazi gas chambers and championed the perspective of Ernest Zundel, author of "The Hitler we Loved and Why". In defense of the invitation the SWP argued: “The SWP does not believe that Gilad Atzmon is a Holocaust denier or racist. However, while defending Gilad’s right to play and speak on public platforms, that in no way means we endorse all of Gilad’s views. We think that some of the formulations on his website might encourage his readers to feel that he is blurring the distinction between anti-Semitism and anti Zionism. In fact we have publicly challenged and argued against those of his ideas we disagree with.”

In a June 2005 email Roland Rance of Jews Against Zionism accused Atzmon of antisemitism, in part because allegedly he "spends much of his time denouncing anti-Zionist Jews who do not, like him, dissociate entirely from their Jewish background." Socialist Tony Greenstein said there was "no room in the Palestinian movement for anti-Semites"; Greenstein also called Atzmon a Holocause denier. Rance wrote in a leftist publication that Atzmon "by eliding the important distinction between Israel and Jews, is actually aiding the propaganda effort of the state he purports to oppose." Atzmon has responded by describing his critics as being "crypto Zionist" and as "searching for essentiality," so that for them the "Holocaust is the new Jewish religion."

In November 2006, academic David Hirsh, in an op-ed on The Guardian's Comment is Free website, listed some Atzmon quotes he characterized as antisemitic and accused Atzmon of "trying to lead an anti-semitic purge of the anti-Zionist movement and one that will ditch the formal anti-racism onto which some anti-Zionists still cling." Atzmon, who was allowed to respond on the website, wrote that Hirsh's accusations were unproven or taken out of context. He continued: "Hirsh needs anti-semitism. The reason is simple, while Zionism, being an oppressive and expansionist ideology, is impossible to defend, anti-semitism is a racial crime and therefore easy to attack."

The Swedish Committee Against Anti-Semitism (SCAA) has criticized the Swedish Social Democratic Party for inviting Atzmon to speak at a seminar on Iraq, the Palestinian territories and Afghanistan, which was held in Stockholm on March 18th, 2007. SCAA chairman Jesper Svartvik said Atzmon has worked to "legitimize the hatred of Jews" and urged the party to distance itself from the decision. However, Ulf Carmesund, international secretary of the Christian Social Democrats, rejected those allegations, saying: "Gilad Atzmon is himself a Jew, and when the Swedish Committee Against Anti-Semitism starts calling Jews anti-Semites there is a risk that they undermine the term anti-Semite and do the fight against anti-Semitism a disservice."

Atzmon has explained his writing thus: "I write about things that I find while looking into myself. This is indeed very dangerous for people who try to promote some collective dogmatic and ethnic tribalism."

Atzmon answers the various accusations against him at the “1001 Lies About Gilad Atzmon” page on his web site. There he responds to accusations of antisemitism by questioning the existence of antisemitism itself, writing: "Because Anti-Semite is an empty signifier, no one actually can be an Anti-Semite and this includes me of course. In short, you are either a racist which I am not or have an ideological disagreement with Zionism, which I have." In an article entitled "Think Tribal, Speak Universal" Atzmon wrote: "Surely, the most effective way to confront a thinker is through open intellectual debate. But somehow, this is precisely what those who oppose me refuse to do. Instead, they employ various tactics aimed at silencing me."

Oren Ben-Dor, who also grew up in Israel and now teaches at the School of Law, University of Southampton, UK, commented on a 2008 petition condemning what he labeled “the constant attempts to silence Gilad Atzmon.” In Ben-Dor's opinion: "All those who try to smother Gilad's endeavours, to distort his voice through vulgar associations and conventional clichés, and to utilize uncritically accepted conventional havens for thoughtlessness, do not really do justice to the intellectual game as far as Palestine is concerned."

Discography

  • "In loving memory of America" - Label: Enja - January 2009
  • Refuge - Label: Enja - October 2007
  • Artie Fishel and the Promised Band - Label: WMD - September 2006
  • MusiK - Label: Enja - October 2004
  • Exile - Label: Enja - March 2004
  • Nostalgico - Label: Enja - January 2001
  • Gilad Atzmon &The Orient House Ensemble - Label: Enja - 2000
  • Juizz Muzic- Label: FruitBeard - 1999
  • Take it or Leave It - Label: Face Jazz - 1999
  • Spiel- Both Sides - Label: MCI - 1995
  • Spiel Acid Jazz Band- Label: MCI - 1995
  • Spiel- Label: In Acoustic&H.M. Acoustica - 1993

Books

  • A guide to the perplexed, English translation by Philip Simpson. London : Serpent's Tail, 2002. ISBN 1852428260
  • My one and only love. London : Saqi, 2005. ISBN 0863565077 (pbk.). ISBN 9780863565076 (pbk.)

References

  1. ^ Gilchrist, Jim (22 February 2008). "'I thought music could heal the wounds of the past. I may have got that wrong'". The Scotsman. Retrieved 2009-03-21.
  2. ^ Adler, David (October 2005). "Assessing Atzmon" (PDF). JazzTimes. Retrieved 2009-03-21.
  3. ^ Kamm, Oliver (April 25, 2006). "Agreed, we shouldn't vote for the BNP – but its twin, Respect, is just as bad". The Times. Retrieved 2009-03-21.
  4. ^ Paul, Jonny (October 20, 2006). "London pizzeria hosts allegedly anti-Semitic musician. Gilad Atzmon called burning down synagogues 'a rational act;' Board of Deputies of British Jews lodges complaint http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-130273822.html". Jerusalem Post. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); External link in |title= (help)
  5. ^ Aaronovitch, David (June 28, 2005). "How did the far Left manage to slip into bed with the Jew-hating Right?". The Times. Retrieved 2009-03-21.
  6. ^ Social Democrats invited known anti-Semite to seminar, The Local, March 23, 2007.
  7. ^ Mary Rizzo, The Gag Artists, Who's Afraid of Gilad Atzmon?, CounterPunch, June 17, 2005
  8. ^ Gilad Atzmon, How jazz got hot again, The Telegraph, October 13, 2005.
  9. ^ "Manic beat preacher" interview with John Lewis, The Guardian, March 6, 2009.
  10. ^ Gibson, Martin (23 January 2009). "No choice but to speak out - Israeli musician 'a proud self-hating Jew'". Gisborne Herald. Retrieved 2009-03-21.
  11. ^ Paul, Jonny (November 12, 2008). "Israeli ambassador speaks at UK university despite pressure to cancel". Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 2009-03-21.
  12. Kamm, Oliver (March 9, 2009). "Jazz and the anti-Jew, redux". TimesOnline. Retrieved 2009-03-21.
  13. "Trying on a new religion for size". Reuters. April 4, 2007. Retrieved 2009-03-21.
  14. ^ "Gilad Atzmon - 1001 Lies". www.gilad.co.uk. Retrieved 2008-05-23.
  15. ^ "Gilad Atzmon". People. Global Music Foundation. Retrieved 2008-10-28.
  16. ^ St. Clair, Jeffery (July 19, 2003). "You Must Leave Home, Again: Gilad Atzmon's "A Guide to the Perplexed"". CounterPunch. Retrieved 2008-10-28.
  17. ^ "Profile - Gilad Atzmon". Rainlore's World of Music. March 21, 2003. Retrieved 2008-10-28.
  18. ^ Atzmon, Gilad (2007). "GILAD ATZMON - MUSICIAN, COMPOSER, PRODUCER, EDUCATOR, WRITER". Gilad Atzmon. Retrieved 2008-10-28.
  19. Shackleton, Kathryn (October 16, 2006). "Gilad Atzmon: Artie Fishel And The Promised Band". BBC. Retrieved 2008-10-28.
  20. Atzmon, Gilad (2007). "ARTIE FISHEL & THE PROMISED BAND". Gilad Atzmon. Retrieved 2008-10-28.
  21. Gilad Atzmon, Not Strictly Kosher, Jazzwise, January 17, 2007.
  22. Mixing it feature, BBC Radio, October 6, 2006.
  23. ^ Kathryn Shackleton, Gilad Atzmon & The Orient House Ensemble, Refuge, BBC, October 1, 2007.
  24. "About GMF". Global Music Foundation. Retrieved 2008-10-28.
  25. Atzmon, Gilad (2007). "MUSIC EDUCATION". Gilad Atzmon. Retrieved 2008-10-28.
  26. Gilad Atzmon web site.
  27. Alan Brownlee, Gilad Atzmon & The Orient House Ensemble - Refuge (Enja), Manchester Evening News, August 30, 2007.
  28. John Stevenson, Gilad Atzmon liberates the Americans: Orient House Ensemble, Ronnie Scott’s London, August 30th 2008, EJazzNews.com], September 01, 2008.
  29. Ian Soutar, Former head chronicles a passion for jazz and justice, Sheffield Telegraph, November 14, 2008.
  30. John Fordham, Gilad Atzmon: In Loving Memory of America, The Guardian, February 27, 2009.
  31. "Locus online;The Geffen Awards". Retrieved 2007-01-24.
  32. BBC book launch announcement, BBC, Jun 3, 2005/
  33. Karin Friedemann, Review of Gilad Atzmon's My One and Only Love, 2005, quoted in BBC announcement.
  34. Politiks at Gilad Atzmon web site.
  35. About PalestineThinkTank.com page.
  36. Polly Curtis, Soas faces action over alleged anti-semitism, The Guardian, May 12, 2004.
  37. Observer Letters to the Editor, The Guardian, April 24, 2005.
  38. Gilad Atzmon and Marxism 2005, Socialist Workers Party web site, June 21, 2005.
  39. "SWP faces flak from the left over Atzmon invitation". The Jewish Chronicle. June 29, 2005. Retrieved 2009-03-19.
  40. Rance, Roland (June 17, 2005). "No to Holocaust Denial at Bookmarks!". www.labournet.net. Retrieved 2008-05-23.
  41. David Hirsh, Openly embracing prejudice, The Guardian, November 30, 2006.
  42. Gilad Atzmon, A Response to David Hirsh, The Guardian, December 12, 2006.
  43. "(DV) Atzmon: Think Tribal, Speak Universal". www.dissidentvoice.org. December 12, 2006. Retrieved 2008-05-23.
  44. Think Tribal, Speak Universal December 12, 2006 at Gilad Atzmon web site.
  45. Oren Ben-Dor, 'The Silencing of Gilad Atzmon', Counterpunch, March 15, 2008.

External links


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