Davka

Davka has been striving since its inception to create a new instrumental Jewish music based on the major musical influences of the modern Jewish world; klezmer/Yiddish music, Middle-Eastern/Sephardic music, Western classical music, and elements of American jazz and pop music. The resulting synthesis of these seemingly disparate elements came together quite organically, and the band quickly began composing new music based on this dynamic new style that seemed to already exist and was yearning to be expressed. The boundaries of this style are, have been, and continue to be hotly debated amongst the band members. Thus far, blows have been narrowly avoided. Taking its name from the Hebrew slang for "contrary to expectation," Davka has kept its audiences expecting the unexpected for nearly a decade. Davka has refined its music into a forward-looking expression of universality; Old-world Jewish melodies meld with striking Middle-Eastern rhythms. Contemporary harmonies and daring improvisations combine with inventive and beautiful textures. When pressed for a description of their compositions, they use a lot of hyphens: neo-Jewish-roots-fusion; Middle-Eastern Ashkenazi jazz; avant-retro-hybrid-postmodern-art-musik; fiddler-on-too-much-Turkish -coffee. Listeners have called DAVKA world music in a meltdown pot; klezmer run amok; the acoustic equivalent of a Chagall painting. Whatever the label, DAVKA's music is filled with passion, lyricism, and virtuosic interplay. Davka has performed at numerous major international festivals and has appeared in concert throughout the US, Canada, Europe, and Israel. They have recorded three CD with Interworld Music and John Zorn's Tzadik label. Ori Nir in Israel's respected daily Ha'aretz, put it this way: "Davka does with Jewish motives what composer Bela Bartok does with traditional Hungarian motives. The result is impressive - the group creates rich, colorful, and polished harmonies infused with inspiration." Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.