The opening song in Israeli-Canadian jazz vocalist-songwriter Ayelet Rose Gottlieb’s new album Dust matches the poem «The Dream Keeper» of American poet Langston Hughes (which also inspired Charlie Haden and The Liberation Music Orchestra’s album by the same name, Blue Note, 1990) with the poem «Tfila» (prayer in Hebrew) by the Israeli poet Erez Bitton. This is the story of Dust. A compassionate and poetic attempt to respond to the current, most challenging and unfathomable times thar are «Awya from the too-rough fingers / Of the world» (as Hughes wrote), and to ask questions of complex identity, home and exile, and keep the dream alive. Dust is titled after a poem of American poet Dorianne Laux, as dust leaves a faint flavour in our mouths; it’s the dust of our physical existence, but also the stardust of our dreaming selves, reminding us that we are all interwoven.
The Jerusalem-born, Montréal-based Gottlieb is known from the vocal ensemble Mycale, and her collaborations with the string quartet ETHEL and Palestinian-American poet Naomi Shihab Nye. She has always opted for an inclusive musical vision that accommodates elements of jazz, art-rock, traditional Jewish music, and Middle Eastern music. She sings in English, French, and her ancestral languages – Hebrew, Ladino, Yiddish and Arabic, and is accompanied by the Dream Keepers – Iranian-Candian percussionist Hamin Honari, who also sings in Farsi, Canadian guitarist-keyboard player Bernard Falaise and French double bass player Stéphane Diamantakiou. u
The twelve songs suggest a much better, brave new world, where machoistic, reptilian forces are pushed back in favor of feminine, sensual ideas, «the powerful voices of ten thousand grandmothers, and the tender silences between our walls». Dust can be listened – and experienced as a sonic haven for dreaming and grieving, but Gottlieb is not an innocent believer who imagines «there’s no countries». She is a sober believer in the transformative, liberating power of music and poetry, who knows how to articulate a thoughtful, convincing, and tangible vision. Just listen to her warm, wise delivery of the poem of Puerto Rican poetess Aurora Levins Morales that wrote: «…There are no leaders who dare to say / every life is precious, so it will have to be us…» She uses the poem «Amal zo tikva» by Israeli poet Almog Behar to establish a strong link between the Hebrew and Arabic cultures, with quotes of Egyptian great singer Oum Kulthum’s masterpiece «Amal Hayaty». She uses the poem of American Yiddish poetess Anna Margolin who believed in the comforting, healing power of love: «But listen, oh, like so, until late / for the coming of the shadow of love, / sad as river grasses, / tender as the names of the flowers», and «By Night» by Chilean Pablo Neruda, with a similar message: «…That’s why, love, tie me to pure movement, / to the tenacity that beats in your breast / with the wings of a submerged swan…». This cycle of prayers, pleas, and dreams ends with Dylan Thomas’ «One voice of all»: «…One voice of all he remembers most dearly / as his dream buckets down».
Dust offers the most touching medicine for our dark times. Gottlieb and her Dream Keepers caress our tired bodies and souls, motivate and remind us all that better times are within reach.
Eyal Hareuveni
Ayelet Rose Gottlieb (voice), Bernard Falaise (guitars, keyboards, electronics), Hamin Honari (Persian hand percussion), Stéphane Diamantakiou (double bass, synthesizer)
