Popular singer Shai Tsabari marked the 10th anniversary of the release of his debut album, Shacharit (Morning), by throwing what may have been the biggest hafla (party) Reading 3 in Tel Aviv had ever witnessed.
When it comes to a performer like Tsabari, it’s one thing to stream his music, it’s another to see him live – an experience lovers of Israeli music owe themselves.
The night was an explosion of energy. With his Middle East Groove band, Tsabari had the audience jumping, spinning, clapping, whistling, and singing along for the nearly two-hour show.
Special guest, the country’s “prince of rock: Berry Sakharof with whom Tsabari began his musical career singing backup, joined him on stage for several songs, treating audiences to the soulful guitar riffs for which Israelis know and love him.
Tsabari is regarded as a trailblazer in Israeli music, introducing audiences to what has been termed “Indie Mizrahi” – songs with a mix of influences, from old world Oriental, to rock, to klezmer, to the Yemenite prayers heard from his father when he was a child. The Reading show gave audiences a taste of all of it.
The evening opened with the instrumentalist klezmer-themed piece “Lunga,” which got the audience clapping in unison as Tsabari took the stage to launch into his first album’s title song, “Shacharit” (“Morning Prayers”).
Mizrahi music
Channeling pure Mizrahi – the Israeli version of country – the audience sang along, becoming the storyteller as they belted out the lyrics, “Let there be milk, and fresh bread, and a little light, and a little water...”
There was also “Avo BaGavorot Adir” (“I Will Come with Great Valor”), a song composed by Tsabari based on a liturgical poem from ninth-century Jewish philosopher, Rabbi Saadi Gaon. It’s a song with a Yemenite vibe, on the tail-end of which Tsabari reached an almost falsetto pitch, intertwined with bluesy wails of saxophone and trumpet.
Tsabari’s talents really shone through in songs like Sakharov’s “Shalom Lecha Dodi,” with lyrics based on the writings of 18th-century poet Solomon Ibn Gabirol.
Even with the great Sakharov on guitar and vocals, it was Tsabari who really brought down the house with scat vocalizations that left the audience in awe.
“I was surprised anyone knew Shai Tsabari,” one woman was overheard saying at the beginning of the show. With performances like that at Reading 3, he probably won’t stay under the radar much longer.