Blues Concert

"There could be nothing really better in the world than the musicians who love each other out of a common love for music to come together for peace." Arnie Lawrence

Blues Concert Participants & Friends

Johnny Mayer, guitar, harmonica, founder Blues for Peace.

Yitzhak Yedid, pianist and composer, was accompanied by Yulia Feldman, vocals, Assaf Hikimi, contrabass and Ronen Itzik, drums.

Eli Marcus, guitar, vocals

Guest Musicians & Friends
Liat Mayer, poetry / Lili Barshillon, poetry / Raviv Moore, guitar / Ofer, guitar / Yoni, guitar / Avi Marcus, piano / Peter Singer, comments / Shalom Boguslavsky, piano and photography / Livan El-al, piano / Oren Soudry, soundman.

"Faith, Hope & the Blues" Concert Review

"A Clear Connection"

How in the world was the connection made between blues and peace? It turns out the connection is quite clear. Blues is music for people that are miserable and depressed and whoever supports peace these days is plenty miserable and depressed.

The people of "Blues for Peaces" offer a different version. They say that all of the peoples in the area have had enough blues. Instead of fighting, its better to jam on 12 bar shuffles. Much better!

Johnny Mayer is a man full of good intentions and harmonicas, however he over organized the session a bit. He was always inviting people to get up on stage and play so that everyone got a chance, and nobody was left out. As opposed to peace that requires organized efforts, a jam session should be spontaneous.

In spite of that, the show was quite nice, especially the Yithak Yedid trio with Johnny Mayer that anchored the show. Technically the band is capable of playing more than just three chord blues songs. Musically the band had the "feel" for the music and the crowd enjoyed themselves.

In short, don't be discouraged. Another 50, 80, 100 performances like this and peace will come. It will come for sure.

By Yuval Fiorko. "Kol Ha Ir", Jerusalem, 12/8/2001. Photo by Lili Barchilon.

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