The latter is all the more pertinent for the relative newcomers to the scene. There are all sorts of up-and-comers who were just starting to get their foot in the career door when the lockdowns slammed that shut. Hence, the initiative by the Municipality of Eilat and the Eilat Tourism Corporation currently up and running in our southernmost resort is a welcome development.
The aforementioned bodies, under the stewardship of Amir Rozanes, who also serves as manager of the Quarter to Africa African groove band, have put together the Eilat Time artistic program, which takes in a wide range of bands and solo artists across a slew of styles and genres. Indie pop gets a shout with the likes of singer/songwriters Omer Moshkowitz, Shai Nehaisi and Yifat Natovich. And there are some more up-tempo offerings from ethnic groove merchants Malka VeHanesichim (Malka and the Princes) and Vadim Mechona, who dishes up energetic helpings of rap, rave and skateboard sounds.
FITTINGLY, THE lineup, which runs through to the end of August, features bands from around the country, and also some local fare. The Beatnik rockers have connections with Kibbutz Samar, just up the Arava Highway from Eilat, and are down to strut their burgeoning stuff on August 24. The foursome comprises guitarist Gilad Levin and drummer Tal Tamari, with Omri Keren on bass guitar and Guy Rodovitch fronting on vocals and keyboards. As soon as Rodovitch opens his mouth – musically that is – one can’t help but think the 30-year-old and his pals imbibed a heaping helping of preeminent local pop-rock singer Arik Einstein and his ilk.
“I grew up on his music,” Rodovitch says, despite being at least a couple of generations down the chronological line.
Beatnik’s Eilat gig comes as the group’s sophomore release is fast becoming a corporeal reality.
“This album [the debut record called Shishi Shabbat] is a sort of presentational and stylistic tribute,” Rodovitch explains. “It’s like, in jazz, doing something in the style of [saxophone great John] Coltrane. The first single from the second record is due out soon.”
The Beatnik base musical style is also a matter of genes.
“My dad used to listen to records by Shablul and Shalom Hanoch, the Israeli folklore. The most folkloristic things I listened to were Shalom Hanoch and Arik Einstein. That, for me, is the essence of Israeliness I grew up on.” And, while on the matter of things hereditary, it is worth noting that Keren happens to be Hanoch’s grandson and currently has a single gaining significant airtime on Galgalatz.
The group’s moniker was not just plucked out of fanciful thin air, and Rodovitch says he and his principal sparring partner in the band, Levin – they met up in Rishikesh in India a couple of years ago – both caught up with some of the counterculture vibes and material they missed out on, simply because they were born way after the beat generation of the 1950s and flower power lot of the 1960s were doing their groundbreaking thing.
“Gilad comes very much from Woodstock, and the ‘60s and ‘70s and rock ‘n roll. And I read all the beat guys, like [Jack] Kerouac, [William S.] Burroughs and [Allen] Ginsberg. I was really inspired by that. We talked a lot about how we are the beatniks of the 21st century,” Rodovitch laughs. “And you have the name ‘beat’ and ‘nik’, which is the quintessentially Israeli suffix.”
Anyone who has heard the band’s first record can expect something of a new listening experience with the next offering, which Rodovitch says will “probably have some psychedelia in it, and we express our anger about the situation and the way things have been handled here.” He adds there will be more electronics in the mix, a more expansive sound that he hopes “people will find refreshing and surprising.”
NOA HELLINGER will more than likely blow her Eilat audience away when she plays down south at the front of the Electric Blue band, on July 27. Hellinger may be from here but she has more than a little of the Chicago electric blues vibes running through her 40-year-old veins. She sounds like she has paid her dues.
“I grew up on the music of Janis Joplin,” she says somewhat redundantly. The sonic and energetic similarities between them come across palpably in Hellinger’s vocal style.
Growing up with Ukrainian-born parents, Hellinger says it was a given for her to try out on the ivories as a youngster. Mind you, at the time it didn’t quite catch, although she recently returned to the piano.
And not being a spring chicken anymore – and recently becoming a mom – Hellinger believes works in her favor.
“I realized I was going to become a professional singer only when I was 30,” she says. “My voice took on its shape, and I think I bring some maturity along with the power.”
That’s spot on. Her delivery on the Allman Brothers’ classic “Stormy Monday,” for example, is shot through with the accrued down-and-dirty element one can get only from being there and doing that, at least to a degree.
Hellinger says that she and the band can’t wait to hit the stage in Eilat.
“It’s a wonderful opportunity, to play there. I hope we get a good audience and it leads to more gigs and good things for us.”
Yossi Chen, general manager of the Eilat Tourism Corporation echoes that sentiment.
“Eilat sort of exists in its own time zone,” he notes, alluding to the program name. “It is at a different latitude compared with the rest of the country. It is an amazing city of opportunities for having fun alongside an infinite experience of tranquility, a spectacular bay full of the blue sea, with the red of the mountains.” Relating specifically to Eilat Time, Chen calls it “an amazing opportunity for musicians to unveil their art and to contribute to establishing a unique musical tradition.”
Here’s hoping.
For more information: eilat.city/zmaneilat