The results of these intimate jazz sessions are quality broadcasts that enable the listener not only to enjoy but also to feel a part of the performance.
By SARAH HERSHENSONFROM LEFT: Joca Perpignan, Ofer and Iris Portugaly and Gal Motiuk.(photo credit: GAL MOTIUK)
‘Music is art to be shared,” says jazz pianist/composer/arranger Ofer Portugaly. For the past 30 years, since returning to Israel after studying at the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston, Portugaly and his drummer/vocalist wife, Iris, have been sharing and building their careers by creating their own genre of music, Israeli jazz and Israeli Gospel music, an inspirational blend of US jazz and Gospel with Israel’s culture. Their names are among the top in the industry and their appearances in jazz venues are numerous and steady.Then came the days of corona.“This is surreal,” says Portugaly. “Jazz is an interactive, real-time experience. The musicians play off each other and feed off the reactions of the audience. Music is like oxygen for us. Without performances on the horizon, it is hard to maintain a daily training routine. We needed to find a way to breathe.”So the Portugalys opened their home and basement recording studio to develop a new scene.“Every three weeks,” explains Portugaly, “we prepare a program and host one of the leading jazz musicians in Israel like bassist Eran Zilberberg, Brazilian percussionist Joca Perpignan, flutist Ilan Salem, bassist Gal Motiuk, guitarist Amos Hadani, bassist Yorai Oron and saxophonist Albert Piamenta, one of the pioneers of jazz in Israel. For him we dedicated a whole program. These concerts provide the incentive to practice, see the musicians with whom we have performed over the years, select the pieces we want to play, plus showcase an original piece of the hosted artist. Even though we cannot see the eyes of the audience, they are there for us and we are delighted to receive their written responses.”The results of these intimate jazz sessions are quality broadcasts that enable the listener not only to enjoy but also to feel a part of the performance. The basement TV concerts are professionally filmed and edited by Matan Hartman, and the sound and mixing are done by Itai Portugaly, the Portugalys’ son who is serving as keyboardist in the IDF Band and studying at the Rimon School of Music.For the solo selection of the first basement concert, the Portugalys chose the popular song “What a Wonderful World,” made famous by Louis Armstrong. Iris Portugaly explains that although Armstrong did not have much of a voice, his delivery was so compelling, he convinced us the world is truly wonderful.“I loved his presence, and believe, like Armstrong, who created his wonderful world during the 1920s to 1960s, when times were hard during war and depression, we must continue creating our world and filling it with music. The way I deliver the song is different than his, but the prayer is the same: it is our responsibility to create our lives.”“Portugaly’s basement concerts are no substitute for the applause, the encore and the love of the audience. It is far from an economic substitute, even though we uploaded the program to the Play2Fund website where one can support the project monetarily and the funds go to the hosted artists only.“Each Portugaly’s basement TV concert is our way of sharing the joy of our music through the Internet, and our quiet prayer to see and appreciate the wonderful world in which we live. Although we are in a hard place, we can make it work.”
