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Daphna Sadeh is a classically-trained composer and double bass player from Israel, who has developed a raging passion for jazz and global music, along with a desire to create cultural-crossing musical dialogues. Sadeh's sound has lightness to it and the album was recorded live in the studio, giving the music just the right level of sparkle and spontaneity. - Jamie Renton, fRoots Magazine
Daphna Sadeh stands at the centre of the Purcell Room's stage. The Israeli double bassist is surrounded by an extraordinary array of musicians. On the face of it, this is music of contrasts: Arabic with Jewish, Jazz with tradition, Mediterranean Sephardic Jewish with Eastern European Ashkenazi. And yet what is so striking is the sense of harmony.
- fRoots World music magazine ,
The moment Daphna Sadeh and the Voyagers started playing, it was obvious that this evening's performance was more than a bit special, something entirely out of the ordinary in fact. Daphna Sadeh didn't so much play her bass as make love to, or rather, with it, player and instrument became one and then transcended themselves to become one with the music, become the music itself. And this also applied to the other members of the Voyagers. Players, instruments, ensemble - all became the music, extraordinary music. In introducing one of the pieces, Ms. Sadeh referred to the kabalistic notion that music is the song of the heart, a song coming straight from the heart. This indeed would have been well applied to the whole set. This entire extraordinary performance was a spiritual, even mystical experience in the truest kabalistic sense. - Rainlore.demon.co.uk
Daphna Sadeh and the Voyagers are a world music group with a Middle Eastern orientation based in London.
Daphna, an Israeli composer and double bass player living in Cambridge for the past two years. brings together performers from contrasting backgrounds to create a cross-cultural musical tapestry.
She studied classical music at Manhattan School of Music although jazz was her first love. She wanted to find a musical language that suited her. This became a mixture of Israeli/Jewish and Middle Eastern music.
She sees herself as being influenced by but also contributing to contemporary world music. She plans to release a CD later this year and perform at summer festivals followed by a European tour next year.
I found her sound very uplifting. Some of the compositions were 500 years old but recently rearranged. She celebrated the cultural differences of her homeland and it was great to be part of that.
It was also great to see a woman leading a band.
- Asian gigs.com
The concert given by Daphna Sadeh and the Voyagers exemplified the creative potential of world music at the cutting edge. Fuelled by the audience's frequent applause the improvisational inspiration ran high, and before returning to the blustery South Bank, the encore's melismatic medley allowed them to enjoy an extra moment in the magnificent mystique of the desert sands.
- Performance review
We thought you'd like to know about next Monday's show by DAPHNA SADEH & THE VOYAGERS, who play a special launch concert for their new album Walking The Thin Line at the PizzaExpress Jazz Club in Dean St, Soho. Daphna is a composer and double bass player who created a beautiful concert for us at the Heart of the World festival in Cambridge - her music is rooted in klezmer (the band includes clarinetist Stewart Curtis) but draws in Middle Eastern influences, including the amazing Kurdish singer Nawroz, who was one of the stars of Peter Sellars' New Crowned Hope festival at the Barbican.
- Serious London
Israeli Born, American trained and London Based, Daphna Sadeh has carved out a reputation as a prime exponent of what might be described as jewish-jazz-fusion.
There is no questioning the virtuosity of her musicians. The garavity -defying flute solos odf Stewart Curtis, Nawroz Oramari contributes a haunting vocal melisma and Sadeh reveals her conservatoire training with a Bass solo. - Songlines
Well performed combination of Middle Eastern,KLezmer and jazz influences from London based Israeli bassist and her group. - fRoot
Discography
Daphna Sadeh - Out of Border (self release) 2002
Daphna Sadeh and The Voyagers - Walking The Thin Line. Record Label - 33 Records 2007
Currently working towards a new CD for Tzadik label ,New Your.
Radio: BBC London,BBC Oxfordshire BBC World Service, BBC Cambridgeshire, Radio 209 UK, Radio Davis Calfornia USA, Radio Italy - was chosen as the week CD December 2007. Galei Tzahal,Israel.
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Bio
Daphna Sadeh is a composer and a double bass player. Her compositions reflect and integrate the diversity of musical cultures she has experienced as a musician. Her music is inspired by rooted Jewish music Mediterranean and Middle Eastern music.
Daphna brings together performers from contrasting backgrounds and traditions, creating a seamless musical tapestry of cross-cultural dialogue.
One of the main aims in my musical creativity she says is to create a way of dialogue between cultures in conflict.
Her initial training as a student of classical music was at the Manhattan School of Music in New York. After graduating she joined The East West Ensemble, Israel, leading to seven years of international performing and recording.
Sadehs playing and composing developed further through her involvement with Middle Eastern and Arabic music, while performing in festivals as well as session work, TV recordings and theatre performances.
She then co-formed the group Eves Women. The music of the group is an amalgam of Jazz Klezmer and Rock. Since then she performed in various festivals and venues in the far East, USA, South Africa and Europe.
2002 saw release of her CD Out of Border. The same year she formed her group The Voyagers, based in London. The music of the Voyagers brings together a contemporary fusion of world music, Middle Eastern and Jewish Music.
Now in 2007, comes the release of Walking The Thin Line, Daphnas most accomplished recording yet.
Walking The Thin Line is the exciting new CD by DAPHNA SADEH & THE VOYAGERS, an inspired collection of both her original compositions and arrangements for traditional tunes. The groups sound is a heady synthesis of overlapping styles - Eastern European Jewish music, Middle Eastern traditions, Jazz and other Ethnic elements -- all seamlessly blended together to create a fresh musical fusion.
The idea behind the title of the CD is an expression of the feeling of our lives at this time in the early 21st Century, where, as Daphna observes everything can feel more than ever so fragile but at the same time there are so many moments of beauty. The thin line goes in between these extremes.
Recorded live at Eastcoat Studios in London, the CD features the Voyagers plus the outstanding, and acclaimed, Kurdish vocalist Nawroz Oramari. (The latter has an interesting history. Born in South Kurdistan on the border of North Iraq, Nawroz spent 10 years in the Kurdish Revolution and was jailed and tortured in four countries before granted asylum in the UK.)
Nawrozs singing on Walking The Thin Line adds a vocal passion that matches the instrumental sparks generated throughout by Daphnas double bass and the band, which comprises Koby Isrealite (accordian), Nim Schwartz (oud), Stewart Curtis (reeds) and Ronen Kozokaro (percussion).
I am lucky to work with such dedicated and wonderful musicians. says Daphna I write to give them a framework to work inside so they have a lot of freedom within.
Music she continues has this ability to overcome our differences, so it has a healing power its all connected to the same thing. When you perform or play for people who are from different backgrounds, they can find something in common through music. There are only a few things in life that can bring people together like that, - music has the power to get straight to the soul of a person without other interferences
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