Shlomo Bar

Shlomo Bar (1943 - ) is an Israeli musician, composer, and social activist. He is a pioneer of ethnic music in Israel.

Shlomo Bar was born in Rabat, Morocco. His family immigrated to Israel when he was six.He learnt how to play the darbuka and other ethnic percussion instruments, performing in various small lineups and as a backing musician for artists such as Matti Caspi on tours. In 1976 he played in Yehoshua Sobol and Noa Chelton's Kriza (Nerves), a play about social injustice and discrimination again Mizrahi Jews in Israel. Bar set to music and performed several of Sobol's songs, including "Yeladim Ze Simcha" (Children are joy).

Bar then formed his own group, "Habrera Hativit" (Natural Selection) with bassist and producer Yisrael Borochov. The original lineup was Samson Kehimkar, an Indian violin and sitar virtuoso, Miguel Herstein, an American guitarist, the bassist Yisrael Borochov, and Bar on percussion and vocals. Yisrael Borochov had a stark influence on the sound of the group, and before he left had arranged, recorded and produced the first two albums of the band. Disagreements over where the direction of the band was going led him to split from Bar and to form the East West Ensemble.

The first album, "Elei Shorashim" (Origins, or a Return to Roots), combined traditional Moroccan and Yiddish music, with Indian elements and motifs, as well as new renditions of songs by Israeli poets. The songs were long, some of them running for eight minutes, and the subject matter was unusual for the time.

The lineup went through several changes in the 1980s and 90s.

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