El Khat
Concert
Named after a stimulating plant and just as effective, the Israeli trance rock band EL KHAT revitalizes Yemeni folk music from the 1960s using self-made instruments.
Dates
8/22/24
9:30 PM
A 1960s Yemeni pop music record changed Eyal El Wahab's life. Tel Aviv's self-taught musician, from the Jewish-Yemeni diaspora, left his role as a cellist with the Jerusalem Andalusian Orchestra to craft instruments from found objects, echoing those played in 1960s Yemen, and established the band El Khat. Their 2019 debut album, "Saadia Jefferson," was a funky-psychedelic reinterpretation of traditional Yemeni songs, hailed as "brilliant" by music aficionado Gilles Peterson. Subsequently, Eyal El Wahab established The Yemeni Orchestra, a larger ensemble dedicated to performing classical Yemeni repertoire, and released the follow-up album "Albat Alawi Op.99" with El Khat. THE WIRE described it as a "whirlwind in a workshop: a barrage of freaked percussion, whomping bass and choral voices set off by banks of detuned brass." During their concerts, it becomes evident why the band chose to name itself after khat, the stimulating plant traditionally chewed in North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. El Khat creates frenetic evenings, transporting the audience's body and soul into ecstatic spheres.
