2. 《 interview 》 Shai Maestro 1/2
*This interview was conducted in January 2023.
It's an impressive name. Shai Maestro, it is real name and we immediately became his big fun.
At just 19 years old, he was selected as pianist of Avishai Cohen's trio band and participated in four albums of Avishai including “Gently Disturbed” and “Seven Seas.” He toured the world together with Avishai for five years. We met Shai at that time. He departed from Avishai’s band in 2011, since then he has pursued his own musical endeavor as Shai Maestro, releasing six albums, the last two of which have been released from ECM. His personality can be felt through his music, and he is one of the artists whom we feel happy to be living in the same era.
All improvised live stage
In October 2022, we went to a live performance of Shai. As a sideman he performs all over Tel Aviv, but a concert of Shai's own band is rare opportunities even in Israel. “Our stage doesn't have a set list. Everything is improvised. Stay tuned to see what happens.” Shai opened the show with these words.
The tense sounds echoed one by one, and the drums, bass, and trumpet gradually joined in. Eventually, the conversations exchanged through sound become more complex and deeper. As Shai gets heated up, the stage and audience become one. Shai gets into the song with a bright red face, which is typical for him. The audience reacts sensitively, cheering and clapping. Seeing Shai live for the first time in a while was more like a life experience than a listening music. For several days, we felt like we were being taken into a world that Shai created. Simultaneously we realized that recorded albums were too small for him to express his musical world. We wondered when and how it became all improvised stage.
On the night of January 14, 2023, when a large crowds of people gathered on the streets of Tel Aviv protesting against the new Israeli government's judicial reforms, he came to our apartment for this interview. “Sorry, the traffic was terrible because of the demonstration, I will be delayed.” (*This Saturday night demonstration has been continued till October 2023)
An unexpected turn of events
When and how did you come to the stage where you only do improvisation like you do now?
Around 2015 or 2016, it was when Ziv (Israeli drummer Ziv Ravitz) was still playing with us, and it was in France. While we were playing “Gal”, an improvised part took an unexpected turn. I thought it would be bad if things continued as they were, so I impatiently tried to fix it by playing the melody myself, but in the end, there was no solo development and it just didn't fit together.
I couldn't calm down until the concert was over. After the concert, a fan came and told me, “I really liked that one song in the middle. I could feel the energy coming from the stage, and all of you seemed to be enjoying the adventure. Your smiles were nice, too.'' Huh? I was surprised. Then I realized that I don't have to aim for perfection. I said to myself I should just try different things, so gradually the number of improvised parts increased, and now all of my live performances are improvised.
That was also the time when the current drummer Ofri joined your band, wasn’t it?
Yeah, around 2017, I invited Ofri (Ofri Nehemiya) to join my band, and we discussed various things, including the vision for the band. Rather than focusing on a perfect rhythm session, I said to him that I wanted to pursue something that would expand our music. At first we went back to very basics of music such as dropping sticks to make sounds and so on. While we had continued a lot of trial and error, we started to get a feeling of creating music.
Even though it's improvised, before you go on stage, don't you have some brief discussions about what direction you're going to take today, or what song you're going to play?
No, really nothing. We don't even talk about the songs before we go on stage, and as we go on stage and play, we just listen to each other and progress gradually. I have about 80 to 90 songs that I've written, and everyone knows them well, so I just go to the stage and am excited every time.
Film music, orchestral composition, and producer
During the coronavirus period, Shai has been involved in a wide range of musical activities beyond just being a jazz pianist, including composing music for the documentary film “nowhere to go but everywhere”, serving as a producer for an album, and recently composing music for an orchestra.
The other day, you produced the debut album of Roni Eitan (Israeli harmonica player), and you were recording it in France. How do you feel being a producer?
It was a lot of fun. Roni and I worked together through many discussions, from conceptualizing the idea to recording. When I record for my album, I usually send the songs to the producer in advance, and in the studio I get various ideas and found a moment saying “I like this” and then I make it. However the case of Roni was slightly different and very interesting. Roni came to my apartment many times to discuss about his music. We listened together and created each song one by one, I sometime commented like “I wonder if this part is really necessary”. Then Roni reviewed the part and sent me something new he thought up, and I again suggested other thing like rhythm. It was quite interesting process, so it was like a a producer and an advisor.
Even if each part got better, the song had to have a story as a whole. So I listened to it again from the beginning to make sure it was written properly. Also, Roni said he would like to hear the sound of actual playing, so we arranged a gig, and then I advised him saying the guitar part should be a little more subtle, or it could be better if the bass sound could be more prominent, one song should be shorter and so on.
I also suggested that they do a gig at Beit Haamudim (we went to see that gig) because sometimes you can find out what you're missing by actually performing in front of people. We had two sets that day. After the first set I reviewed and commented some part, so we did even better in the second set.
Music reflects your feelings
How was the recording?
Recording was also fun. It's a producer's job to think about ways that all the artists can perform comfortably.
For example, when I think about my daily schedule, I choose quiet songs in the morning, upbeat songs in the afternoon, and songs that somehow fit in with my coffee time in the afternoon. Music directly reflects the feelings of the person performing it, so it is very important to decide which songs to play at which times. It is up to the producer to decide whether the performance is good enough or not.
Then, we all go into the studio and listen to the song we just recorded, checking to see if it turned out the way we envisioned it. The producer is the one who gives detailed instructions to the technicians too, saying like “ I want to stop there and check again where the drums enter.”
Sometimes it's difficult to get everyone to play in a good mood. For example, if someone's performance is not good, you can technically turn down the volume and make it less noticeable, but the artist will be hurt and offended later. That feeling will be carried over into subsequent performances.
I think it's very important to record in a space where you can get away from everyday life and concentrate. There are studios in Tel Aviv, but I have to start recording in the middle of my daily life, carrying my instruments from home, waiting for a taxi, getting stuck in traffic, getting a phone call from my mom and so on.
But when I fly to France and am surrounded by nature like where I went this time, I can completely concentrate on recording. And the level of the studio is definitely different. In the studio where we recorded this time, even at the rough mix stage, it was already as good as the master. The quality of the microphones and other equipments, as well as the ability of the engineers, are all at a high level. At the same studio I recorded ‘’Human” (Shy Maestro's latest album) and the piano is great, so I want to continue going there and recording at least once a year.
Do you want to continue producing?
If the music is good, I'd like to do it again. I have known Roni well for a long time, and I also know the members Dada (Daniel Dor, Israeli drummer), Barak (Barak Mori, Israeli bassist), and Nitzan (Nitzan Bar, Israeli guitarist). The music was great, so I naturally decided to accept it. Roni and I also discussed the selection of members.
At first I was planning to have the cello rather than the guitar, so I didn't realize how compatible it would be with the guitar until I heard it. The combination of Roni and Nitzan was better than I expected, and when I went into the studio and listened to it, I was amazed and said, ‘’Wow”.
Continued in the second part
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