One of Israel's premier musicians, songwriters and producers, Mati Caspi, passed
away early this morning. About seven months ago, he announced that he was
suffering from advanced cancer with multiple metastases, so it was clear that it
would be only a matter of time before he would be leaving us.
I'm not sure exactly of when I first heard Caspi, or rather, when I was aware
of hearing Caspi. I suspect that it was during my visit to Israel in the
summer of
19761, but certainly I was already in awe of him and his second solo album when I
visited Israel again in early 1977. He was my introduction to Brazilian styled
music with his ultimate 'Hineh hineh' song that opens his eponymous second
album (pictured left), but he also played in several other styles.
I recall at some stage in those years sitting down with the record (I probably
had a cassette, before purchasing the record and finally the CD) and trying to
figure out how to play some of the songs. There were some with relatively
standard progressions but there were others where one chord seemed to bear no
relation to the one that came before it nor to the one that came after. Caspi
played most of the instruments on this album.
Unfortunately, I misundestood the lyrics to a few of the songs on that album (primarily, "Gogo") so it was cast in my mind as a collection about a bunch of losers. Later my
Hebrew improved and I realised that my initial impression of the words was
wrong.
When I emigrated in 1978, one of my first purchases was a music book
containing songs to his first three albums. Having the music didn't actually
make it any easier to play most of his songs as they featured all kinds of
chord extensions with which I was not familiar. Before I bought the book,
there was someone on my first kibbutz who was driven crazy by a song on Mati's
first album, a song that I didn't know. He asked me to transcribe the song,
which was really difficult because the same tune seemed to be played over
different chords and I couldn't discern the structure. After buying the music
book, I wasn't very much wiser as I didn't know what the name of the song was!
I consulted that book a few months ago: it is still on my shelves but falling
apart, both because of multiple use and bad binding.
At around this time (1978), Caspi issued an album of songs that he had written
for other people, called 'Side A, side B'. This too was essential listening.
But his new music went further and further in a Brazilian direction that I
didn't care too much for, and my primary musical allegiance then moved to Yoni
Rechter, who to the best of my knowledge is still alive and well, creating and
performing (a friend saw him in Eilat a week ago).
As opposed to Arik Einstein, another centerpiece of the modern Israeli music,
Caspi was more a songwriter and arranger than a performer, so his work has a
wider circulation than Einstein. Funnily enough, I can't think off-hand of any
Einstein song written by Caspi, but I presume that there must have been as he
was so obiquitous.
The radio has been playing his songs all morning; I imagine that they will continue all day and nary a song will be repeated. He will be missed.
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This day in blog history:
| Title | Tags | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1199 | Black Friday | Obituary, RIP | |
| 1290 | The little drummer girl (TV) | TV series, John Le Carre, Diane Keaton |
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