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Yossi Fine: ‘I Recently Learned That I Have Indian Roots’

The Israeli bassist and producer, who is in India to perform at Jodhpur RIFF, talks about how he recently found out that his mother’s grandfather was from India, and why there is no such thing as indigenous Israeli music

Oct 25, 2015

In one of the highlight performances at the ongoing destination music festival Jodhpur RIFF, Israeli bassist and producer Yossi Fine will present his unique blend of funk, reggae and world music tonight [October 25th]. Fine has in the past collaborated with the likes of the Velvet Underground vocalist Lou Reed, pop icons David Bowie and Madonna, Malian singer-guitarist Vieux Farka Touré and Indian-American musician Karsh Kale, and is on his first trip to India. At RIFF, he will present a solo set as well as another one in collaboration with a group of Rajasthani musicians featuring khartal player Kheta Manganiar and Feroze Khan on dholak. In this interview, Fine talks about about his Indian roots and growing up in a melting pot of musical cultures that is Israel.

Yossi Fine at a practice session

Yossi Fine at a practice session ahead of his performance at Jodhpur RIFF. Photo: Amitava Sanyal

Tell us about your influences from your parents, who were musicians.
My father is a European Jew, originally from Lithuania. He met my mother in Paris in the Sixties. Her parents were both black, from Martinique, a Carribean island. I had the Israeli Jewish side in me, but I also had the black side. So it was African, Carribean and even Black American music that I grew up loving. Black American music is one of my first loves and is very strong.

However, two years ago, I found out that my mother’s grandfather was from India! I found out only two years ago because nobody ever spoke about it. Also my mother’s father died quite young, before I was born, and he left from Martinique and never returned. It’s possible that his parents stayed back. I heard all the stories from my grandmother’s side, never from my grandfather’s. I was like, ”˜Wow! I have Indian roots?’

Which part of India?
I don’t have a clue. From West Indies [laughs out]. My parents were brought up in a Christian, colonial [way]. In those islands ”“ because I have travelled a lot there, I know ”“ it really gets mixed up a lot. And the way colonialism worked was to cover all roots, so the people would get a new identity.

The way the blacks and Indians mixed in the West Indies was that ”“ I saw it a lot in Jamaica ”“ if you have a black parent and an Indian parent, you are considered black. Black overrules the Indian bit. I don’t know why.

Israel, too, is a melting pot of sorts, with Jews from all over the world, including from Africa. Has that led to a rich musical mix?
Absolutely!

Do the African Jews, for example, bring their music into the Israeli mainstream?
Absolutely! When I started doing it about 20 years ago, in 1995, I started playing with Ethiopian musicians [while I was immersing in black, African roots music] inside these hip-hop groups. I remember the audience”¦ we were in this reggae festival and I started playing these Ethiopian beats, and all of a sudden they started to look as if, ”˜Am I hearing what I am hearing?’

That was 20 years ago. But then that little thing changed for somebody else and they started exploring more and more. And now, it’s way more in the fabric of Israeli music. That’s why I say, sometimes you got to give things time.

Israel being a young country is its advantage. People come from all over the world and bring their cultures. There is nothing called Israeli music ”“ they think there’s Israeli music. Some of it has big Russian influences, some have Arabic, Moroccan, Turkish influences ”“ all into the pop music of Israel. In the last 15 years there have been some Indian influences because a lot of musicians have chosen to come to India and study some other instruments. They take their time and it starts being incorporated into the music. For example, there is a girl named Liora Isaac. She is Indian and was raised in Israel. When she was 13, she came to India to study Indian classical singing. One day, I heard her on somebody else’s album ”“ it was Yemeni music.

I was working with Karsh [Kale], so Indian singers were coming all the time into my studio in New York and I got used to the style. I was also producing a hip-hop band that’s very famous in Israel, Hadag Nahash ”“ they are very much like the American band, The Roots.  When I came to Israel to produce the band, I said I wanted to include Liora in it. So I gave her these protest lyrics which came out with nice Indian vocals ”“ it became a number one hit in Israel.  It’s called ”˜Suits’ [or ”˜Halifot’, in the 2004 album Homer Mekomi].

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