Jewish Life Digital Edition September 2015 | Page 86

I learned that
we can heal and
build bridges
simply by playing
music together.

Adam
Davis

Dan Palay
of talent. At the same time, I was fortunate to meet African musicians and became very interested in the African music
culture and particularly the grooves and
rhythms that are ‘normal’ here, but ‘foreign’ to a Western-trained musician.”
Nine years ago, Dan produced a show
together with Ray Perkel, called: ‘One
Heart Concert’. The show brought together local Jewish musicians with local African musicians. “It was an extremely powerful and educational experience for all of
the musicians and for the audience. Because of the intuitive communication
that takes place both in and through music, we were able to learn so much about
each other. To this day, I still play and
have become quite close with many of the
musicians that were involved in that
show. Through this, I learned that we can
heal and build bridges simply by playing
music together.”
Now, Dan plays primarily with The
Johnny Sklar Band (together with Johnny Sklar and Pete Sklair), music that is
deeply rooted in Torah with African
rhythmic influences. “We bring in other
Jewish musicians, but also often play
with African musicians to keep it unique.”
And this is a powerful example of how, as
a band, they’re able to not only bring
their listeners together through the sheer
enjoyment of the music, but also through
the music itself, gathering elements of influence from various sources and building
it into a unified, sensory experience.
www.jsklarband.com and
www.facebook.com/johnnysklarband

When I sing, I feel awesome, like I’m
hovering in a place and watching myself.
adam davis
Adam Davis remembers how a teacher at
primary school taught the class “a very
weird” but “fun” operatic song that he
will never forget. Something about a chisel and exclamations of affirmation, but,
he says, “it awoke something inside of
me”. His grandmother then took him to
see a live performance of Evita, where he
can remember sitting on the steps of the
theatre and loving it. “Maybe I wanted to
be closer to the action?” When his barmitzvah teacher noticed he could sing
and encouraged him to join the Sandton
Shul Choir (“With my ponytail and earring et al!”), he quickly became interested
in Yiddishkeit too, and so the two primary paths of his life were merged and his
musical journey begun. Having trained
with diverse opera teachers, Adam says
he has always found the music beautiful
and the technique challenging, and there-

There’s nothing like playing music in a
band setting. The cohesion and unity
that’s created among the band members is
powerful. Dan Palay
82 JEWISH LIFE n ISSUE 88

fore rewarding when you start getting it
right. “When I sing, I feel awesome, like
I’m hovering in a place and watching myself – I think of it as my ‘out of body’
time, but really it’s a break from the busyness of the day and the constant
thoughts and stresses of life.”
Adam has always been fascinated by
how music does this – how you can feel
immediately uplifted, connected through
music. And then there’s the content. “Opera has the best music but the worst lyrics, and other music has great messages
but rather boring music. When it is right,
it goes beyond our ears and body to our
mind and soul – it’s that powerful.” Perhaps, explains Adam, this is why the Torah limits our joy during certain periods
of time by limiting our enjoyment of music. And, the special tunes we have for different yom tovim – Shabbos morning,
Rosh Hashanah, and Neilah, for example,

were all designed specifically to bring out
the underlying mood and tone of that day.
“I love recording and knowing that I’ve
created something that I can put out there
and others can enjoy. But I also love leading the davening at shul, when the opportunity is there to really give people a beautiful shul experience. Music and song have
a certain power that transcends even sharing a great conversation or meaningful
words of Torah. Once you start singing,
the whole vibe changes to a different gear.
It perfectly captures the emotion of the
moment and recreates it whenever you
hear it.”
Adam is currently working on a totally
fresh sound and perspective to Jewish music as we know it. “I think one of our challenges in Jewish music is to go beyond the
borders of simply taking a verse from the
Torah and putting a melody to it. We should
be brave enough to share our own life experiences with the Jewish world – just like every pop star or songwriter does. It’s the authentic thoughts and feelings that others
want to hear, which make the music that
much more authentic and powerful.”
www.soundcloud.com/adamshanedavis JL