Some articles from the web:

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http://www.btrockproductions.com/artists.html
Yosi Piamenta's original style is best described as a hint of jazz, a drop of blues, and a whole lot of rock n' roll filtered through a purple haze of Oriental funk. After completing his army service in Israel, Yosi became a full-time musician and formed The Piamenta Band with his flute virtuoso brother Avi. The band went on to play with the most prestigious Israeli musicians and became known as the "Mizrachi Rockers." In 1976 Stan Getz discovered the Piamenta Band and was so impressed with their music that he cancelled his schedule for three weeks to cut an album with them. It was at this point that the brothers began to explore their Jewish roots. With 6 official studio albums and appearances at the most distinguished venues in the world, the Piamenta Band is one of the most requested names at Jewish events
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Yosi Piamenta

by Richard Gehr
10 February 1994
from the Village Voice
http://www.levity.com/rubric/piamenta.html

It took me months to figure out what Yosi Piamenta's right hand was doing when he played his guitar. With an unfiltered Players usually clasped between its fourth and fifth digits, the "Hasidic Hendrix"'s paw seemed to strum the strings like a rhythm guitarist, yet wildly spiraling Arabic melodies spun up and away out of all visual relationship--screwed-tight Oriental outbursts punctuated by distant echoes of the electric-guitar pantheon, from Clapton to Zappa to Mahavishnu John. What was going on? Suddenly last week it became clear: Piamenta was picking leads on his battered old Fender as though it were an electric oud.
Bubbling underneath his screaming, fleet-fingered solos lay a few thousand years of Arabic technique picked up as a fourteenth-generation Sephardic Jerusalemer. 

I was happily introduced to 42-year-old Yosi (né Yosef) Piamenta last spring by one of his frequent bandmates on the Hasidic wedding circuit, Klezmatics trumpeter Frank London. Piamenta is a crossover star in the international Hasid community, a unique and highly desired bandleader who performs at some hundred weddings each year both here and abroad. The son of an Israeli war hero, Piamenta received his first guitar as a bar mitzvah present. Today he's a baal t'shuve who returned to the orthodox flock about sixteen years ago, and a respected presence among the small yet increasingly significant local community of orthodox Jewish hipsters. 

Piamenta devotes no less musical and religious fervor to his note-for-note Hebrew cover version of Men at Work's "Down Under" than he does to his wedding music, or such homemade productions as A Medley of Chassidic Hits (1982), Mitzvah! (1984 vinyl), Tismach (1988 cassette), 1990 (1989), and especially Songs of the Rebbes (1992)--bearing variations on the theme of "Please do not play this record on the Shabbat or Holidays," they are available at Kingston Avenue record shops in Crown Heights, and through Holyland Music, 4722 18th Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11204.) Like some acid-rock successor to Yemenite chanteuse Ofra Haza's Fifty Gates of Wisdom , Songs of the Rebbes weaves different strains of Hasidic music (e.g., Belz, Kaliv, Lubavitch, Ger) into arm-pumping medleys that convey a fairly accurate represention of what you'd hear at one of his wedding gigs.

Not that you can exactly grok the Hasidic wedding scene without experiencing one. Attending to their festivities with a transcendent communal fervor shared by ravers, Sufis, punks, and voodoo practitioners. The Lubavitch men-folk in particular tend to party on the cusp of the millenium, slamming bodies against one another with intimate violence and throwing fists in the air in some timeless mosh pit of the spirit. Onstage, Yosi stands in portly, bearded, Garcia-esque repose, calmy driving his audience into a freylekh frenzy as children wander underfoot, rabbis kibitz, and the occasional guest vocalizes a favorite tune amid the circle dances, clattering crockery, and general abandon. (On the other side of the room, separated by a white wicker fence, daughters and wives have just as much fun working up line dances.) Having attended such events recently, I was struck by an admission of Craig Horowitz, who set the stage for his account of Lubavitch spiritual politics in last week's New York by
observing, "They danced and celebrated with such unbridled joy and raw emotion that I felt embarrassed to be watching." 

If Yosi had been transcending time and genre onstage, Horowitz might have been more inclined to plunge into the intensity. Last Monday night, Piamenta played at his keyboardist's Lubavitch wedding. On Tuesday, the Knitting Factory was packed with young Hasids thrilled to catch him in a more informal setting. In addition to Yosi's flutist brother, Avi (a zealous Jerusalem Lubavitcher who concluded the show with a brief commercial for the Moshiach), this latest version of the Piamenta band integrates the recently formed, unorthodoxly orthodox Hasidic New Wave ensemble, consisting of Israeli drummer Shlomo Deshet and bassist Bentzi Gafni of the local fusion band Esta, Frank London, and saxophonist Gregory Wall.

While the two settings' good vibes weren't actually all that different, the soloing at the club was a lot more revealing. Yosi's original music delves deep into the Sephardic-Oriental tradition, as heard by someone weaned on singer Oum Kalsoum and Arabic composer Abdel Wahab, and filtered through the musical breakthroughs of late Hendrix and early Weather Report; fusion and prog-rock seem natural extensions of the technical expertise that already constitutes such a large part of the Jewish musical tradition, and the spiritual party perogative persists.

Yosi and the members of Hasidic New Wave, however, considered this show a mere rehearsal, and the guitarist's religious and musical journey, needless to say, goes on. The next day, for example, when I visited his Canarsie home, I heard a tape of the previous evening booming from the living room as I climbed the stairs. "My Dad will be done praying in a few minutes," said his son. I glanced into the living room. There was Yosi, facing the wall, shrouded in tallis and t'efillen, davening maharis.

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July 24, 1998 
Hasidic guitarist riffing into mainstream 
By CHRIS OLERT 
Associated Press Writer 

NEW YORK (AP) - Yosi Piamenta is a matchmaker with an electric guitar, marrying Woodstock to the Wailing Wall. 

Don't call him the ``Hasidic Hendrix,'' as the Village Voice once did. It's an honor to be compared to Jimi Hendrix, he recently told adoring fans at the nightclub Tramps, but he'd rather be called Yosi Piamenta. 

Still, there's something about the Brooklyn rocker that encourages nicknames. 

``The rabbi rocks. We call him the 'gefilte Garcia','' Sound engineer Rob Childs says. ``I wish I had somebody like him when I was in church.'' 

Piamenta, an Israeli discovered in Tel Aviv by jazzman Stan Getz, does resemble the Grateful Dead's late guitarist, Jerry Garcia. He's an Orthodox Jew, but not actually a rabbi. And he's not Hasidic. 

For the 22 years he's been in New York, Piamenta's mainly been a headliner at Jewish weddings. Now, at 46, he's making the crossover from what some music writers have called Hasid rock to a hard-driving rock 'n' roll that could win him new listeners. 

``Being original is a goal,'' says Piamenta, who has a graying Brillo-pad orgy of a beard, and wire-rimmed glasses. He wears a multicolored yarmulke and at his waist hang the traditional fringes worn by Orthodox men. 

Expanding his audience beyond Orthodox Jews is another goal for the man recently crowned ``the greatest ultra-Orthodox rock guitarist in the world'' by the Jewish Forward newspaper. 

A father of six, Piamenta not only rocks but plays klezmer, blues, jazz and fusion. 

He grew up in a secular home and learned guitar from the radio. Even today he doesn't read music. 

``I grew up on Jimi Hendrix. I grew up on Oriental music. I grew up on Arabic music from the Bedouin village,'' Piamenta says. 

``Hendrix is for me the classiest guitar player in this century. ... If you were not influenced by him, then you're influenced by people who were influenced by him.'' 

Other influences? Piamenta tosses in Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, Weather Report and B.B. King. 

His career leaped beyond his homeland when Getz visited Israel in 1976 and Piamenta managed to woo him into his home. Since Getz had only one free night, he wasn't eager to meet strangers. But Piamenta called his hotel and promised the saxophonist the party of his life. So Getz went. Yosi played his guitar, brother Avi his flute. 

``After six or seven of my own tunes, Stan Getz asked me to record with him,'' says Piamenta, raising his arms and almost lifting his round frame from a black leather sofa. ``I told him that would be the  peak and goal of my dreams.'' 

On Piamenta's 25th birthday, in 1976, he arrived in New York as a guest of Getz. They cut an album, but it was never released because of technical and artistic problems. 

``My first half year in America was from the top of the American dream,'' Piamenta says, his eyes lighting like sparklers. ``To an anonymous poor musician in Israel, this was like in the fairy tales.'' 

There were sold-out concerts. Along the way, Getz introduced him to Buddy Rich, Carlos Santana and others. Then Piamenta returned to Israel in 1977 on tour with Getz. 

The next year, he came back to New York, toured with Getz and at the end of the tour Piamenta turned to Orthodoxy. The decadence of life as a road musician pushed him toward a religious life, he says. 

In music, too. He made himself the Guy Lombardo of Jewish weddings, and recorded five albums of Jewish tunes, some 500 years old. 

But always, the rock was rolling around Piamenta's soul. 

``The music that gets me closer to God is the best music. If there's music that calls for hate, that's not the music for God,'' Piamenta says. ``Music that melts the heart is good music.'' 

Piamenta's heart-melting music - not licks but full-jawed chomps that he coaxes from his Fender Stratocaster - hit mainstream New York City in 1994 in concerts at Wetlands and the Knitting Factory. 

That, says Piamenta, ``put me on the map of secular New York.'' 

Piamenta has hired a publicist, and he no longer has to paste posters on light poles with his sons in tow to advertise his concerts. He's also working on a U.S. tour for 1999 and a world tour to follow. 

Next year, watch for Piamenta in a hall near you - any night but Friday. 

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http://www.shmoozenet.com/jsps/stories/0998Ben.shtml
Piamenta Plunges into the Mainstream
Yossi Piamenta, Orthodox guitar virtuoso, snares Jimi Hendrix's old producer
By Ben Smith 

After almost two decades on the simcha circuit, guitarist Yossi Piamenta is moving beyond the world of Jewish music: he’s just begun work on a new album at Jimi Hendrix’s own Electric Lady Studios with Hendrix’s old producer, Eddie Kramer. Publications from the Village Voice to Time magazine had been "discovering" the bearded, bespectacled, and yarmulked guitarist for years, but since his move to mainstream New York venues like Wetlands and Tramps, he’s become an unlikely celebrity, a fusion guitarist with a devoted following who has begun to resent the media moniker, "the Hasidic Hendrix." 

He may be getting sick of the comparisons with Jimi, but as he recently told New Voices, "Hendrix was my guitar teacher, really." Piamenta grew up in 1960s Jerusalem, listening to the music of his Sephardic family, of his Arab neighbors, and of the exploding rock and roll scene. He was the kind of Jimi Hendrix aficionado who knew the name Eddie Kramer (Hendrix’s producer), and he "came to America having in mind to meet Eddie Kramer. Kramer produced Hendrix, who was my hero," Piamenta said, adding that he always felt that if he ever did anything big time, he would "like Eddie Kramer to do it." Piamenta had heard from a friend that Kramer, who also worked with Piamenta favorites Kiss and Led Zeppelin, was still active; the friend told Piamenta that Kramer "was by me for Shabbos" and that he was interested. 

Five years passed before Piamenta felt ready to court a major label with a professionally produced album. He mentioned his hopes of working with Kramer to his managers. The good people at Yidstock Ventures laughed. "They told me, ‘you know how the big shark in the sea eat the small fish, that’s how he will eat you, he’s real big time.’" Piamenta was beginning to give up hope when this August, sheer luck brought Piamenta and Kramer together. 
Piamenta and his band, the Mizrahi Rockers, were gearing up for the "First Catskills Rave," an all-night party to be held at the venerable Alladin Hotel. Both local and national media loved the image of Orthodox boys leaping into the "moishe pit," and the week preceding the show brought Piamenta a new level of TV and print exposure. Eddie Kramer caught Piamenta on a Fox morning show and called the "Piamenta Hotline" that flashed across the screen. 
At the time, the producer was feeling ready to re-enter his old haunt, Jimi Hendrix’s original Electric Lady Studios on West 8th Street in Manhattan, and he was looking around for a musician. Kramer and the Piamenta band were in the studio together within two weeks, and Piamenta is ecstatic about the arrangement: Kramer is "a nice guy, a serious producer "he knows what he’s doing; he came to listen and what he had to say was right on the money. It’s only a nice thing, on the side, that he’s a Jew, because I really wanted him for his artistic quality," he said. 

How does Piamenta explain his success? "Jerusalem--that’s the key to the whole thing," Piamenta told New Voices. "It’s a young country--fifty years old--the Jewish population in Israel is fresh and they came from all over the world." The young Piamenta had access "to all the cultures that exist; being Israeli you know on one scan of the radio you could hear Arabic music, religious music, rock and roll, British music, European, Mediterranean, African music, you could hear everything." In Jerusalem, "I always felt like a native," Piamenta said. And well he should: Piamenta’s family has been in Jerusalem since the Spanish Inquisition. 

He was a local musician when jazz great Stan Getz heard his virtuosity and gave Piamenta his big break. He followed Getz to America in 1976, toured with him, and stayed in his house. "New York," said Piamenta, is "a tough city. Jerusalem gets your spirit up; New York is more materialistic." But ironically, Piamenta had to leave the Promised Land to find religion. Just before his first flight to New York, Piamenta told New Voices, he searched his predominantly secular childhood home for a memento of his life in Jerusalem. In the back of a closet, he came across the tefillin his grandfather had given him for his bar mitzvah. Something clicked, and "that was my first step into Judaism." 

Not long after his arrival, Piamenta married an Israeli cousin living in Florida and began keeping the Sabbath. In New York, Piamenta soon met the charismatic Chasidic leader, the Lubavitcher Rebbe Menachem Schneerson. The Rebbe "gave me more yiddishkeit than any other man in the world. Many times, if I had a major question I would write to him." Piamenta channeled his skills into traditional Chasidic music and performed for the Rebbe. "I would always follow his latest instructions. I considered myself to be very close with him," he said. 

But Piamenta never became a Chasid; he attends a Syrian shul in Brooklyn and keeps Jerusalem Sephardic customs at home. Philosophically, he’s unaffiliated: "I belong to the Torah, to the Jewish people. . . It’s good enough to be an observant Jew. To me all the Jews are the same, as any Jew, as any person, all the people." 

The 1970s in this country may have debased the word "fusion," but Piamenta’s music is almost impossible to classify without it. His first purely secular album, this year’s instrumental Strings of My Heart, mixes a bluesy feel with Sephardic melodies and blends jazz with guitar-driven rock. "But really, rock and roll" the cutting edge of the late sixties to early seventies "was where I grew up," Piamenta said. When he became religious, Piamenta limited himself to playing traditional Jewish music But he continued listening to his favorite secular bands: Metallica and Pink Floyd, Pearl Jam, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. "I watch MTV, I watch VH1, I think I am very much in tune," he added. Piamenta has no regrets about his years playing Jewish music, but he’s happy that "now for the first time I’m going out with my own music." 

This October 19 at Tramps, he’ll be playing "not necessarily to a Jewish audience, just for whoever loves music." So far, Piamenta has enjoyed the cultural mixing and mild celebrity that his foray into the mainstream has brought. Now his devoted Orthodox audiences in tzitzit (fringed undergarments resembling a tallit worn by religious men) and long skirts mingle with secular hipsters at well-known clubs. Piamenta himself just flew out to Los Angeles for a week to do his part for the Chabad telethon. But as long as he was in the neighborhood, he made a guest appearance on the new Roseanne Barr show. 

Ben Smith is a senior at Yale University 

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http://www.forward.com/issues/1998/98.01.02/fastforward.html

Fans Wear Hip Downtown Black and Dance the Hora Between Sets
By GEOFF SHANDLER 

There are several things Yosi Piamenta resembles but guitar hero is not one of them. In 
his mid-forties, chubby and wearing spectacles, he looks like Oliver Sacks on laundry day. 
He smokes heavily, and his smile is so ever-present that it is, well, a bit discomforting. 
His beard is dense, like steel wool, and he's stocky. He looks just like an ultra-Orthodox 
guy from Canarsie, which he is, though Yosi Piamenta is much more than that. Yosi Piamenta 
is the greatest ultra-Orthodox rock guitarist in the world. Yosi Piamenta is the Hasidic 
Hendrix. 

There are several stories as to how and when Mr. Piamenta first was called the Hasidic 
Hendrix, but the name has stuck. Still, he's not quite like Jimi. When Hendrix started a 
show late it was because he hadn't finished all of his pre-concert drugs. When Mr. 
Piamenta comes on late it's because it took a while to get a minyan together backstage. 
And Mr. Piamenta's music - he releases his latest album, "Strings of My Heart" (self-
produced) this week - isn't quite rock as most New Yorkers think of it. For one thing, he 
sings in Hebrew; most of his songs have names like "L'Shana Habaah" or "Harebbi 
M'Lubavitch." Mr. Piamenta's group combines traditional Jewish melodies, classic chasidic 
songs, early Weather Report, jazz-fusion, and the sort of meandering jamming that 
characterizes rock bands of the tie-dye set. And then there are Mr. Piamenta's solos - 
furiously picked even as he appears to be strumming, swirling not in the style of 
Hendrix's acid-washed blues but along the chordal lines of "Hava Nagila." Perhaps wisely, 
many of the songs are mostly instrumental. "Yosi is not known for his voice," admits fan 
Shlomo Drazin. 

But while the music may not quite compare to that coming out of the more secular world, if 
you're looking for an authentic subculture in indie rock you probably couldn't do better 
than New York's quietly growing chasidic rock community. Some of the bands, like Moshe 
Antelis' Rikud, are hardly rocking; they're the sort of wedding outfit that mildly plays 
reggae versions of traditional Hebrew ballads and a lounge music-tinged "Hine Ma Tov." The 
band Rock B'Simcha, on the other hand, proudly bills itself as "Zep on Torah," even though 
their heavy metal has more in common with bands like Helmet or Metallica (that is, if 
Helmet or Metallica took to singing in Hebrew and dedicating songs to Jonathan Pollard). 
You almost have to love a heavy metal band that between songs tells the crowd, "Alright, 
now we're gonna do some horas!" 

Despite these differences, in some very conventional ways the fans of these bands fit the 
indie rock stereotype. For one, they smoke a lot: the girls, the guys, the bands, all of 
them light up. They work the bar, drinking their Coronas and Rolling Rocks. They like their 
music loud, and even if the women tend to line dance regardless of the tune, a few of the 
men have managed to get the head-banging motion down pat. If they aren't quite up to par 
on the indie fashion front - at Mr. Piamenta's most recent show ties, sweater vests and 
yarmulkes were the order of the day - they have some things figured out: this is a 
community, after all, that wears that hip downtown black a lot. 

And if chasidic rockers and their fans aren't quite rebels in the conventional rock sense, 
they're certainly rebels in the broader sense of the word. Appreciating - let alone playing 
- hard rock is not common in the tightly knit, ultra-Orthodox community, and almost all of 
the musicians have had to overcome serious doubts. "Eventually, I realized that God had 
given me a gift," says one, "and that there was nothing wrong with playing rock." 

After a recent show at Wetlands (one of Mr. Piamenta's relatively uncommon public 
performances) wound to a close in the early hours of the morning, some young men stood out 
on Hudson Street, waiting for the minivan that would take them back to Crown Heights. 
"Yosi Piamenta is the greatest!" exclaimed one, while his friend raised his fist in the air 
and awkwardly declared, "We rock! We rock!" 

Mr. Shandler is senior editor at Public Affairs.

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http://www.mi-reporter.com/sited/story/html/146818
Mercer Island (WA) Reporter
Schoolhouse rock - Impromptu concert at Yeshiva High School
2003-10-23
by Mary L. Grady
Mercer Island Reporter

School was out -- and rock and roll was in the house -- last Thursday morning at Northwest 
Yeshiva High School.

In a display of spontaneity and steely determination, parents and staff at Yeshiva High 
School banded together to bring a celebrated Jewish rock guitarist, Yosi Piamenta to the 
private high school for a half-day rock-fest. 

The noisy impromptu party became the centerpiece of the week-long celebration of the 
Jewish fall festival of Sukkot.

Schoolwork was swept aside in favor of a combination rock concert, dance-fest and 
religious event. Students stood cheering on the benches in the same place that the sacred 
Torah is brought out for study. There were piles of hot dogs on an outdoor grill. Whole 
families were in attendance. There was laughter and conversation -- and a palpable sense 
of joy. 

It was a primer for community building across generations. Parents who saw a good thing, 
seized the moment to plead with the musician in town for an appearance at a synagogue in 
Seattle the night before, to postpone his trip home to perform at the school. 

Parents put their heads together, got on the phone and raised the money on the spot and 
made arrangements for the musicians and their instruments.

As the students waited impatiently for the concert to begin, senior Mimi Noteck could 
hardly contain herself: a veritable rock star was coming to her high school for a private 
performance. 

Piamenta, an Israeli expatriate living in New York, appeals to both teenagers and their 
parents, she explained. 

His influences range from traditional Jewish music to jazz to Klezmer but most importantly, 
rock. 

``It is so good to be here -- it is a surprise,'' a weary 52-year-old Piamenta said to much 
cheering, noting later that as a working musician, he never is up before noon. 

At the core of Piamenta's original compositions are traditional Jewish songs; one, he told 
the students, was written by a 12th-century rabbi. On top of those traditional melodies is 
layer upon layer of chords and melodies in the classic rock genre.

The music was loud and the three-man back-up group was tight. Piamenta's guitar work, 
reminiscent of Hendrix and Santana, slid effortlessly from one tempo to the next, building 
in complexity and power. 

The crowd could hardly get enough.

Sons, fathers, teachers and rabbis danced together in a circle with abandon. The women 
danced together behind a screen screaming delightedly, pulling in teachers and visitors 
alike to share their joy.

Other teens sat rapt, absorbing Piamenta's intricate fretwork on his Fender Stratocaster 
guitar.

Devora Lepp, a junior at the Yeshiva, had been at Piamenta's performance the night before. 

``I had so much fun,'' she said. ``At first there were just old people sitting up front, 
then we moved away the chairs and everyone was dancing.''

Jackie Fast, a senior, summed it up: ``He has set traditional music to really great rock 
and roll.'' 

After growing up in Israel, Piamenta moved to New York 25 years ago to play and record with 
his friend, saxophone-great Stan Getz. He does not read music, but is self-taught, after 
studying the technique of every guitarist he heard as a teen. 

``I played along with the radio,'' he said. ``Rock and roll was all I wanted to do.''

Piamenta plays professionally at clubs in New York and elsewhere. He recently sat in to 
play with guitarist Jeff Healy in Toronto. Piamenta has been reviewed in jazz and rock Web 
sites and heralded for his technique in music trade magazines. But he remains relatively 
unknown in the non-Jewish world.

Without his guitar, he is soft-spoken, attentive and patient, despite being mobbed with 
people. Piamenta looks like a rabbi himself, spare and intent with a long, gray beard. He 
is married with six children, ages 6 to 25. Under his black shirt, he wears a Tzitzit, a 
traditional garment worn by Jewish men to remind them they are under God's command. 

His 77-year-old father, Yehuda Piamenta is still an officer in the Israeli army. He is a 
hero, his son said.

Between songs, Piamenta took the opportunity to speak directly to the students about their 
Jewish faith.

``It took 25 years for me to realize that the earlier you find out about your God, then you 
make yourself so much better in your life,'' he said. ``If I can deliver this message to 
you, then it was worth it for me to come here.'' 

``Now,'' he said, ``it is time to dance.''

``Religion is not an ancient thing,'' said Yeshiva teacher Rabbi Chaim Weiss in response to 
the seemingly incongruous pairing of Jewish faith and the classic irreverence of rock and 
roll. ``Our Jewish way of life is not separate for us. It is modern life for us.''

``Religion is a way to live,'' Piamenta echoed. ``It is not just an idea.''

``It is not easy to satisfy the kids, not easy find the music that will catch them all,'' 
Piamenta continued. ``And thank God, yes, I have found it. I make a living from my playing.'' 

``God likes people who sing the Word, not just speak from the book,'' he said. 
 
 Copyright © 2004 Horvitz Newspapers, Inc.  

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http://www.moshiach.net/blind/lchaim/lchaim09.txt

L'CHAIM                 ISSUE No. 9
26 Iyar, 5748         Parshat Behar-Bechukosai       May 13, 1988

                CHASIDIC ROCK BAND--PIAMENTA STYLE

   The Piamenta band is unique in the Jewish music world because
of their driving rock 'n' roll beat and jazz inflections; distinct
in the  rock world, because of their utterly Jewish message.

   Yosi Piamenta plays lead guitar and Avi (four years younger)
plays flute, piano, and keyboards.  Both brothers write the band's
music and do vocals.

   Yosi and Avi were born in Jerusalem but grew up in Tel Aviv. At
thirteen, Yosi got his first guitar as a Bar Mitzvah gift.  By
eighteen, he was very much involved with rock and roll, influenced
by such groups as Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, and most of all, Jimi
Hendrix.  He joined the army as a musician, and played for the
soldiers in a military band.

   Once out of the army, Yosi joined a famous Israeli band which
just happened to be his uncle's.  But when his uncle moved to
America, Yosi stayed and formed his own band which Avi later
joined.

   Yosi explains a little about what made their music different
from the rest.  "I felt as though in rock everything that was
supposed to be said had already been said.  So I thought, what made
me different from all the others?  That I am an Israeli Jew.  So if
they talk about love, then we'll talk about loving G-d.  And so,
even at that time, when we were not religious at all, we were
making songs like Mitzvah Goreret Mitzvah (one mitzvah begets
another) and songs about blessings."

   The arrival, in Israel, of Stan Getz, the jazz saxaphone great,
was the beginning of major changes for the Piamentas.  "I called
his hotel," Yosi continues, "and invited him to come to our house.
At first he didn't want to come, but I convinced him.  We played
our music for him and he fell in love with it.  He was supposed to
spend the next two weeks in Europe, but he postponed his trip so he
could stay in Israel and record with us.  There wasn't a newspaper
in Israel that didn't have an article about it."

   Two months later, Yosi got a call from Getz asking him to go to
America to mix the album they had worked on together.  It must have
seemed to Yosi that his big dream was coming true.

   "I left for America on my 25th birthday and I took my tefilin
with me.  I wanted to take something that would keep me tuned into
my origins.  But I was still not religious."

   Yosi lived with Stan Getz for six months and met most of the
famous jazz musicians of the time.  They enjoyed Piamentas'  music
because of its oriental flavor, something they had never heard
before.

   It was during this time that things began to change for Yosi.
"It seemed like my big American dream was blowing away.  The more I
knew these guys in person the less I wanted to be involved with
them."  Drugs, infidelity, no relationship with their children--
this was what Yosi saw, and it turned him off.

   "I wanted a strong family.  I thought there must be a code one
can follow in this business to help keep the family strong and
central.  And I found for me the only way that seemed guaranteed
was the Jewish way."  From this point on, Yosi began getting more
involved with Judaism.  "I didn't neglect my music," he says, "and
I kept on blossoming and learned more and played better and wrote
better music than ever before."

   Avi's story echoes Yosi's.  He also describes what he saw in
the lives of big name musicians as the key that helped him turn
towards Torah.  "I was able to realize something basic was
missing," he says, "and later, I was able to see that what was
missing was Torah and a Torah lifestyle."

   Unlike Yosi, Avi did worry about how his music would fit in
with his new lifestyle.  But he soon realized that there was no
contradiction.  He could combine his knowledge of music with his
knowledge of Judaism and give over a very positive and potent
message.  "When people listen to music and they move to it, then
everything is open, and they can really hear what is going on."

   Although becoming observant is not an easy thing, once he made
the move, Yosi says, he would not go back for anything in the
world.  "If they promised me a night to play with the Rolling
Stones on Shabbat, I wouldn't do it, not for all the money or fame
in the world."

              Excerpted from "Wellsprings" magazine.

