I had the privilege to hear last night a musician that I knew nothing before. I actually came to listen to Israeli percussionist Chen Zimbalista in a program of Gypsy Music, part of a series of World Music which runs in parallel with the Hot Jazz music series at the Museum of Art in Tel Aviv. The great surprise of the evening was to discover Emil Aybinder, one of the best accordionists I have ever listened to.
source http://www.youtube.com/user/cant0naa
Emil Aybinder is born in Bassarabia (the ‘Republic of Moldova’) in 1949, and lives in Israel since 1990. He founded the accordion section at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance and created the the Ensemble for Folklore Music at the Academy. His repertory is broad, the focus is on Balkans (and especially Romanian) music, but the two records I bought show him approaching beautifully the French and Latino-American sounds as well. He is playing with virtuosity and passion, his stature on stage is remarkable, while his eyes search permanently the reaction, the sparks and the joy from the audience, from which he seems to extract the energy to do more and more music.
(video source paulviolino)
Here are a few of the Romanian-inspired songs I found on youTube.
Emil’s Web site can be accessed at http://www.aybinder.com/.
Amazing!