This time in December a packed house was glad to be able to welcome the guitar-oriented, afro-influenced dynamic quintet from Israel led by Omer Ahsano (https://www.omerashanomusic.com/imma-express), taking a detour from their tour of Germany. They played an extended set of originals, which fascinated all those present with their true power of imagination, intricate melodies, and lots of interplay although this was not their standard lineup.
            After the memorable concert I sent my questions to Omer, however he needed some more time to answer them because he returned to Israel following their concert in Veszprém before the end of the year. Anyway, here is the conversation and an on-the spot video to give you a taste of the music.

How did you decide on the afro musical direction your Imma Express would take? After all, Israeli jazz has been quite renowned on the global jazz scene for Mid-Eastern sounds and rhythms. I understand that in Tel Aviv a lot of immigrants from the African continent have arrived recently and you heard and met them, is that the main reason?

– I was drawn to a variety of African musical genres since I was in my teens. At first it was more tribal music of sorts and later on in life I started being charmed by contemporary records and urban music coming from the African continent. My exposure to these sounds playing around the neighbourhoods surrounding the Tel Aviv central bus station was key in pushing me to explore these contemporary musical genres deeper. I guess being in my generation and having grown up already hearing a lot of Middle-Eastern music and “Falafel Jazz” as some may call it, got me accustomed to these colours and they didn't strike me as exotic and intriguing as West and East African music I came across by while in Tel Aviv.

 You build up your very interesting compositions in an enchanting way, not the just the theme, all containing a strong melodic statement, plus the far-reaching improvs. How do you compose, do you always plan those in such overarching, large structures? 

– As I told the audience in the concert the word ‘imma' of Imma Express means ‘mother’ in Hebrew. I see mother as a symbol for grounding and connecting to our hearts rather than our minds and that is the core value that leads me in composing for Imma Express while still trying to keep some respect for my more intellectual or “academic” endeavours in music. Despite the intricate composition process of writing the sebene (the Congolese counterpoint technique) lines for the three guitars in the band, I try to keep the beat of the music danceable and the melodies very lyrical and relatable. Many times, in my composition process I actually start with a harmonic structure, then I orchestrate it in sebene technique and then I try to sing a melody that touches me over the chord progression. In terms of how I stretch the structure of each tune and create these overarching compositions – I learned a lot about that from listening to a lot of Congolese rumbas, soukous and sebene music. The original bands playing that music many times were formed in dancehalls and bars within Central African urban hubs and sponsored by different alcoholic beverages companies which sponsored the bands. The band’s duty was to keep people dancing and drinking until the early hours of the morning and in order to do that, the composers of those tunes had to figure out different techniques to keep a single song interesting and danceable sometimes for the duration of almost 20 minutes! In Imma Express we practice and combine many of these techniques in the compositions so a single song can have many different sections which helps keeping it stimulating for a longer period of time even without having too tiresome solos. 

Omens for the Budapest Jazz House concert were not really good to say the least, but despite the war and all mishaps you just enjoyed playing this intimate venue as much as possible. What gives you such a strong stand to overcome obstacles?

– The October 7 massacre and the war following the event was traumatic and painful. My girlfriend and I spent October 7th morning in the bomb shelter in our building and later on as we fled Tel Aviv to find shelter in my parents’ village, which is less bombarded by Hamas missiles, we were caught by a missile bombardment while on the Tel-Aviv express highway. Missiles exploded over our heads and a direct hit in a neighbourhood just across the highway shook the ground beneath us. My little brother (14 of age) lost three friends from his surfing club who participated in the Nova music festival which saw one of the most brutal massacres of October 7th. Nonetheless, I’m lucky not have lost any of my close relatives during the war and none of my friends are currently fighting in the Gaza or northern front of the war. That allowed me to feel emotionally able to embark on this tour despite the challenges of it. Since arriving in Europe on December 1st life have seemed like a fantasy in a parallel universe to me. Music and human relationships are the two things that bring the most joy and meaning to my life and being surrounded by both of these during the tour alongside the beauty of Germany and Hungary, helped me keep my spirits up, be hopeful and focused on overcoming challenges through the underlining fear and sadness that lies within every Israeli and Palestinian person during these ugly times for both us people. I am privileged to have music lift me up and playing my music to other people who enjoy it fills me with happiness and playfulness, even in scary and painful times. 

Please, tell us about your relation to your instrument, how it started and all. 

– I began playing the violin when I was 6 years old. I didn’t grow up in a musical household but having my grandfather on my dad’s side being a jazz drummer and my grandmother on my mom’s side being a classical pianist probably helped spark some passion for music in me. Later on, around the age of 13 I suffered from a crisis with my violin and wanted to quit playing it and get away from classical music and teachers in favour of learning blues and Rock n’ Roll on the electric guitar. Through guitar studies I got exposed to jazz, blues, music harmony concepts and improvisation, and that is actually what sparked my interest in the violin again. Finding my passion in music which is improvisation and composition, I was able to see the violin again as a tool for my personal expression and so I got back to practicing it independently while later on returning to study classical violin and jazz with various teachers both in the music conservatory and later on in jazz academies. I’ve been playing jazz, folk and world music on the violin since I was 15 basically alongside my classical training which I ceased around the age of 19. 

The band was not quite the usual line-up of Imma Express, but you have been touring Germany recently. Please, introduce the band in its standard line-up and the musicians you played with here

– As sad as it was for me to let off the Israeli members of Imma Express for the sake of being able to embark on this musical tour, being joined by the Berlin musicians I hired was an absolute pleasure. 
The Israeli line up of Imma Express includes Yoav Eshed, an amazing jazz guitarist who actually joined us on this European tour as well since he was arriving from New York. Nitzan Bar is the other guitar player in Imma Express and one of the guitar prodigies in Israel who started performing in Israel’s biggest jazz festivals and venues since his teens. The bassist of the group is called Lior Ozeri and is one of Israel’s busiest bass players. He comes rather from a rock-fusion/metal background nonetheless he grooves hard in any type of music which he takes part of. Our drummer Shahar Edry is actually the latest addition to our band, and he is a very busy drummer in the Israeli Middle Eastern pop scene. I fell in love with how Shahar played the Congolese Rumba groove when I was auditioning him, so I knew right away he’s a perfect match for this group.
The European based group consisted of two guitarists who are already long-time colleagues of mine - Yoav Eshed who I’ve mentioned before and Yochai Noah Sadeh who is a close friend of mine, also Israeli, who became a friend of mine during our mutual time spent in New York City between 2016-2020. The two other members - bassist Francesco Beccaro and Hungarian drummer Péter Somos, were introduced to me through mutual connections in Berlin. I’ve stalked several Berlin based musicians’ social accounts for a while and had phone calls with a few of them until I came to the conclusion that Francesco and Peter would be the best fit to drive the groove of the band, while also being fun and professional colleagues during the tour. I wasn’t wrong! 

 Preview:

Budapest Jazz House, 2023. december 11.

Fotó: YT, Gaya's Photos, Avihai Levy