Oi Va Voi (British band)

Oi Va Voi are a British band formed in London, England in the year 2000. The band emerged from the UK world music crossover scene, enabling Jewish musicians to bring cultural styles into contemporary songwriting. The band blended their heritage with an emphasis on modern pop sensibilities reflecting their own individual interests in indie rock and alt-folk and the urban dance music of the clubs of London. The band takes its name from a Yiddish-derived exclamation popular in modern Hebrew meaning, approximately, "Oh, my gosh!". The band started in the cities of Oxford and London, when Jonathan Walton a.k.a. Lemez Lovas met Josephine Burton. The earliest line-up had Josephine as the singer and Jonathan on trumpet who in turn knew violinist Sophie Solomon. Both of them knew bassist Leo Bryant, clarinetist Steve Levi who had been studying at Oxford Brookes and guitarist Jake Baum. This early line-up had about 4-5 gigs in Autumn 1998 in Oxford and then a gig in London in January 1999. A second guitarist Nik Ammar joined through mutual connections and then Jonathan met drummer Josh Breslaw. After university the band all moved to London and carried on playing together with a regular spot at an Albanian Bar called KOHA. Within a year this core line up started to solidify and the band found a young Jewish urban arts scene in London to grow into. The London scene of the late nineties was a melting pot of world music genres and scenes that were beginning to coalesce around dance music, propelled and facilitated in part by the early days of the internet and to a great extent by the efforts of DJs and broadcasters such as Charlie Gillett and Gilles Peterson. In the early days of the internet it was radio shows such as The Sound of the World and WorldWide that typified the outward looking perspective of the UK music scene of that time. JMI booked the band to play at the Southbank Centre in Autumn of 1999 to which conversations followed between the Jewish Music Institute and Oi Va Voi, where guidance, mentoring and financial assistance were given. The outcome was twofold, firstly YADARTS was created by Josephine and Jonathan to be an agency and hub for young Jewish music and arts to which they launched to a series on sell out concerts at Union Chapel. Secondly, JMI saw the potential in the band and had confidence in their ambition and so sponsored the members of the group to go out to KlezKamp Philadelphia where the band learned Klezmer from masters like Frank London of The Klezmatics. Josh recalled in interview, "I was aware of the sound but never sat inside the music from the drummers stool, it was like BAM! I felt attached to it but no matter I never got the sense I had to play according to a set rhythm rather that I complimented and played drums and bass beats and other rhythms into it."[citation needed] The direction took to mix Klezmer and Jewish roots music with House, Drum and Bass, Dubstep and Hip Hop. The line-up found an audience amongst regular performances at The Spitz in East London which is where they found a crowd keen to hear more and it wasn't long before a following started to take shape. With a London following and a fresh new sound, heads started to turn and it wasn't long before shows in LA, Moscow and Washington followed. Former singer Josephine Burton left the band and went to set up the agency Yad Arts together with BBC DJ Max Reinhardt. Yad Arts arranged collaborations for the band, leading to a cross-cultural venture with Moroccan band Momo on a project called Roots & Harmony. The North African musical collaborations continued and they soon collaborated with the French Algerian pianist Maurice El Medioni of El Gusto. Wanting to capture and record the music that the band had been developing, the band set out to record a self-funded debut. With recording and CD production costs still being high at this moment in time, the band were mentored by record producer, musician and WOMEX founder Ben Mandelson. The band applied to the Jewish Music Institute's Millennium Award Fund and received a grant to record and produce their first album, which was recorded at Livingstone Studio Wood Green and produced and engineered by Josh Breslaw and Lemez Lovas. "Digital Folklore". Some of the tracks on the album were later abridged and re-recorded for Laughter Through Tears, one example is the Hungarian folk song "A csitári hegyek alatt" whose vocals were performed by a female singer on the new album. The response to the album served to not only galvanise their following around the new release but was also nominated for a BBC World Music Award, went on to see them perform a showcase at Womex in Essen and then sign to Outcaste Records. Laughter Through Tears was the band's second album. The band played at world music festivals, rock festivals, solidly touring Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia and Poland. The band, still self-managing whilst on tour, got a song from digital folklore called "7 Brothers" licensed to Outcaste for a compilation called "Future of Flamenco" which was compiled by the band's future A&R person, Martin Morales. Martin subsequently signed to the band. The label offered the band mentoring to help the creative process reach a wider audience. The label focused on assisting the band with songwriting and draughted in singers to help strengthen the sound. Outcaste (label under artistic directorship of British composer Nitin Sawnhey which was an imprint of Relentless to which KT was a signed artist) brought in singer KT Tunstall and suggested that the band write songs for her. The label brought in producers Grammy Award, Bacon and Quarmby to produce the album. Some of the tracks on the album were originally on the band's debut, Digital Folklore, one example is the Hungarian folk song "A Csitári" whose vocals were performed by a male singer in the older album, and by Judit Németh in Laughter Through Tears. The album includes a remix of "7 Brothers" as a hidden track, it is found after the 3 minutes and 7 seconds of silence after "Pagamenska". Having signed to Outcaste Records.[clarification needed] The band recorded the album in the studio and had additional production from Moshik Kop and Toni Economedes (Da Lata) plus guest singers - Judit Nemeth, Earl Zinger, Lenny Breslaw (Drummer's father) and Mayer Bogdanski. The album had a strong urban production which was also complemented by numerous remixes which included Hefner and Matthew Herbert Big Band accompanying its release. The band released the album came out in October 2003 with launch show at Bush Hall, followed by an extensive European tour in February 2004. So buoyant was the band that on returning to the UK they did a follow-up tour May 2004. This in turn carried on into the summer festival circuit, including Glastonbury, Cambridge Folk Festival, Big Chill, Larmer Tree, a whole host of others. After the UK, the band then returned to Europe to switch from venues to festivals for the entire summer of 2004 which saw them break into some of the larger festivals such as Exit Novi Sad, Sziget. After the album release and a year of touring the band returned to London, KT Tunstall finished her role within the band and went to do her solo album, Eye to the Telescope which was released by Relentless later in 2004 to huge acclaim. The band then set about auditioning new singers to replace Tunstall and started working on a new record. Sophie Solomon started to write for a solo project. Nick Mander went from managing elements of the band's interests and to stepping in as their manager. The band won the Edison Award in Holland. The band left Outcaste records in 2005 and went to sign with V2 Records and began to work on their second official release. The band was going through a period of flux. With KT Tunstall having left to work on her own career, Sophie Solomon also left to pursue a solo career that culminated in the release of her album Poison Sweet Madeira. Lemez Lovas took a