Shanir Ezra Blumenkranz
Why are we talking about Blumenkranz today? Because of strange relationships, and mostly because of the deeply rooted ones. In one of his interviews he says that a person can’t change or betray their DNA. When you carry the blood of North Africa, it always stays with you. When we then add a Sephardic and an American taste, we get today’s music by Shanir Blumenkranz - a person with North African roots, Sephardic flair and a New York address.
Our meetings with him started off with John Zorn’s music. After that, we found out that the connection is Cyro Baptista and his project Banquet of Spirits, issued on Zorn’s Tzadik label in 2008.
Of course, you cannot describe the live meetings, and this hurricane of emotions, craftsmanship, and a dive into the core of the process is visible every time at the lives of musicians of this class. In one of his video interviews, John Zorn explains the four factors of music these days. The craftsmanship, together with ideas, honesty, bravery are the elements, according to Zorn.
This is all totally valid for Shanir Blumenkranz.
One universe, that we dive into with great pleasure every time we see him.
When you encounter John Zorn’s music for the first time you can’t imagine how many wholesome musicians you would come across. Each one of them deserves their own text. And after Marc Ribbot and Cyro Baptista, today we talk about Shanir Ezra Blumenkranz. He came up around John Zorn and his project Book of Angels. After that we took a deep dive into Banquet of the Spirits with Cyro Baptista and Blumenkranz’s individual project Abraxas, but none of that can prepare us for the live meetings, which always have a couple of faces. And he somehow blends into each instrument that he plays. As a person with roots in the West and Northern Africa, Blumenkranz carefully dives into the history and the past. And the result is obvious. As an innovator, he is one of the engines of the project Abraxas and the aggressive note in Zorn’s music. You would be surprised by the changes, just like it happened to us.
A chameleon and a deep musician, for whom depth is important. A person with an academic background and a strong curiosity. A brave man, for whom today matters. A virtuoso and a poet. You will see him wear many faces.
During the time of our meetings throughout the last couple of years in Sarajevo we saw and heard Blumenkranz play all possible string musical instruments. It is weird to listen to different projects with a totally different theme. And he enters - from Secret Chefs 3, through Banquet of the Spirits, to New Masada Quartet, to the sub-Saharan bass gimbri, to the oud, to the acoustic and electric bass with the same energy and motivation. Truthfully.
He is in love with string instruments, he learned how to play the oud, the ‘’mother of instruments’’, as Alexander Hacke says in the movie by Fatih Akin ‘’Crossing the Bridge’’. He follows the gimbri to this day.
Today we listen to the oud, gimbri, bass - electric and acoustic. We listen to the soul of a musician. Accompanied by Cyro Baptista and Brian Marsella. Two contemporary giants, of course in Zorn’s shadow.
Welcome to the world of Shanir Blumenkranz in a couple of pieces from various albums. With gimbri, oud, bass, and co.
Abraxas Yaasriel
CYRO Banquet Of The Spirits & Nels Cline
ABRAXAS Live
October 2020
Image ©МА
