Artist description ... MoZaiK is an eight piece improvisational band including Guitar/Mandolin/Saz, Piano,Violin, Saxophone/Flute/Bass Clarinet, Bass, Drums, Percussion and more.Drawing from the Roots of Jewish Soul Music and their own World Wanderings. Blending the sounds of Klezmer, Ancient Middle Eastern melodies with Jazz sensibilities and a jamming approach that fuses African Tribal Trance to the Psychedelic explosion born out of Northern California.MoZaiK is "Able to make a grandmother dance on a table and a teenager scream for more"

Music Style Blending klezmer,jazz,psychedelic rock,middle eastern music and Jazz

Musical Influences Sun Ra, Shlomo Carlebach, David Grisman, Pharoah Sanders, Alice Coltrane,Birds...Waves...Solar Winds

Artist History Mozaik has existed in one form or another for almost ten years. It first came into being sitting on the stairs of sproul plaza where the free speech movement has its humble historic beginnings, on the University of California at Berkeley campus. These words flowed onto the inside cover of my new journal...............MoZaiK is a state of becoming...This state is made up of different individuals, sounds, colors, actions and philosophies. All coming together as a model for all to see. We are headed in a conscious direction Surpassing the mental and physical barriers ingrained within us and throughout the world. The direction we are headed in has us Celebrating our Differences, enabling us to Live, Create and Recreate as a breathing, single Sound and Soul.....................These words led way for many projects including the formation of a band that this web site is dedicated to and the formation of a Music Therapy organization. Mozaik for many years revolved around a core of Brett Jacobson (Guitar) and Peter Kafin (Keys). We played as a duet for many yearsjamming with many different musicians, accompanying singer songwriters and playing out as a duet. One of our greatest experiences, and one that sent us in the direction we are deep into, had us traveling to Morocco to accompany the great Hasidic teacher and melody magician Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach. His melodies alone account for the majority of songs one hears today in Jewish places of worship and celebration throughout the world. Spending time with Reb Shlomo in Israel, Morocco, New York and California helped us see the power of both old and new Jewish melodies and how a simple melody or Niggun (Hebrew for melody without words) can transform a person from sad to happy, from weeping to exultation. And can turn a room of people from simple observers to a dancing, breathing, single, screaming whole. In other words music is the water that helps us grow. And as so many traditions around the world have shared The World is Sound, so I say lets play with it.................Anyway, this was around '93-'94 and since then Mozaik has played a combination of our own original music, the melodies of Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach and any other deep and radical melodies we could find from as far back as what today is called Iraq from nearly 2,000 years ago.----In the last couple year Mozaik has had a sort of explosion in sound. Every year we play a special concert in San Francisco for the holiday Chanukah. The late great concert promoter Bill Graham built a 20 foot Menorah (candelabra) which was the place of the first public lighting of a menorah outside of Israel. So every year there is this great concert and two years ago we went ahead and put together some of our favorite musician friends to sort of blast open the gates and that is what happened. We added violin, saxophone and flute, middle eastern percussion and Indian percussion. It was so much fun and we received such a great response that we are all still playing together experimenting with sound, always looking for ways to blend eight musicians in an instrumental and improvisational setting.

Group Members THE BAND---------------------PETER KAFIN, Piano, Fender Rhodes, P-BoardsPlaying is similar to a running stream. Been playing piano for 26 years. Peter has focused on the healing sounds of . Has been working at a psychiaMusic and has a Master in Music Toured Morocco with Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach and played with Kings Royal Orchestra. Has found himself on stage calling out tunes to Henry Kaiser. Has a baby named Ben Carlos.__________________ BRETT JACOBSON, Guitars, Acoustic and Electric, Mandolin, Saz, bells, seeds & shells Loves the sound of simplicity but finds complete joy in chaos. Loves the sound of a stick hitting another stick or rock or the wind or a voice toning with another but has ridiculous amounts of electronic effects, affectionately known as toys, but really thinks of them more like sticks or rocks or the wind. Founding member of the theatrical space funk band known as You. Went to Morocco and other countries playing with Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach known as the "Singing Rabbi". Started a Music Therapy organization that has been running since '94, brought music to people in need such as convalescent centers, psychiatric wards, adolescent centers and homeless shelters. Has traveled around the world jamming with and recording local peoples & cultures. Works on a Project Called the Storyscape Project which archives indigenous people songs, stories and language. Recently featured on NPR all things considered. _____________JUSTIN KATZ,Contra Bass, Electric Bass, Shofar, Samples a.k.a. Zohar Mitzvak, Abraham Birmingham, Prince Yaakov, Rikki Uomini, Ronnie Smalls (a persona for all occasions) Performs Pagan Lounge Music with Rosin Coven, Psychedelic Jewgrass with Mozaik, Organic Space Freak with YOU, Music Therapy and Eerily Heart Warming Folk Music with himself.Has appeared with Perry Farrel, Greg Allman, Wavy Gravy, Greg Anton, JoJo Fresh and Shelley Doty. Loves dirt, tai chi, chai tea, Midnight Rose, vinyl, waves, juice Hates the texture of the inside of a raw tomato, finding a dead body in the bathroom of the DMV, loud loud music Questions right answers - Believes a love supreme ___________________ MORGAN FICHTER Viofiddle, SawThis dancing angel of the earth, with her unbelievable ability to make simple lines sound like emotions has graced the presence (as a member) of some pretty heavy and excellent bands such as Camper Van Beethoven and Jane's Addiction. She also joined 10,000 Maniacs for their famous MTV Unplugged show and followed it with a tour. To our luck we found her at home grounding here in Berkeley, Ca. after returning from down deep at the tip of the Arabian Penninsula in Yemen. Her gypsy spirit and sound has lifted Mozaik into and beyond the old country. __________________SCHROEDER, Saxaphone, Flute, Bass Clarinet, Slide Whistle Ah, the Captain, what seas he may have us sail. Most recent press write up wrote "looked like Flash Gordan but blew like Sonny Rollins." on Sax well...his Tone! and of course his circular breathing and oh yeh, that leg thing! on Flute... he flies... on echoes... we ride. This past New Years, down in New Orleans, Schroeder was asked to sit in with Galactic. Schroeder was an original member of the touring funk band Wise Monkey Orchestra as well as being a member of the band YOU. He has put out an excellent solo ambiant recording called Eggies. ____________AHARONE BOLSTA, Tabla, Dumbek, traps, Flute, Calabash, Mbira--Aharon has a silly, yet infectous smile. Aharon spent the last couple years living wat Ali Akbar Khan's school of music here he accompanied the great Sarod master on Tabla. He most recently spent the last month in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Togo, Africa. ____________JEN MIRIAM, Riqq (middle eastern tambourine),Zills( Finger Cymbals), DumbekThe head prophetess, able to ride on the back of dolphins with timbre in hand. Has spent time studying in Israel, has taken many drum seminars from master drummer Babatunde Olatunji. Is a healer. She has studied many forms of body work and has recently completed an instructor level in the eastern tradition of healing called Breemah ___________PATRICK KALISKI, Traps, percussion Known as Pickle to many Patrick recently masterminded the release of a Bay Area compilation recording called SF 2000 Time Capsule. Check it out! Patrick came to fill in on drums last year and has been there ever since. He shares the rythm section Rosin Coven and Mozduties with Mr.Katz in three bands YOU, Mozaik and Rosin Coven thus their communication has been key to many on the fly tempo and arrangement changes. __________PJ MEDINA appears on traps on the Beyond Words CD

Instruments GUITAR, MANDOLIN, VIOLIN, TABLA, PIANO, RIQQ, DUMBEK,bASS,TRAPS,SAX,FLUTE,CLARINETS

Albums Beyond Words

Press Reviews Sonic Net writes-------"Psychedelic klezmer rockers Mozaik quickly amped up the tone, doling out long, rhythmic folk jams with electric guitar, upright bass, fiddle, keyboards, flute, drums and percussion. The crowd, which had been mostly seated rose quickly to its feet, and the tables of the ornate hall were pushed aside as partiers of all ages linked arms to form huge, spinning dance circles that whirled around the floor._________________________________" Jewish Bulletin writes"--------It was nearing midnight when the klezmer and trance-inspired band MoZaik hit the stage. Combining hypnotic guitar riffs with a deep bass backdrop, and with a saxophonist who looked like Flash Gordon and blew like Sonny Rollins, the crowd had reached the apex of it emotions. Two hora circles formed, each gaining in energy and electricity until they enveloped almost the entire dance floor. A stray dancer, who looked like Zorro on a bad hair day, did some impromptu yoga exercises. Peering over the balcony was Jeffrey Kellner, who declined to say what his costume was, other than to say it was 'natural.' When asked to comment on the evening, Kellner shrugged and gazed over the twisting collection of appendages. 'There is a translucent element not readily apparent to any other culture that is evident here tonight,' he said._________________________________________"Forward Magazine writes----------"Purimpalooza was held at the Great American Music Hall, a quaint venue in downtown San Francisco. A musty mix of sweat and marijuana permeated the hall. Purim could not have been more bizarre. I entered to the rock-tinged klezmer of Mozaik, an eight-person act whose loopy costumes made them look like a white version of George Clinton's P-Funk All-Stars. The dancing veered between religious and secular; we were kicking our feet out in a circle one moment, undulating to trance music the next. Our friend Mayer even managed to body-surf (the rock concert sport in which fans lift willing victims and pass them over their heads) for a good 90 seconds______________________________________"High Sierra Music Festival writes"-------------This psychedelic instrumental jewgrass band dishes out spirited rythms along with soothing melodies that marry old world (Middle Eastern desert settings) with new (wide) world wanderings. Mozaik takes the jamming approach that often employs jazz sensibilities and brings tribal trance to Masada like enormity with tabla,mandolin,violin, dumbek,bass clarinet and more. Such a deal!"

Additional Info Have been called John Coltrane sitting in with the Grateful Dead playing a Jewish Wedding

Location BERKELEY, CA - USA

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