Elevate: The making of the album & the story of Yossi Kohn A'H

[Music] it's hard to go back it's very tough to go back to the day that this tragedy happened um I'll never forget that night I had a job and I was singing in in uh in Brooklyn and at towards the end of the job somebody told me by the way you know I know you're going home soon but something big happened to clly and a tragedy and I didn't understand the full gamut of it I said what happened I tried to find out and um and of course we heard about it and later on that night obviously not a lot of people slept and I kept tossing and turning not able to sleep and and my wife Janine said you know by the way yeah they can't find Yi so I met Yi K Shalom I had this of meeting Yosi I should say through my dear friend Yakov kman so I get asked all the time how do you know yusi K how was it that it's not just that you knew yusi k but you became really close to him and the answer is is that Hashem gave me a gift his sister lived near me his uncle and aunt live near me and I don't know why I just somehow gravitated towards his pure greatness I remember Friday I'll never forget there was a f Friday right before shabas there's a lot of things going on in the house and Yi comes and he sweeps and everybody's taking showers everybody's rushing and this guy this kid sh Yosi and he he's cleaning up and he's making sure the table's set and I'm like Yosi did you take a shower did you no I want to get the house ready and I know yakov's wife is working very hard there's no here to help so I'm going to sweep up and I'm going to do the dishes and I'm going to make sure said y did you take a shower yet yeah I'll get to myself later puts everybody else in front of him the first time I told yussi that I'm I'm good friends with Yakov he he tells me he says really he said like friends and I said yeah and [Music] so I told him yeah Yi let me introduce you to yakos Shi let me introduce you to the to the greatest biggest singer in the world because that's what I knew yusi k strived for yusi k strived for Perfection and greatness I really connected with him he said actually on the next trip that we take together he's going to come along I said great I want to get to know him cuz when I first talked to yusi even the first time he had a certain uh you know energy about him and he loved music by by the way loved loved getting together and listening to every type of music and why do we why did we feel to do an album in his memory music has a way that when you listen to a song you go back in time and as certain songs are playing on this album I'll never forget recording them for sure whether it was here in my house in the studio remembering yusi remember him singing the songs remember him being so happy to sing on chabas together and how and as I recorded these songs I remembered him much better it was a way Yakov clogan gave us a tremendous gift in actually remembering a person through music and he loved loved music and he loved every type of song so it was so appropriate to have an album of diverse diverse type of music m is you talk about how why is everything in memory you know why because he embodied Yi was an embodiment of the full Jewish scope the full everything and that's what this Elevate project is all about every single song will embody what yusi is all about so enjoy it let's continue to elevate up up and up [Music] we bring up Benny laer who did Thea medley on this album so I wanted to incorporate the young laer along obviously with his father's help and you listen to Thea medley on this album and you you actually go back to the taste of MOA ala the old vintage way of arranging but yet in a new in A New Concept in a new way and that's what this whole album as I said is about it's taking older songs but making it also very current and also the arrangement should be different on every medley and he did a spectacular job on Thea medley you're you you close your eyes in the H medley and you really feel that you're at a wedding and you're at a very emotional you know ceremony [Music] [Applause] [Music] all the bands elevated their game and their talent because they heard who yussi was and every single band took their artistic talent to another level on this album you have a guy like Yoli Dickman who does weddings in good friend of mine from many years and does fantastic weddings every single night in Israel yet he can take his energy and put it towards an unbelievable Penta medley theun my dear friend Yu Penta who I loved so much who was an artist in his own right but he gave it such such an enthusiasm and an energy and the quality of today's recordings that to me was an amazing amazing feat when I hear that medley [Music] [Applause] so the way we went about picking each band for each track uh was a tedious process because each one of these artists are able to take a band of musicians and really get the best out of each one and that's artistic talent like Mendy htz I knew right away he's a big band guy that's a sound I mean he could do a lot of things but he can do it like really really top shelf quality and meny really came in a few somebody's going to hear that medley it's it's such a artistic arrangement in such a way that you're not going to that's not a regular medley walk into Israeli wedding you walk in there is a certain sound and a certain feeling you get in Israel that you cannot get in America amiran has been a friend of mine since I started singing over 20 years and he's been doing it on a nightly basis the energy that he has and the singing and the vibe that he gives I wanted people to also have in their minds like they're walking into an Israeli wedding so you take a guy out of the wedding element and you put him in a studio and you tell him by the way there's a here and there's no there isn't it's a studio so he has to but he had that he took his kear and he um he actually played it in the studio and he sent me videos I said amiran you got I have to feel like I'm at I'm at a wedding says okay okay okay and he so it's a matter of doing it a few takes but he did an amazing job amiran is a good friend of mine he was actually one of the first calls because I know him for so long and he he said yeah when when when am I going to the studio I got to take my band I got to do he was so enthusiastic about it so I thank him and of course I thank every single person that uh put so much energy and so much time into their medleys [Music] [Applause] B [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] so I talked about walking into an Israeli wedding but now I I also want people when they listen to it in Israel to feel like they're walking into an American Wedding and who does the great you know more kidish dance sets there none other than naftali schnitzler who actually um produced this album and he was able to take his his energy and his kic feel and he he did many also many styles too but I felt that in the first Danse that you need somebody you know you can hear these songs many times millions of times repeat the same you know uh and you can just sing it like that and then you can sing it with with a certain Rhythm and a certain energy that gives that dance set you know it's uniqueness and Naish mler hid it out of the park he did f fantastic so hery Weinberger my dear friend he brought so much so much flavor to this album hery did he has a phenomenal mind um I love the way he approaches certain things he approaches vocals he approaches you know we did a lot of stuff together when we sat me and him either in my house Studio or in House of Music and when we sat together coming up with different approaches how we're going to do different things um you know he's the composer of so has a certain hearts and he has a tremendous uh artistic talent of how to approach certain things so ASU was phenomenal on this album I was looking around who can do a middle eastern sound that I haven't done before Middle Eastern sound that brings like even a Moroccan flavor to it and a totally uh electronic way you know that Fusion of Electro Moroccan regular Middle Eastern songs that I've done in the past and fuse it all together in one medle it was a tedious process how to find a guy David baton I mean it's amazing I I listen back to it now and I can't help but say wow this is something you know unique we haven't done that before this mrai set on this album is different from past album mrai sets that we've done in a way that gives it a lot more punch a lot more energy A lot faster BPM faster paced songs I actually brought a guest singer that I've sang with out of the country in Morocco and in Paris and all these different types of um Simas that I've done and I spent actually a Shabbat in Morocco um with him his name is ABI ohayon and he actually they did so much Moroccan stuff at this wedding at the shabas they sang a lot of Moroccan stuff and everybody was jumping and even on the table you know at the shabas table we sang till 23 in the morning and I'm just sitting there singing along in some of the songs but just enjoying the whole vibe and asked him by the way I'm thinking about doing a diverse album of a lot of energetic mizi sets would you come as he said of course so he actually recorded uh you know he does some of the singing on this but so it's different in that way that we brought a lot of you know authenticity but yet uh David baton did an amazing job and I told him when I heard it every time I hear it I actually send him a message of how great of energy and fast-paced and also I record actually a lot of my older songs on there um like kov inshah and those type of songs but in that Vibe so uh that was [Music] amazing bring the happiness bring the Joy's go another medley I want to talk about is of Ry burko burko is a dear dear friend of mine um that's been on the wedding scene for many many years very very multi multi talented he actually arranged for me uh on my last studio album Aid he arranged alip gimmel he composed also a little bit very very talented guy um but he loves the electro you know pop type of sound that's what he he loves of course he can do it all but you listen toy buros again my older songs it starts with it's an old song actually my older brother composed the song my first album but the way he gives it with the uh with that feel with the electro feel and he um he just workaholic to get things perfect I talk about the kumit medley and doy misel is my dear friend he has a talent of besides his singing ability and his guitar power playe there is a certain ability that when he takes the mic the band members behind him have a certain soothing sound that people want to sing along with to me that that's that's an art there's no better way to bring out the message of who yasi Kon was of making people feel great of doing greatness to serve aesh than having music done through yakushi yakushi is somebody that can Elevate people through his emotion through his pure greatness and that's how we came up with this project of bringing people together bringing a message together from all walks of life all different types of people kidish litvish spish Israeli Americans everybody you have so many different diverse musicians coming together here to bring out the message of what of life is great let's let's do more let's be happy with what we have and with that let's Elevate to Greatness to be close and I'll never forget the conversation I had with Yi's mother speaking about Yi Shalom and who he embodied and how he made everybody feel good and how he walks into Yeshiva and every type of kid as he's going to his seat is getting up to say hi to him and I was telling his mother on the phone there's no greater way to remember Yi there's no greater way singing along but yet taking also the lessons of who he was and how he lived and how he loved and how he was able to just get everybody together on one Mission that's who Yi was [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] s [Music]