Yoav Gera, Israeli sound technician, know Ofra Haza very good. Since she signed in Hed Arzi record company in 1982 until her international breakthrough he worked with her on all of her albums.
Yoav, the husband of the famous Israeli radio host Shira Gera, worked with Ofra and her manager Bezalel Aloni for years. For the first time he has agreed to tell about his work with Ofra in this exclusive interview for the Keeping The Flame Burning site.
When Gera first met Ofra and Bezalel it was apparent that they both had a great work ethic, the likes of which he had almost never seen. He said they were in the studio many, many times before and after performances and that before and after television interviews they would go to the studio and work on new songs. Gera said that Ofra recorded a lot, and he had her scheduled at least once a week. He always tried to make sure that Ofra and the also popular Israeli singer Yardena Arazi, who were considered “enemies” at the time, would not record on the same day. “We weren’t afraid that the two of them would meet but we had bad experiences with their managers’ meetings”, he said, while insisting that there was no hostility between Ofra and Yardena themselves. He added that Ofra always wanted tea with honey while she was recording.
Gera said that there was a very clear division of roles between Ofra and Bezalel: Bezalel was responsible for all of the financial issues, working with the producers and the work behind the scenes, while Ofra focused on recording the songs. However, Ofra knew much more beyond simply recording the songs. Gera said that Ofra gave her crew a free hand to do their jobs, but knew to demand changes and corrections in the songs when needed.
“As a sound man you learn the artists, and know how much time it takes for them to record a song”, Gera said. “With Ofra it only took about an hour or an hour and a half, that’s all. She had great strength in her voice, and she recorded almost every song only once.”
“You have to understand that it was a different time in Israel. There were only two main radio stations. These two radio stations never played oriental music. They only played Gali Atari and Bo’az Shar’abi. Zohar Argov, for example, who sold much more than Yehudit Ravitz was never played. Ofra also was never played. It was nothing personal against Ofra, it was what all oriental singers in Israel at the time were faced with. Ofra and Bezalel were very frustrated with it but fought it all the time”, he said. “One day Ofra told me that they were planning on recording an album of homeland songs. I couldn’t believe what I heard. “What do you have in common with such songs?”, I asked her. “You will sing songs of Esther Ofarim? Songs of Polish-Israeli singers?” But it was an exceptional album! An overwhelming album which opened many doors for her. It got great reviews and sold tens of thousands of copies. It’s still played even today. It’s just a wonderful album!”
Gera also related the story that when Ofra recorded the original version of ‘Im Nin’alu’ for the ‘Yemenite Songs’ album, she originally sang with no music at all. Only after recording just her voice did they add the music. Even though Ofra recorded the song in a scale that did not fit the music, she sang the whole song in the same scale; she didn’t deviate from that scale for the whole song though she sang with no music at all. “We hired someone to play the tin, but he couldn’t play the way that we wanted. While Ofra and Bezalel took a break and went to drink some tea, our drummer Iki Levi recorded himself on the tin. When Ofra and Bezalel came back we let them listen to the song with Iki’s tin playing. Ofra immediately recognized the difference, even though to this day I can’t; to me it sounds exactly the same. I don’t know what she heard that was different between the two versions. Then without telling her I changed the music back to the original version, and she noticed it again.”
Gera also said that Ofra and Bezalel “tested” all of the songs on Yemenite Songs by dancing in the studio to make sure that they fit with the corresponding Yemenite dances.
The last album that Gera worked on with Ofra was ‘Yamim Nishbarim’ (‘Broken Days’), even though they also worked on a few songs that she recorded after that. Gera said that this album was completely different, very special, and that Ofra recorded it in a special studio with Izhar Ashdot. “I really love that album”, he said.
Special Thanks to the great Michael Adinovich, who helped me and corrected my mistakes in translating it from the Hebrew website.
