- Diwon
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Diwon 
Background information Birth name Erez Safar Born May 2, 1979
San Diego, CAGenres Dancehall, hip hop, pop, Middle Eastern Occupations DJ/producer Instruments Pro Tools, mixer, keyboards, drums, guitar Years active 2001–present Associated acts Y-Love
Dreams In Static
DeScribe
TJ Di Hitmaker
MatisyahuWebsite DiwonMusic.com Diwon is a Brooklyn-based Orthodox Jewish producer and DJ who performs all over the world. Under his legal name, Erez Safar, he serves as CEO of Shemspeed, an American independent record label & promotional agency operating in conjunction with its sister label, Modular Moods.
Contents
Biography
Personal life
The son of an American Jewish father and Yemenite Jewish mother, Safar was born May 2, 1979, in San Diego, California. He was raised in an Orthodox Jewish home. He spent parts of his youth in Tokyo, Japan; Charleston, South Carolina; Naples, Italy; and Skokie, Illinois, before attending high school at Washington Ethical High School in Washington, DC. He graduated from the University of Maryland in 2003, and moved to Brooklyn that same year.
Safar is married with one child.
Early Career
Safar’s career in music began in 2001. That year, he formed Modular Moods, an independent record label, and began performing under the moniker DJ Handler, spinning a blend of hip hop, Afro beat and Arabic music in venues across the United States. Also that year, as a sophomore at the University of Maryland, Safar founded Juez, a breakbeat klezmer jazz quartet in which he played drums, along with schoolmates Matthew Wetstein (trumpet), Gilad Suberri (saxophone) and Yoshie Fruchter (bass). In 2004, Juez released their lone album, Shemspeed Alt Schule, on Modular Moods.[1] The band officially disbanded in 2007.
In 2005, Safar launched the Sephardic Music Festival, an annual effort to bring Sephardic music to a greater audience.[2] The seven-day festival takes place annually in December around Hanukkah at venues across New York.[3] Shemspeed released the 2010 compilation album Sephardic Music Festival, Vol. 1, featuring Middle Eastern-tinged tracks from a variety of acclaimed Jewish artists, including Matisyahu, Pharaoh's Daughter, DeScribe and Moshav.
In 2007, Safar was named to The Forward 50, an annual list of the world’s most influential Jews, as chosen by the editors of The Forward. He was recognized for his work as DJ Handler, for heading Modular Moods, for founding and running the Sephardic Music Festival, and for that year’s formation of Shemspeed.[4] That same year, in a cover story on DJ Handler, Safar’s alter ego at the time, The Jerusalem Post called him “one of the top visionaries of young Jewish cool’s celebrated vanguard.”[5] The Village Voice has stated that “as producer and DJ [Safar] is among the most adventurous and banging on the new Jewish music scene.”[6]
Introduction of Diwon
Diwon performs in Melbourne in 2009.
2008 saw Safar shed the DJ Handler handle in favor of Diwon, a name that would usher in a more Middle Eastern sound to his beats, signifying a return to his Yemenite roots. Diwon has meaning as a book of songs in Persian and Urdu.[7] "DJ Handler I started before I became a DJ, and I never felt like it was me — it never really fit," Safar said of the switch. "Making Yemenite music under the name ‘Handler’ sounded kind of absurd… and not in a good way."[8]
Diwon has released a host of mix tapes, mashups and remixes, many of which have been made available as free downloads on his website. In 2009, Diwon teamed with Texas guitarist Dugans to form Dreams In Static. The duo released the instrumental LP Serene Poetic on February 2, 2010. The Forward wrote that the album "occupies an otherworldly, post-rock, electro-instrumental universe."[9]
Diwon is currently at work on his debut solo album, as well as producing Y-Love’s upcoming album, This is Unity, set to hit shelves in early 2012.
Artistic style
Diwon’s beats blend the musical traditions of his mother’s family, whose roots lie in Yemen, with modern electro hip-hop. His live sets include a diverse mix of singers and live musicians. He has performed with Lou Reed, Anthony Coleman, Matisyahu, DJ Spooky, and Idan Raichel, among others.[10]
Safar has stated that as Diwon, he is looking to "create something with a Jewish type of music which is either original drawing on traditional elements or new arrangements of older, traditional music."[11], although these days his music has leaned more toward dancehall, hip hop and pop.
Discography
Albums
- Juez - Shemspeed Alt Schule (2004) (as Erez, playing drums)
- Benyamin Brody, Diwon & Dugans - Shir Hashirim (Song of Songs) (2009)
- Dreams In Static (Diwon and Dugans) - Serene Poetic (2010)
Producer
- Y-Love - This Is Babylon (2008) (Executive Producer)
- Y-Love & Yuri Lane - Count It (Sefira) (2009)
- DeScribe & Y-Love - The Change EP (2009)
- Shemspeed MCs (DeScribe, Y-Love, Kosha Dillz & Eprhyme) vs. Electro Morocco - "Boom Selecta" (single) (2010)
- Y-Love - See Me - EP (2011)
- Lipa Schmeltzer & DeScribe - "Acharon Acharon, Chaviv (Diwon Remix)" (single) (2011)
- Y-Love & Tj Di Hitmaker featuring Andy Milonakis - "The Takeover" (single) (2011)
Mixtapes
- Rarities & Remixes
- The Beat Guide to Yiddish
- Sabra Sessions Volume 1
- I Heart Mixtape
- Psychadeliciwon
- Chulo
References
- ^ Arie Hasit, "By any other name," Jerusalem Post, June 12, 2008.
- ^ Mordechai Shinefield, "Monday Music: Sephardic Music Takes On the Club Scene," The Jewish Daily Forward, January 17, 2011.
- ^ "Heard & Scene: Festival Shines Spotlight on Sephardic Culture," The Wall Street Journal, December 6, 2010.
- ^ "Forward 50, 2007," The Jewish Daily Forward. Retrieved November 14, 2011.
- ^ Ben Jacobson, "Young and Jewish on the Web," Jerusalem Post Billboard, October 19-25, 2007.
- ^ Elena Oumano, "Get Down Moses," The Village Voice, Vol. I, No. 51, December 21-27, 2005.
- ^ Arie Hasit, “By any other name,” Jerusalem Post, June 12, 2008.
- ^ Matthue Roth, "Diwon is to Yemenite music as Pharrell is to Gwen," Jewcy, March 13, 2008.
- ^ Ezra Glinter, "Shemspeed Albums from Bands That Start with 'D'," The Jewish Daily Forward, February 5, 2010.
- ^ "Y-Love and Diwon," Spertus.edu. Retrieved November 17, 2011.
- ^ Arie Hasit, “By any other name,” Jerusalem Post, June 12, 2008
External links
Categories:- Jewish American musicians
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