The art and music of Roee Lavan in Hutzot Hayotzer
While fully appreciative of how his personal struggle with cancer is inspiring to many, Lavan points to how he was engaged with both the blues and art well before he was diagnosed with GBM two years ago.
Rude people sometimes approach blues musician and painter Roee Lavan and ask about the bandages wrapped around his head. “Sometimes they omit even introducing themselves and just pounce with the question,” he shrugs. “What am I going to tell this stranger? That I have Glioblastoma (GBM) [an aggressive form of brain cancer]? “That would probably ruin his whole day,” he laughs, “so I just say that whatever I have, it really is none of their business.”
While fully appreciative of how his personal struggle with cancer is inspiring to many, Lavan points to how he was engaged with both the blues and art well before he was diagnosed with GBM two years ago.
“I first learned about the blues at age 15 when I listened to Eric Clapton’s 1992 Unplugged album,” he told The Jerusalem Post. He is deeply passionate about the blues, having done a cover version to “Say No to the Devil” by Reverend Gary Davis in his 2015 album Black/Big/Cold. This was his second album; his first, A letter from an admirer, was released in 2013. His latest album, Blue Light Project, includes cover versions with Roy Young of “None of Us Are Free” and (with Lior Kabesa) “Where the Blues Begins” originally performed by Buddy Guy and Carlos Santana.
“Our own suffering as Jews is different from the suffering of black people in the US,” he told the Post, “but we Jews identify with it. If we would decide to return to the ghetto we could end up as narcissists or hateful towards other people, even haunted. Yet suffering, if you keep a fair mind about it, knows no genres.”
For reading the entire article about Roee's life story, you can link to The Jerusalem Post.
Leave a comment: