Badawi
About Raz Mesinai (AKA <strong>Badawi</strong>): <br>
Composer, Musician, DJ and producer Raz Mesinai was born in Jerusalem in 1973 and was raised primarily in New York City. As a young child Mesinai was influenced by a wide range of experiences starting with the poetry of the Bedouins in the Sinai Desert, the Hasidic story's of Shlomo Carlebach, a Sufi ceremony led by Dervish Sheik Murshid Hassan, and the rising Hip Hop scene of New York City in the early eighties, all of which led him to perceive rhythm and sound as powerful modes of communication, and set him out to develop his own form of sonic storytelling. <br>
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In the nineties Mesinai began gaining recognition in New York City's "Downtown" music scene for his avant-garde percussion, piano, string, and electronic compositions. He met and was influenced by composers John Zorn, Elliott Sharp, and Ikue Mori. In 2001 Zorn released Mesinai's most abstract album to date, of compositions inspired by the writings of Franz Kafka (<em>"Before The Law"</em>) on his Tzadik label. The following year <em>"Resurrections for Goatskin,"</em> another acoustic/electronic composition, came out on Tzadik imprint <em>"The Composer's Series." </em><br>
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Today, Mesinai performs frequently across the U.S. and Europe, and collaborates regularly with many of New York's top musicians, including Eyvind Kang, Mark Feldman, Mark Ribot, Mark Dresser, Shelley Hirsch, and Zeena Parkins, among many others. His <em>"String Quartet for Four Turntables"</em> was commissioned and presented by the Lincoln Center Festival in 2000, and in 2001 Badawi:
<a href="albumDetail.jsp?aid=228">Soldier Of Midian </a> (<a href="http://www.bigupradio.com/labelDetail.jsp?lid=783">ROIR</a>) received an award from Ars Electronica. In 2002 Mesinai performed for the second time in the Lincoln Center Festival, opening for revered Nubian musician Hamza El Din, and was a featured artist in the<em> "Next Next Wave"</em> portion of the Brooklyn Academy of Music's Next Wave 2002 festival. His newest projects include <em>"Clones and False Prophets"</em> featuring Doug Wieselman, Marc Ribot, Shahzad Ismaily, Honey Child, and Ben Perowsky with a live tour expected for next year.