Barak Weiss, a Tel Aviv jazz impresario, gives a brief account of how this quintessentially American style of music came to the Jewish state, and how Israelis made it their own. (Interview by Noah Phillips.)
The first jazz band [in the land of Israel] was the Police Orchestra during the British mandate. In the 1950s and early 1960s we had some musicians who used to play jazz, but it was all American jazz, the standards. I think the first Israeli jazz album was recorded in the early 1970s. . . .
The distinct difference [that later developed] between the mainstream American sound and the Israeli sound is that we use odd meters. The great American songbook, all the songs by George Gershwin and Cole Porter, etc., which is the basis of American jazz, is all done in 4/4 [time]. But in Israel, because we have klezmer music from Eastern Europe, and the music from Morocco and Yemen, and [many other] types of music, we have all of these odd forms, like 7/4s, and 9/4s, and 11/4s, all these strange and unusual beats.
Another thing is the melodies—you have Middle Eastern melodies, Arab melodies, melodies that come from all over the Diaspora. Every one of the musicians is delving deep into his own heritage, the music that he heard at the Shabbat table, or in the shul, or in the Israeli folk music that we all sing, and mixing his own heritage into jazz.
Read more on Moment: http://www.momentmag.com/jazz-kibbutz-brief-history-israels-jazz-scene/