David Broza
Encyclopedia
David Broza is a multi-platinum Israel
i singer-songwriter
and guitar
ist.
, Broza was born in Haifa
, Israel
. He was raised and educated in England
and Spain
, where he was schooled at Runnymede College
, in Madrid. Broza's grandfather, Wellesley Aron
, co-founded the Arab-Israeli peace settlement, Neve Shalom – Wāħat as-Salām (The Oasis of Peace) and the Habonim
youth movement. Young David Broza originally planned to become a graphic artist, and by age 17 he was selling his paintings in the Rastro, Madrid
's Sunday flea market
. However, after high school graduation he was conscripted into a three-year term in the Israeli military. Stationed away from family and friends, he began playing guitar in cafes to earn extra money. Eventually he was offered a record deal, but as he still hoped to attend the Rhode Island School of Design
, he declined. He later recorded a tape to promote his live shows.
Broza was married to Ruti, from whom he is divorced. He has three children. He lived in Cresskill
, New Jersey
, US for 17 years. He resides in Tel Aviv
and is a member of Kehilat Sinai, a conservative
synagogue, where he celebrated his son's bar mitzvah.
" and the "Stevie Ray Vaughan
of folk rock
". He has also been compared to Bruce Springsteen
as well as Gordon Lightfoot
and Jackson Browne
. Broza's American debut album, Away From Home, was praised by The New York Times
as one of the best pop albums of the year. Time of Trains, his second American release, gained him recognition as one of the most important artists on the international music scene.
Broza's concert tours included Belgium
, Spain
, Argentina
, Ecuador
, Germany
, Venezuela
, Mexico
, Brazil
and the United States. As an artist-in-residence at Bennington College
in Vermont
, he gained respect in American literary circles. Broza has made a mission of studying the work of American writers for the past several years, haunting libraries and bookstores, "always reading with a melody in my head." He continues to record albums in Hebrew
for his Israeli fans. He travels frequently all over the world. His popularity achieved new heights with the success of his 5x platinum album The Woman By My Side. His live albums recorded at the top of Masada
in 1994 and 1999 went platinum. His Spanish language release, Isla Mujeres (Woman Island, named after a song written by Javier Ruibal
), was released in Spain. His Hebrew recording, "All or Nothing" was released in 2002 and went gold within one week, as well as its Spanish version, "Todo o Nada". David Broza at Masada, a special concert featuring Broza, Jackson Browne and Shawn Colvin
, aired in America on September 6, 2007 on PBS. In 2009, Broza recorded the song "V'ulai" for the organization Pioneers For A Cure
, with the proceeds benefiting The Breast Cancer Research Foundation
.
He toured the Middle East with Jordan
ian musician Hani Naser
to promote peace through music. They were invited by the Israeli and Jordanian governments to perform in concert during the peace signing between the two countries.
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
i singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...
and guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
ist.
Personal life
The son of an Israeli–British businessman and a folk singerFolk Singer
Folk Singer is a 1964 album by Muddy Waters. Waters plays acoustic guitar, backed by Willie Dixon on string bass, Clifton James on drums, and Buddy Guy on acoustic guitar...
, Broza was born in Haifa
Haifa
Haifa is the largest city in northern Israel, and the third-largest city in the country, with a population of over 268,000. Another 300,000 people live in towns directly adjacent to the city including the cities of the Krayot, as well as, Tirat Carmel, Daliyat al-Karmel and Nesher...
, Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
. He was raised and educated in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
and Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, where he was schooled at Runnymede College
Runnymede College
Runnymede College is a co-educational private school located in La Moraleja, Madrid, Spain. It is the oldest British independent school in Spain....
, in Madrid. Broza's grandfather, Wellesley Aron
Wellesley Aron
Major Wellesey Aron, MBE,, was born in England but lived most of his life in British Mandated Palestine and then Israel.His obituary by Phiip Gillon in the Jerusalem Post sums it up "Wellesley Aron, who died a week ago, a few days before his 87th birthday, could have been typecast for one of those...
, co-founded the Arab-Israeli peace settlement, Neve Shalom – Wāħat as-Salām (The Oasis of Peace) and the Habonim
Habonim Dror
Habonim Dror is a Jewish Labour Zionist youth movement formed by the merger in 1982 of the Habonim and Dror youth movements. Habonim Dror's sister movement in Israel is Hanoar Haoved Vehalomed, the Working and Studying Youth.-Ideology:...
youth movement. Young David Broza originally planned to become a graphic artist, and by age 17 he was selling his paintings in the Rastro, Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
's Sunday flea market
Flea market
A flea market or swap meet is a type of bazaar where inexpensive or secondhand goods are sold or bartered. It may be indoors, such as in a warehouse or school gymnasium; or it may be outdoors, such as in a field or under a tent...
. However, after high school graduation he was conscripted into a three-year term in the Israeli military. Stationed away from family and friends, he began playing guitar in cafes to earn extra money. Eventually he was offered a record deal, but as he still hoped to attend the Rhode Island School of Design
Rhode Island School of Design
Rhode Island School of Design is a fine arts and design college located in Providence, Rhode Island. It was founded in 1877. Located at the base of College Hill, the RISD campus is contiguous with the Brown University campus. The two institutions share social, academic, and community resources and...
, he declined. He later recorded a tape to promote his live shows.
Broza was married to Ruti, from whom he is divorced. He has three children. He lived in Cresskill
Cresskill, New Jersey
Cresskill is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough population was 8,573. The town got its name from the watercress that grew in its streams, or "kills"....
, New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
, US for 17 years. He resides in Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv , officially Tel Aviv-Yafo , is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 404,400 on a land area of . The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline in west-central Israel. It is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, with...
and is a member of Kehilat Sinai, a conservative
Conservative Judaism
Conservative Judaism is a modern stream of Judaism that arose out of intellectual currents in Germany in the mid-19th century and took institutional form in the United States in the early 1900s.Conservative Judaism has its roots in the school of thought known as Positive-Historical Judaism,...
synagogue, where he celebrated his son's bar mitzvah.
Musical career
Critics have labelled Broza as "a post-modern Leonard CohenLeonard Cohen
Leonard Norman Cohen, is a Canadian singer-songwriter, musician, poet and novelist. Cohen published his first book of poetry in Montreal in 1956 and his first novel in 1963. His work often explores religion, isolation, sexuality and interpersonal relationships...
" and the "Stevie Ray Vaughan
Stevie Ray Vaughan
Stephen Ray "Stevie Ray" Vaughan was an American electric blues guitarist and singer. He was the younger brother of Jimmie Vaughan and frontman for Double Trouble, a band that included bassist Tommy Shannon and drummer Chris Layton. Born in Dallas, Vaughan moved to Austin at the age of 17 and...
of folk rock
Folk rock
Folk rock is a musical genre combining elements of folk music and rock music. In its earliest and narrowest sense, the term referred to a genre that arose in the United States and the UK around the mid-1960s...
". He has also been compared to Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen , nicknamed "The Boss," is an American singer-songwriter who records and tours with the E Street Band...
as well as Gordon Lightfoot
Gordon Lightfoot
Gordon Meredith Lightfoot, Jr. is a Canadian singer-songwriter who achieved international success in folk, folk-rock, and country music, and has been credited for helping define the folk-pop sound of the 1960s and 1970s...
and Jackson Browne
Jackson Browne
Jackson Browne is an American singer-songwriter and musician who has sold over 17 million albums in the United States alone....
. Broza's American debut album, Away From Home, was praised by The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
as one of the best pop albums of the year. Time of Trains, his second American release, gained him recognition as one of the most important artists on the international music scene.
Broza's concert tours included Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
, Ecuador
Ecuador
Ecuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, along with Chile, that do not have a border...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, Venezuela
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
, Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
, Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
and the United States. As an artist-in-residence at Bennington College
Bennington College
Bennington College is a liberal arts college located in Bennington, Vermont, USA. The college was founded in 1932 as a women's college and became co-educational in 1969.-History:-Early years:...
in Vermont
Vermont
Vermont is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state ranks 43rd in land area, , and 45th in total area. Its population according to the 2010 census, 630,337, is the second smallest in the country, larger only than Wyoming. It is the only New England...
, he gained respect in American literary circles. Broza has made a mission of studying the work of American writers for the past several years, haunting libraries and bookstores, "always reading with a melody in my head." He continues to record albums in Hebrew
Hebrew language
Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...
for his Israeli fans. He travels frequently all over the world. His popularity achieved new heights with the success of his 5x platinum album The Woman By My Side. His live albums recorded at the top of Masada
Masada
Masada is the name for a site of ancient palaces and fortifications in the South District of Israel, on top of an isolated rock plateau, or horst, on the eastern edge of the Judean Desert, overlooking the Dead Sea. Masada is best known for the violence that occurred there in the first century CE...
in 1994 and 1999 went platinum. His Spanish language release, Isla Mujeres (Woman Island, named after a song written by Javier Ruibal
Javier Ruibal
Javier Ruibal is a Spanish musician and songwriter.-Biography:...
), was released in Spain. His Hebrew recording, "All or Nothing" was released in 2002 and went gold within one week, as well as its Spanish version, "Todo o Nada". David Broza at Masada, a special concert featuring Broza, Jackson Browne and Shawn Colvin
Shawn Colvin
Shawn Colvin is an American singer-songwriter and musician.-Childhood and early career:Colvin was born in Vermillion, South Dakota. Her formative years were spent in the town of Carbondale, Illinois, where she attended Southern Illinois University Carbondale. She learned to play guitar at the age...
, aired in America on September 6, 2007 on PBS. In 2009, Broza recorded the song "V'ulai" for the organization Pioneers For A Cure
Pioneers For A Cure
Pioneers For A Cure - Songs To Fight Cancer was started in 2008 to raise funds in support of organizations pioneering new methods of cancer treatment and research. The organization began with ‘The Postcard Project,’ gathering many Jewish musical artists to record the music of the pioneers of Israel...
, with the proceeds benefiting The Breast Cancer Research Foundation
The Breast Cancer Research Foundation
The Breast Cancer Research Foundation is an independent, not-for-profit organization whose mission is to achieve prevention and a cure for breast cancer in our lifetime by providing critical funding for innovative clinical and translational research at leading medical centers worldwide, an...
.
Peace activism
An activist who is committed to several humanitarian causes, Broza was appointed a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF. His song "Together" (co-written with Ramsey McLean) was the theme song for the UNICEF 50th anniversary celebration in more than 148 countries.He toured the Middle East with Jordan
Jordan
Jordan , officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan , Al-Mamlaka al-Urduniyya al-Hashemiyya) is a kingdom on the East Bank of the River Jordan. The country borders Saudi Arabia to the east and south-east, Iraq to the north-east, Syria to the north and the West Bank and Israel to the west, sharing...
ian musician Hani Naser
Hani Naser
Hani Naser is a musician from Jordan. He specializes in the oud and hand percussion instruments, particularly the goblet drum and djembe.Considered a master in his field, Naser inspired Randy Lewis of the Los Angeles Times to call him a "Veritable Hand Drum Wizard." The breadth of Naser's...
to promote peace through music. They were invited by the Israeli and Jordanian governments to perform in concert during the peace signing between the two countries.
Discography
- Third Language (Hebrew, 2011)
- Night Dawn: The Unpublished Poetry Of Townes Van ZandtTownes Van ZandtJohn Townes Van Zandt , best known as Townes Van Zandt, was an American Texas Country-folk music singer-songwriter, performer, and poet...
(English, 2010) - Broza 5 (Live at Zappa Tel Aviv, 2007)
- Parking Completo (Spanish and Hebrew, 2006)
- Hameitav (Best Of in Hebrew, 2004)
- Parking Completo (Spanish, 2004)
- Todo O Nada (Spanish version of All or Nothing, 2002)
- All Or Nothing (Hebrew, 2002)
- Painted Postcard (English & Hebrew, 2002)
- Spanish Heart (English, 2001)
- Isla Mujeres (The Women's Island), DRO East West/Warner Records Spain (Spanish, 2000)
- Matchil Linshom (Starting to Breathe), Hed Artzi/RGB Records Gold (Hebrew, 1999)
- Sodot Gdolim (Big Secrets), RGB Records (Hebrew, 1995)
- Stone Door, RGB Records (English, 1994)
- Second Stree , RGB Records (English, 1994)
- Elements of Love, RGB Records (Hebrew, 1994)
- Masada Live, RGB Records Platinum (Hebrew, 1994)
- Time of Trains, RGB Records (English, 1993)
- Neshika Gnuv (Stolen Kiss), NMC Music (Hebrew, 1992)
- First Collection, NMC Music (Hebrew, 1990)
- Away From Home, RGB Records (English, 1989)
- A Poet In New York, Sony (English, 1987)
- Broza, NMC Music (Hebrew, 1984)
- Haisha Sheiti (The Woman By My Side), NMC Music Quadruple Platinum (Hebrew, 1983)
- Klaf (ACE), NMC Music (Hebrew, 1981)
- David Broza, NMC Music (Hebrew, 1979)
- Hakeves Ha Shisha Asar (The Sixteenth Sheep), NMC Music (Hebrew, 1978)
- Sikhot Salon (Small Talk), Phohokol (Hebrew, 1977)