What They Say
"With a deep connection to his tradition and upbringing, the work of Roy Ben Chimol departs from his cultural and personal background to solidify a musical and artistic identity that breaks the boundaries of styles and genres.
The necessary prior research to contextualize the historical background, the implications in the resulting aesthetics, and the design of arrangements and orchestrations, bring Roy’s work to a new level. Keeping authentic and genuine to his own origins, Roy takes a forward leap in exploring the intersection with the most advanced languages of Contemporary Music. Looking backward to move forward.
Roy has applied contemporary arranging techniques to Spanish medieval melodies and has incorporated the folkloric elements he has discovered into his musical creations and playing, bringing new sounds into non-folkloric environments, always in works of the utmost quality
His artistic vision and musical knowledge have made his work unique, extremely
valuable, and inspiring."
- Enric Alberich (Berklee College of Music individual advisor)
"Roy Ben Chimol is an accomplished musician and outstanding jazz saxophonist with a very diverse background. Since his arrival to Valencia, he had a clear idea of researching the music her grandmother had recorded for her children and grandchildren in a cassette tape asking them to keep alive the songs of her Spanish Sephardic heritage. In this tape, Roy’s grandmother sang Romances Castellanos, and she also recorded a final speech (all in a very clear and uptodate Spanish) about human values and the importance of knowing where you come from.
Roy goes back to Spain in the 1440’s, the furthest he could go, to trace his heritage in order to understand what lies at his core and how he has become who he is today.
This project includes a thorough historical context and a deep musical and artistic search, merging tradition with contemporary styles, with beautiful arrangements for large ensembles, a big accomplishment for him during this year.
As he quotes Jorge Drexler in his paper, ‘each step we take is a dance with our ancestors’. And this is what Roy is doing in this project that I am sure will continue to become a full recording album. It is not only a work of self exploration and artistic search, but also a mission to preserve and celebrate Sephardi Jewish music.
We are really honored he was part of our program."
- Olga Román (Berklee College of Music CPPD Program Director)
