Farewell to the 'hassidic‎ Hendrix'

The Orthodox Israeli village of Kfar Chabad is accustomed to hosting people from all walks of life. But during the shiva, the week of mourning held after the passing of virtuoso guitarist Yosi Piamenta last month, it encountered something that was unusual even there: Alongside the rabbis and senior figures from the Chabad Lubavitch movement who came to pay their respects were well-known figures from the secular Israeli music scene such as songwriters Efraim Shamir and Yoni Rechter, and other professional guitarists.

This shiva was a special one. While the telephone was answered with the phrase "Yehi hamelekh hamashiah," or "Long live the messiah," referring to the late Lubavitcher rebbe, the conversations centered around the world's best jazz musicians. Secular visitors were asked to lay tefillin in memory of the departed, but were also asked about well-known saxophone players, chords and guitar styles. A different kind of shiva indeed.

Piamenta, who was known as "the hassidic‎ Jimi Hendrix" -- an impressive nickname to live up to -- was 63 when he died of cancer on Aug. 23. He is survived by Ella, his second wife, their six children, his father and his three siblings -- and a legacy of Jewish music that, while far from the mainstream, was still a success worldwide.

Piamenta was born in Jerusalem on Nov. 29, 1951, to a secular family with traditional leanings.

"Grandfather would take us to the synagogue, and he would put on tefillin for any Jew he saw," said Piamenta's brother, Avi, who himself plays the flute. Still, the Piamentas were an ordinary secular family, and Yosi did his obligatory army service in the Artillery Corps band alongside Yoni Rechter.

After his military service came to its end, the two brothers founded the Piamenta Band, with Aviva Avidan as vocalist. The band existed until the 1970s, when the brothers moved to New York.

Yosi Piamenta became religiously observant in the 1980s, and his three younger siblings followed suit.

"Yosi was always interested in spiritual things," Avi Piamenta recalls. "He would read Zen works, Indian works, books by Rudolf Steiner about anthroposophy. One day he got the book 'Confessions of a Mystic,' by Matityahu Timor, which is about religion and spirituality, and it led to a dramatic change in him. From that moment, he said that all religions and faiths were nothing compared to our Torah, which is the most profound thing on earth."

A hidden righteous man

Piamenta began playing guitar at an early age. His family recalls that he received his first guitar as a bar mitzvah gift from his uncle Albert. He became inseparably connected with the guitar and the music world.

"Everything was music," his sister Hanni says. "He had the best stereo system. When our parents went abroad, he gave them lists of records with special music that he asked them to bring back for him."

Avi adds, "Yosi captivated audiences everywhere he went. He reached such a level on the guitar that there was no difference between himself and the instrument. The guitar was his soul. He had a unique sound."

Theater director Micha Lewensohn said, "There are virtuoso guitarists who create art with their music. It came to him naturally; his works were those of an artist."

After becoming religiously observant and establishing close ties with the Chabad movement and the Lubavitcher rebbe, the two brothers focused on hassidic‎ music.

"It was a big breakthrough in playing Jewish music. There had never been anything like it before. The electric guitar was not accepted in the religious world. It was considered something impure that represented the ugliest and most unsanctified thing on earth. Then came Yosi with his purity and musicianship, and he reached into its soul," Avi said.

He recalled virtuoso guitarist Dani Maman saying at Piamenta's funeral, "The master has left us." Maman stopped playing guitar when he became religiously observant. But when he heard what the devout Yosi could do with the instrument, "it was like his soul came back to him and he started playing again, because Yosi showed everyone how the instrument could play at the highest level of holiness," Avi says with a smile, "

The holiness in Piamenta's playing dovetailed with his developing relationship with the Lubavitcher rebbe. Avi recalls: "The rebbe instructed that during the Celebration of the Water-Drawing (a musical celebration held during the Sukkot holiday), his followers should go out into the street to make people happy. So we turned over a milk crate, ran wires to it from an apartment for the sound system, and stood and played in Crown Heights. People slowly gathered around us until there were hundreds of them, and there was joy that is hard to describe. There has been a celebration at the same spot every year since then, and today it is the main event."

Avi recalls another significant story. "Yosi sent the rebbe a letter asking: 'Am I worthy to go out and play our musical styles for Jews in the world, in their own places-' The rebbe sent the letter back to him with a word crossed out, changing the sentence from 'Am I worthy-' to 'I am worthy.' The rebbe told us exactly how to do it, since music has an effect on the soul. The rebbe had an amazing ability to analyze music. On the one hand, it had to be expressed on the outside; it had to be played and used to draw people closer and kindle their hearts.

"On the other hand, music could make a person throw off all restraint. As Pink Floyd sang, 'We don't need no education.' The rebbe wrote mainly that the sphere of modesty had a delicate boundary, and that music ought to be used with sensitivity."

Avi says his brother came back to Israel five years ago "to be with our aging father. He wanted to spend more time with him." When he came back, he began to play alongside well-known singer-songwriters Efraim Shamir and Itzhak Klepter. He also performed on his own, and among those who attended his shows were quite a few musicians,

"Among the best in the country. They came to hear him and were amazed. Yoni Rechter, for example, was blown away," he adds.

Piamenta's playing, which his father describes as "a taste of redemption," was cut short by his illness, diagnosed in 2013. His widow, Ella, recalls how he dealt with having cancer.

"I saw a person who understood his situation, and during that time he was the one who encouraged everyone around him. He found enormous resources that he passed on to all of us," she says.

"He was a hidden tzadik [righteous man]. His music was a way for him to get close to people. The pose of the guitarist, the rocker with the pack of Noblesse cigarettes, was a disguise for a wise and learned man who revered God, whose whole world was the love of the Jewish people. He was a noble person who touched people's entire souls."

Avi concludes: "I am convinced that when the Redemption comes, Yosi will come from there, I will come from here with my flute, and with God's help, we will go on stage together to perform."

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