Noa's Biography (1996) by Geffen Records

"For a long time, it was out of style to sing beautifully," says singer-songwriter Noa. "It was almost synonymous to lack of depth and creativity. Somehow, though, greats like Barbra Streisand, Ella Fitzgerald and Joni Mitchell did it and survived unscathed. To me, that is the essence. I'm undoubtedly a fool for beauty."
Sophisticated pop isn't the only place this exotic woman is coming from, musically or geographically. There's also Israel, where Noa (full name Achinoam Nini) is the most popular contemporary singer in the country; the Arabic culture of Yemen, where her family originated; and New York City, where she was raised. "A weird combination produced a creature like me," Noa says, "Maybe that's why I keep such an open mind where different styles of music are concerned. Basically if it moves me I go for it. It's the emotion, not the title."
"It doesn't sound like a typical Metheny album," says the open, down-to-earth Noa. "He doesn't need me for that. Songs, lyrics, voice - these are my centerpieces, and I entrusted them to Pat. He, in return, nurtured them to beauty, adding his wonderful musicians and his special touch. It was a perfect symbiosis."
Collaborating with Noa is Gil Dor, the renowned Israeli guitarist. Dor studied at Boston's legendary Berklee School of Music when Metheny was a teenage jazz guitar prodigy teaching there. He later toured Europe with Al Di Meola and co-founded Tel Aviv's Rimon School of Contemporary Music, where he discovered Noa. When Metheny gave a concert in Israel in 1987, he presented a master class at Rimon, solidifying their friendship.
On Noa, Metheny emphasizes the spare, gentle, and acoustic, with Dor accompanied by Pat Metheny Group members Lyle Mays (piano) and Steve Rodby (co-producer and bass), and sidemen extraordinaire, Steve Ferrone (drums), and Luis Conte (percussion). From the emotionally powerful "I Don't Know" to tender love songs "Path To Follow", "It's Obvious" and "Desire", it's Noa's singing that's center stage.
"I try to embrace people's hearts," she says warmly. "I'm a happy person. I'm not angry at the world. I've had my brushes with sadness and hurt and I write about them but the overflow of energy is positive. I want to get people captivated by this magic. I'm in this for the touching from me to the audience. I want to reach out and have them love this music as much as I do."
She rails against musical barriers. Though three songs on Noa are sung in Hebrew hers in not World Beat or ethnic folk music. The songs are certainly flavored from a different place and there's a unique percussive element vocally and instrumentally. As anyone who has previously heard her - a recent sold-out performance at New York's The Village Gate, appearances at clubs and festivals in France, Italy, Canada and the U.K., a tour of U.S. college campuses - Noa is decidedly apart from another well-known Israeli Yemenite singer, Ofra Haza.
"I admire her very much. Israeli artists were considered Middle Eastern hillbillies before she opened other doors. Yemenites are well-known for their voices and singing. That's part of our heritage. But musically we're very different. I'm not as dominated by our mutual musical roots as she is."
Though Noa was born near Tel Aviv, she and her family left for America when she was a year old, her father to study chemical engineering at Columbia University. In New York, she went to religious school and sang in the choir. When she was only 12, a teacher brought her to a studio to record some songs she had written and thoughts of child stardom loomed. "I sounded like a Yemenite Orphan Annie", recalls Noa with a smile, "but it wasn't going to work out because at the time I was observing the Sabbath rather strictly."
She later attended the famed High School of Performing Arts, singing and dancing in musicals, but still never thought she'd be a performer. "I was raised in America but didn't feel like an American. At home, I was Yemenite, the food, the music, the books, the culture. From the streets, I brought home the English language and American music - people I still admire, Paul Simon, Joni Mitchell, James Taylor, Billy Joel, Prince - but there was a great conflict within as I grew up. I wasn't finding my place."
She was also inspired to move to Israel by a teenage boy she met on a trip there. "We sent love letters and got very serious. He was my first boyfriend and I decided I was going to marry him. But I couldn't tell my parents." She nevertheless convinced them to allow her to move to Israel, where she finished high school. (In rare example of first love fulfilled, she eventually did marry her boyfriend, now Dr. Asher Barak, a pediatrician).
Upon graduation, she was drafted into the Army and assigned to an entertainment until, the Northern Command Ensemble, a USO-like vocal group that toured the country's military bases. "It was better than marching through the mud carrying an M16," says the former sergeant. Over two years, she performed hundreds of shows, often under the most difficult conditions. At one camp, there was no stage, no seats, and not enough electricity for both the mikes and the lights. So they plugged in the mikes and sang by the headlights of circled Army Jeeps.
"Seeing their gratitude was the best feeling in the world," she says. "It was worth it for those smiles from such a tired but hopeful audience. That's what made me decide that I always wanted to feel that. It became a drug and I've been hooked to this day."
In early 1990, Dor was asked to give a concert at a jazz festival in Tel Aviv and invited Noa, then a Rimon student, to join him. Other concert followed (she also plays guitar, piano and percussion, such as the barbukkah, an Arabic drum). But then the Gulf War intervened, virtually shutting the country down. "It was spooky and scary. I thought I'd go nuts not doing anything," says the hyperactive Noa. So she and Dor recorded two songs on cassette: "Ave Maria" (based on Bach's "First Prelude") and a bitingly funny version of "Can't Buy Me Love" with lyrics about the Emir of Kuwait. They presented copies to the U.S. soldiers manning the Patriot missile batteries.
They also planned a live album, to be recorded February 28, 1991. "But civil security laws made it impossible for people to congregate so we were going to do it in an empty auditorium. It turned out to be the last day of the war. People came by the hundreds! It was a very happy day." The album has since been certified gold in Israel. (A second album in Hebrew, with a larger cast of musicians, has just been released, earning the largest pre-order of any recent home-grown album).
Meanwhile, Dor was so excited about Noa that he called Metheny to ask that he give a listen. Before making one of her regular visits to her parents in New York, he gave her Metheny's phone number. But Noa balked.
"I felt uncomfortable calling this famous musician, so I wanted until my last day and left a message on his machine and forgot about it. Miraculously, he returned the call and we kept in touch." Metheny then began hearing from fellow musicians who had heard her in concert throughout Europe as well as Israel. Finally, the two met in New York, jammed together, and Metheny offered to produce her debut international album.
Breaking down musical and geographic borders is important to Noa. She proudly notes that Achinoam means "sister of peace" and has performed at a peace festival in Sicily alongside Palestinian Arabs, including many from contentious East Jerusalem. "Why do we have to go to Italy to play with Arabs? It's ridiculous. I'm for collaborations with Arab musicians. I'm for peace."
Strong and straightforward, belying her delicate features, she also points out that another woman named Noa "was the first feminist in the Bible. Her father owned land and, when he died, she was dispossessed. She went to Moses and confronted him. 'Hey, what do you mean?' And he gave her land back. She challenged the system. I like that."
That same strength character distinguishes this modern Noa. Honed by a most intriguing and challenging background, hers is a groundbreaking new voice that strives for the universal. For Noa, singing beautifully is not a matter of style but a matter of heart.

Biography courtesy of Geffen Records