Eliyahu Sills has been performing music for over 20 years on many instruments, including upright bass, bansuri, the bamboo flute of India, and the ney, the reed flute of the middle east.
He has performed and recorded traditional spiritual music of the Middle East with Za'atar, West African folk music with the Palm Wine Boys, soul roots reggae with the Original Intentions, acoustic soul with Sparlha Swa and conscious Hip-hop with Rebels Advocate. Recently, he has been making music with Ethiopian born jazz/soul vocalist Meklit Hadero, devotional music with Shimshai, toured with Rupa & the April Fishes, and with oudist/composer Yuval Ron.
In the early 1990s, he studied the upright bass at The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music in New York City. Deeply influenced by teachers Makanda Ken McIntyre,
Arnie Lawrence and Reggie Workman (bassist who played with John
Coltrane and Art Blakey), Eliyahu began performing as a sideman and
bandleader in renowned jazz clubs such as The Village Gate and Small's.
In
the years that followed, Eliyahu fell in love with the flute and
applied the musical theory that he learned through his jazz studies to
teach himself this most ancient of instruments. After falling under the
spell of the Sufi music of Turkey, he became a devoted student of both
the ney and the bansuri. He has since continued to study and perform these ancient instruments under the guidance of his teacher G.S. Sachdev, to whom he is a devoted student.
In
2006, Eliyahu went on a journey to Turkey to study the traditions and
nuances of the nay. During his journey, he fell in love with Istanbul
and had the opportunity to study under masters Neyzen Omer Erdogdular
and Neyzen Ahmet Kaya. He returned two years later to further his
studies. Most recently he went to Morocco to study Arabic style of the
ney, as well as the melodies and deep rhythms of Gnawa and Saharan
music.
Eliyahu also works with young people, primarily mentoring teenage young men. He has taught at The Mosaic Project, an educational program that helps children from all backgrounds celebrate diversity as well as Omega Teen Camp, and teaches a class guiding young men, at WCCHS a high school in Richmond, CA, and for the rites of passage program at Stepping Stones Project. He is now leading his own groups for young men with Young Men Coming of Age, MenComingofAge.com an organization he founded.
