Biographical highlights of Paltiel-hay Jacoby's versatile musical life:

First musical steps:

Paltiel-hay Jacoby (Hebrew: פלטיאל-חי יעקובי) was born in Nes-Ziona to a Jewish Yemenite family, which immigrated to Israel in 1924. His love of music is sourced from his roots. In the 50s his father, uncle and two siblings performed in a weekly radio program in Kol Israel, called "The Jacoby family in Shabbat songs"  (Hebrew "משפחת יעקובי בשירי שבת") for the series  
"The Voice of Israel for Yemeni immigrants" (Hebrew "קול ישראל לעולי תימן"), produced by Saadia Damari.
Encouraged by highest grade given by his teacher, violonist Gershon Prenski, Paltiel-hay began playing the harmonica. His first performances were for the students and teachers at the beginning of each high-school year. 
He was also joining his cousin and brother to play the darbuka in their band.
In Military school, after duties, Paltiel-hay began to be active in singing and playing guitar, together with a friend from Toronto, Canada, who knew all the Hebrew songs and a friend from Australia, who played the base. Paltiel-hay got two weeks free of instruction just to prepare a cultural evening with music and dance in celebration of the end of an officer's course.

Duo & Trio performances:

From 1969-1971 Paltiel-hay was singer and guitarist in several formations. Like in a trio with Asher Weizman on lead guitar and Yoel Mir on double bass. They took part in "The Stars of First Applause" (Kochvei Teshu'ot Rishonot כוכבי תשואות ראשונות), a radio live program in Tel-Aviv with moderator Ofra Samuel.

Paltiel-hay formed together with Shabi Katzir "The Love Hill Duo" (Hebrew: " צמד גבעת האהבה"), which was later joined by Tova Livneh to start "The Modusim Trio" (Hebrew: " שלישיית המודוסים").
"The Modusim" had nightly performances in "The Red Rock", the most popular night club in Eilat.
Their repertoire included songs, composed by Nisim Shoval and his wife, Sara and several other folk songs. "The Modusim" were titled "Stars of the Club" in Tel-Aviv "Hilton's Club", where they performed nightly for the hotel guests.

Click on the pictures to enlarge!

The Brothers & The Sisters:

One day, in 1971, when "The Modusim" were rehearsing at Nisim's house, Gideon ("Gidi") Koren came and brought two songs, which "The Modusim" performed on "Teshu'ot Rishonot " (Hebrew: "תשואות ראשונות"), a radio show of young talents. 
After a short time,  Gidi asked them to be part of the new band he wanted to start,
named "The Brothers & The Sisters"  (Hebrew: "Ha'achim ve Ha'achayot" " האחים והאחיות").
To the band were also added Itzik Cohen, Shuly Erez and Shafi Kleiner.
The group performed songs, mostly written by Gidi Koren, in Hebrew, English and Yiddish in several festivals.
Among Gidi's songs was "Don Quixote". Paltiel-hay was the lead singer and it won second place
in the Students' Song Festival in Tel Aviv, 1972.
After May 1972 Gidi decided to change the members of the group, Paltiel-hay left.

HaHaim HaTovim hahayim hatovim ha'hayim ha'haim

Click on the pictures to enlarge!

The Good Life Duo - Ilana & Palti:

In 1974 Paltiel-hay Jacoby and Ilana Zadok started to perform together as "The Good Life Duo" (Hebrew: "Zemed Hachayim Hatovim" " צמד החיים הטובים"), later renamed to "Ilana & Palti".
They performed in "Bar Minan", the students' club of Tel Aviv's University, various radio shows of Kol Israel and several other places as well as for the air force, in different bases all over the country.

They recorded the Shabbat song "Lecha Dodi" (Hebrew: "לכה דודי") (music: Paltiel-hay Jacoby, lyrics: Shabbat Song) and 
" Mah Yafah 'At Yaldati"  (Hebrew: "מה יפה את ילדתי") (music and lyrics: Paltiel-hay Jacoby) for the Israeli television.

At the Oriental Festival in Jerusalem, for which they also recorded, the producer, Yoseph Ben-Yisrael,
was so much impressed about "Mah Yafah 'At Yaldati" that he asked Paltiel-hay to give the song for the festival.

In September 1974 Paltiel-hay Jacoby and Ilana Zadok were chosen to represent Israel in France.
Together with the students' dance group of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem they were sent to Dijon
to participate in the annual international folklore festival "Les Fêtes de la vigne" (Jeux D'Automne Fêtes Internationales De La Vigne) among 23 other countries.
After performing 15 days long on stage, they won the first prize, "Le Collier d'Or".
Among other songs they performed "Lecha Dodi" and "Mah Yafah 'At Yaldati".

After this success they were invited to several radio and television programs in France, like "Le Petit Conservatoire de la chanson", where they performed
"Kefel", the Hebrew version of the French "Dites-luis".
Brit Hashmonaim
In November 1974 "Ilana & Palti" moved to England, where they were invited by several Jewish organizations like Makkabi, Zionist Federation of Great Britain & Ireland, Brit Hashmonayim,
Joint Senior Youth Movements, Tel Hay Fund, Jewish Agency for Israel, Israel Students Association in Great Britain and Jewish-Christain Friendship Organizations in Europe. They got invitations by the Israeli embassy in London to sing during "Israel week" for Jewish students, mainly at universities

In 1975 they decided to go to Germany, where they performed for several Jewish organizations and were invited to versatile shows and programs in radio and tv. In a tv show about Israel they performed together with
Yigal Bashan and "Chocolate Menta Mastik" Yiddish and Hebrew songs.

Their sucess caught the attention of record company EMI, which let them produce four singles and their
LP "Ein Mann, ein Mädchen" in 1978.
Paltiel-hay Jacoby wrote the music to "Warum Hast Du Licht Gemacht", which was released as one
of the singles to the lyrics of Fritz Grasshoff.

In 1978 "Ilana & Palti" were moving to Belgium, where they appeared nightly in the "Tel-Aviv" night club to the enjoyment of international guests and local club members in the beautiful songs and lyrics in different languages.


Ilana & Palti on Youtube 

 

Nowadays:

After 1978 Paltiel-hay Jacoby decided to focus on his high education and teaching career. 
Due to his versatile interest and knowledge in languages he was awarded with the Kutscher Prize in Linguistics.

Recently he returned to his old love of music and composed Modeh Ani, sung together with Leah Goldstern under the name "Jacob & Leah". 
That led him to be again active as a singer/songwriter up to now.

Paltiel-hay Jacoby on Facebook

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