Sunday evening is going to be fantastic with musical guests Cirkestra and Ashia Grzesik.  Cirkestra formed when the members met in Jamaica Plains, MA and then decided to all run away with Circus Smirkus.  Their sound is  “Eastern European meets jazz, meets Spike Jones, meets Klezmer.”  They have a flair all of their own and it’s going to be a celebratory evening as Ashia Gresik joins them with her cello and vocals. Tickets can be purchased at Brown Paper Tickets or at the door for $10.

Patrick Cress’ Telepathy — Alive and Teething (Telepathic, 2009)

Telepathy is a longtime hidden gem of the local jazz scene, and it’s too bad more people haven’t checked out the way Patrick Cress and Aaron Novik bounce sax/clarinet lines off one another in this energetic quartet. I got to see them live back in June, and as I’d mentioned then, they’ve got a live album out.

Most tracks feature a hard-punching middle-tempo. Tim Bulkley’s drums lay down solid smacking beats that both horns can play off. This lays the foundation for some terrific group work.

The main theme of “The Workout” is chipper and snippy; I love the snappy attitude in the way the sax clips short the first quick note in that line. For Novik’s solo, the band seems to spread out, offering a nice wide space without necessarily slowing down much — elbow room. “Metal Telepathy” buzzes low to the ground (baritone sax plus bass clarinet?) and rocks out with some raspy soloing in front of a busy rhythm section.

So, you don’t get full-tilt Spy Vs. Spy speedballing, but you do get catchy tunes with a heavy stomp to them (sometimes in an odd time signature) followed by solos that blaze and sear, with Cress and Novik egging each other on. Or, sometimes, they’ll solo together in intertwining lines.

The composing certainly draws from players like Ornette Coleman and Tim Berne, but it’s also got Klezmer and world-music twists to it, for a vaguely Eastern European tinge sometimes.

“Powder Monkey” (track 2) features the kind of sinewy, twisting melody I’ve come to associate with these guys. (And it’s in 10/8, I think.) “Optichism” comes in with a languid snakelike pulsing, a vague touch of Asia. It’s the kind of track that’s slow in spirit but not physically slow in tempo, and the theme serves as a launching pad for what eventually becomes a lurching maelstrom.

“Teething” opens the album on the right foot: a chugging little composition that quickly hits a hiccup, a preplanned bump in the groove as it shifts from 6/8 to 4/4, if I’m counting right. That’s followed by an energetic group-soloing stretch. “Hi Hi Pizza Pie” is a seven-beat rhythm with a swingy melody, richly harmonized between the two horns.

Things close out with “Annika’s Lullabye,” a sweet little melody that leads into a free and open-ended, but still sweetly soulful, improv section. It’s like a gospel-tinged free jazz, not far removed from the free jazz of the ’60s. You can hear the crowd noise during the quieter segments here.

1. Live In Middelheim 1999 (Masada)
2. The Big Gundown
3. Grand Guignol (Naked City)
4. Bar Kokhba (Bar Kokhba Sextet)
5. 50th Birthday Celebration Series Vol. 4 (Electric Masada)
6. Six Litanies For Heliogabalus (Moonchild)
7. Godard/Spillane
8. Filmworks XIV: Hiding And Seeking
9. Asmodeus: The Book Of Angels Vol. 7 (John Zorn/Marc Ribot)
10. Live In Sevilla 2000 (Masada)

Nattevingerwerk.

NP: The Fall – Dragnet

Rachael Yamagata – I Want You

Her vocals when she does this soft growly thing sound a little like Fiona Apple, but I don’t want to draw too many comparisons to current artists because I think that is a jacked up thing to do. I will say that a lot of the backing instrumentals on her album are done by the Klezmatics, who work in the klezmer tradition of music. (And I am going to be googling the Klezmatics and seeing what’s what with their solo stuff, promise.)

This klezmer business is a genre about which I knew absolutely zero until I gave it a test drive on the wiki, but I will totally be on the lookout for it showing up thematically in pop from now on. It’s celebration music, mainly for Jewish religious ceremonies and rites of passage. It has definitive characteristics. You know, like, the wedding scene in Fiddler on the Roof, that awesome kickass bottle dance scene? Like that.

I think you can hear it in here, in the strong clarinet, trombone, and trumpet. I mean, obviously the song is not composed to be a deliberate inclusion in the genre, it’s just informed by it, and it’s done really well. Anyway, here are the lyrics to this great track and some pics of terrific singer-songwriter and hottie brunette siren, Rachael Yamagata.

You sat down next to me, like poetry to wine
Our window looked upon a yellow neon sign
I took your hand while you decided what to do
The only kiss, I ever miss, I shared with you
The other cities hold a memory still of a place
But when I dream of London, I can only see your face

I want you
And no one,
No one else will do
You, and no one
No one is the only one
To fill the empty space I hold for you

You simplified me down to slogans on the wall
I took offense, but you were right about them all
My friends are telling me I shouldn’t waste my time
But I can’t concentrate until I make you mine
I’m drawing cards and making wishes down by the well
Who would’ve known I’d lose myself in that old hotel

I want you
And no one
No one else for me
You, and no one
‘Cause no one else is strong enough,
To slow me down in time to set me free

I want you
Or no one else
No one else is fine
Oh, you, and no one
No one is the only one
To fill me up until I make you mine

Är ett otroligt svängigt gypsie/klezmer band från Danmark. Jag och Gustaf åkte ner till Köpenhamn på roadtrip för att se dom i oktober. Vi missade dem naturligtvis. Vi var inte ute i tillräckligt god tid med biljetterna. Typiskt. Men det var ju iallafall en sjukt skön resa! Köpenhamn är trevligt…

Hitta dem på Spotify? Klicka HÄR

Dem ser inte så roliga ut på scen här! Men jag kan tänka mig att det är ÖS i publiken! Och dem kastar ju konfetti! Bara det värt fem av fem Porslinspandor!

Je n’avais pas fait attention à la collusion des dates, lorsque j’ai réservé les billets pour le concert de samedi soir. Et pourtant… En ces temps de commémorations de la chute du mur de Berlin, aller voir le concert des 17 Hippies (prononcer : [di zibtsène hipiz]), groupe berlinois que j’affectionne depuis quelques années, était finalement une évidence !

Leur dernier album ne m’avait pas convaincue, lorsque je l’ai écouté à la fnac, mais leur performance sur scène m’a fait changer d’avis. Encore une fois, dans une salle peu connue pour ses débordements (celle du théâtre de la Ville), le public a été conquis ! Comme on pouvait s’y attendre, il y avait majoritairement des Allemands ou des germanophiles, mais ce qui m’a étonnée, c’est surtout le fait qu’il n’y avait que des cinquantenaires (l’âge des membres du groupe)… ou des ados. Très peu de gens entre les deux. Je me réjouis, d’ailleurs, que cette musique plaise aussi aux nouvelles générations ! Mais il faut dire aussi qu’ils sont particulièrement à l’aise sur scène, changeant de place et d’instrument au gré des chansons, chaque musicien avec son style propre (ils sont 13, comme leur nom ne l’indique pas), plus ou moins déjanté.

Comment qualifier la musique des 17 Hippies ? Difficile exercice, auquel même eux ne cherchent plus à se livrer. Le seul mot qui me vient à l’esprit est : « berlinois » ! Je n’arrive d’ailleurs même pas à m’expliquer pourquoi, mais il semble tellement évident que ce mélange de klezmer, de pop, chanté en plusieurs langues, vient de cette ville aux multiples visages !

Faites tomber vos murs, écoutez-les !

It’s hard to imagine a sexier album – or a smarter one - released this year. Over the course of fifteen first-class tracks – there’s not a single substandard song on this cd – Rupa & the April Fishes come off like a better-traveled Eleni Mandell backed by an acoustic Gogol Bordello. Alternating between wild gypsy dances, ska, noir cabaret, Mexican border ballads, Colombian folk, tango, klezmer and reggae, this is without question the most triumphantly multistylistic tour de force of 2009.

Frontwoman/guitarist/physician Rupa Marya is a Franco-American globetrotter of Indian ancestry. Whether singing in English, French or Spanish, her lyrics are as evocative as they are provocative (the album is a tribute to and defense of immigrants risking their lives around the world). Her breathy vocals are equally nuanced, as capable of conjuring a sultry late-night ambience as much as nonplussed outrage, backed by an acoustic rhythm section along with cello, trumpet, and accordion as well as horns and flute on several tracks. They stay in moody minor keys until the next-to-last track, a surprisingly breezy number combining a Mexican folk feel with reggae, a lament that could be told from an immigrant’s viewpoint…or just a woman missing a lover.

Before that, there’s a brief, haunting violin theme; a swinging noir tango with an incisive trumpet solo at the end; a playful, fun gypsy dance that goes out on a boomy bass solo; a dark, violin-driven reggae number; a gypsy-inflected, slinky ska tune; a defiant gypsy waltz with echoes of New York vintage latin revivalists las Rubias del Norte; a sad, mariachiesque trumpet tune; a dark Mexican shuffle; a scary, Middle-Eastern-inflected gypsy dance that builds from a stately hora-style intro; a jaunty, bluesy ragtime song with a big dixieland raveup at the end; and a bouncy cumbia featuring a characteristically intense rap interlude by the greatest English-language lyricist of our time, Boots Riley of Oakland hip-hop legends the Coup (who has an intriguing new collaboration with Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine, Street Sweeper Social Club).

Part of this album is a great dance mix; what’s not danceable makes great makeout music. Socially aware, sometimes surreal and invariably inspired, this is one of the best albums of the year, yet another reason why we’re not going to finalize our Best Albums of 2009 list until the end of December. Rupa & the April Fishes play the Bell House along with another excellent, multistylistic, danceable band, Nation Beat on November 13 at 8 PM.

Perhaps the greatest thing about Jewish music is that it’s so well-traveled. In a sense, it could be said that it embodies the best of all worlds. The new collaboration between the “legendary trumpeter of the klezmer underground,” as one recent concert flyer described Frank London, and former Klezmatics accordionist/frontman Lorin Sklamberg certainly could be categorized as such. With contributions from ex-Psychedelic Fur Knox Chandler on guitar and effects, Ara Dinkjian adding gorgeously clanging, plinking and plunking textures on Middle Eastern lutes including the oud, saz and cumbus, and world music percussionist Deep Singh on tabla and dhol, the cd – recently out on Tzadik – alternates between boisterous and haunting reinterpretations of traditional Jewish liturgical music. Is this klezmer? Folk music? Jazz? Rock? Well, it’s all of the above: the melodies are as rustic as would be expected, but the playing, the arrangements and the production all draw deeply on what’s happened in the hundreds or maybe even thousand years since these tunes first saw the light of day. This is a beautiful and plaintive album and it also really rocks from time to time.

A couple of the tracks here turn worship into slinky, undulating Levantine dances, bouncing along on the beat of the tabla. Another couple have an upbeat dance feel and a Celtic tinge to the melodies. Still a couple more could be called shtetl ska, even if they go back long before ska was invented. The album’s twelfth track, a lament about being overrun by invaders, showcases London’s facility for channeling diverse moods both with and without a mute. After that, Sklamberg gets to breathlessly rattle off a Hasidic acrostic for a lyric while the band scrambles to keep up - and then Chandler throws in a big blazing arena rock solo where London then picks up the melody again, seamlessly  yet exhilaratingly as middle-period ELO would do. The ambient final cut nicks the intro from Pink Floyd’s Shine On You Crazy Diamond, an expansive showcase for the whole band and especially Sklamberg’s rapt, incantatory vocals.

London’s playing is characteristically soulful, whether swaying through a sly muted passage or with half-balmy, half-ecstatic clarity. It’s also particularly pleasant to see how well Sklamberg’s voice has aged: it’s lower than it was in his Klezmatics days, the petulance of that era replaced with an unaffected, very welcome gravitas. This album ought to appeal to a vastly wider audience than your typical collection of traditional Jewish ngunim, while providing a decisive answer to the age-old question, does Rabbi Saul of Mozditz really rock? Answer: an emphatic ja.

Le Freylekh Trio est composé des frères Feterman, membres de la Caravane Passe et du Toubab All Stars, et du violoniste Jacques Gandard. Les trois compères revisitent la musique klezmer et gitane depuis quelques années déja. Musiques de diasporas, leurs mélodies sont des cavalcades effrénées ou jaillissent fureur de vivre juive et mélancolie balkanique.

Sur leur dernier album “Le Freylekh Trio featuring Goulash System“, ils s’entourent de musiciens rencontrés dans les rues de Paris, serbes, américains, hongrois, roumains, camerounais, tsiganes, ashkenazes…et les voila partis à l’assaut du métro, des bars du 20ème, des rues de Paname !

Laissez vous gagner par la Freylekh frénésie, lâchez les chevaux sur ce klezmer power !!!!

Earlier in the year I travelled back to my ex-home of Krakow Poland to write a couple of features that I had been commissioned to do by Jetaway. One was on Communist Tour, another a vodka article (which eventually got dropped as Jet2 stopped flying to Krakow… luckily Ryanair have picked it up and it should be published soon!). I was also lucky enough to get a third assignment with Wizzair, interviewing me old mucker Monsieur Trebacz about his free-wheeling life as a bike tour guide and part-time DJ.

Anyhow, in an attempt to make the trip yet more profitable I decided to take a chance and research an article that no one had commissioned but I hoped to sell to the broadsheets thus paving the way into the lucrative business of travel writing for newspapers… naturally this plan didn’t work, and I must say still a bit flummoxed on how to break into this market. By chance I have the email of the NY Times Travel Editor’s email and he told me that due to the economic crisis they weren’t commissioning any more articles, instead publishing the large backlog of stories they have gathering cyber dust in their inbox. This could of course have been a polite way of saying we’re not interested but it certainly tallies with the reports of newspapers under strain and slashing budgets (one my reason why I launched Urban Travel Blog).

Anyhow the upshot of all this is that I had a very well-researched 1500 word article on the modernisation of traditional Jewish klezmer folk music in Krakow which I had spent the best part of a week polishing kicking around on my desktop for six months. Shame really as it was a good ‘un… but what with my funky new concept of an online travel magazine now up-and-running I have handily provided myself with the perfect publishing platform. Ok, sadly no one is paying me just yet but with the digital revolution well underway who knows, self-publishing my articles may prove even more profitable than writing for other editors.

Hope you enjoy my encounters with ‘The New Klezmers of Krakow‘.

heeb’n'vegan posted a review of several Jewish punk concerts back in August and I am now finally getting around to discussing it.

This trend isn’t surprising to me at all, besides the fact that it’s surfacing in the late 2000’s as opposed to the 80’s or 90’s (but I could be wrong, seeing as I was but a wee child back in that day and was primarily listening to Paul Simon, Mahalia Jackson and Raffi on LP and cassette tape, and not Jewish music).

I’m writing a chapter for my thesis right now on why explicitly-Jewish hip hop makes sense in the context of the klezmer revival (and why the klezmer revival makes sense in the context of the folk movement of the mid-20th century).  There have been two broad trends in Jewish-American music in the 20th and 21st centuries (basically since mass numbers of Ashkenazi Jews came to the US): 1) less-observant Jews making music that is a hybrid between whatever music they were making before, i.e. traditional secular music from their home in Europe, and American popular styles; and 2) Orthodox Jews (mainly since the 60’s) making kosherized versions of popular styles so that the kids don’t go off the derech–i.e., regular pop music has lyrics that the Orthodox community considers objectionable, so they make music that sounds just like regular pop music, but has “Torah-approved” lyrics.

This seems to be primarily an example of the latter.  The band Moshiach Oi! (Messiah Hey!, more or less) has songs like “I Wanna Learn Torah” and “Shabbos,” which have straight-up Orthodox lyrics and straight-up punk aesthetics.  Their song “Am Yisroel Chai” (the people Israel live, which is the title of a folk song that they reinterpreted) has lyrics that to my mind showcase the worse side of Orthodox ideology:

We stand for life, they stand for war

We stand for peace, they stand for more

We stand for G-d, they stand for death

We’ll scream “Am Yisroel Chai!” with our last breath

Right, because all the goyim clearly have no morals.  Moving on.

The band CAN!!CAN seems to be doing a bit better, viewing the use of punk as within the evolving, innovative aspect of Jewish tradition–and using punk to welcome people who might be otherwise alienated from the Jewish community back in.  I won’t argue with that.

Jewish punk seems to be in the stage Jewish hip hop was in back in the 80’s: some Jewish musicians are playing non-overtly-Jewish punk, and there are some Jewish punk bands that are overtly Jewish, often parody mainstream punk bands (like the band Shabbos Bloody Shabbos) and don’t incorporate Jewish aesthetics, though their lyrics are almost exclusively “Jewish.”

Back in the 80’s, we saw hip hop bands like 2 Live Jews making songs with titles like “Kosher as We Wanna Be” and “Wash This Way” (a takeoff on “Walk This Way” referencing netilat yadayim).

Now we have much better-sounding stuff from Jews exploring Jewish identity while using hip hop and traditional Jewish music (however that’s defined) as a more fluent vernacular:

Give Jewish punk 10 years and I expect great things.

Coming up so far in November

Friday 6th November with LV Project featuring Pepa Niebla and guest guitarist Matt Smith at Jazz After Dark, Greek Street, Soho, London playing jazz, fusion, samba and soul. 10:30pm – 2:30am

Saturday 21st November with Luna Kalamata at a time and venue to be confirmed in Hackney, London. Luna Kalamata play acoustic Balkan music.

Saturday 28th November with LV Project featuring Kate Hayes Jazz After Dark, Greek Street, Soho, London playing jazz, fusion, samba and soul. 10:30pm – 2:30am

*disclaimer: for some reason this album was missing its final track, and I couldn’t track it down. So keep that in mind.

This is the cover for this album! Very evocative.

WHO?

The World/Inferno Friendship Society, whom I have also heard referred to in shorthand as “World Inferno”, is a band from Brooklyn, in New York City. They’re notable for being a very energetic live act, though I have never seen them live myself. However several people I know have, and they tell stories of people jumping off balconies, and an impromptu full-audience waltzing session when the police were called because of a noise complaint. “What are the cops going to do about a bunch of people waltzing?” said this person. The idea of something so formal being shocking or absurd at a World Inferno show comes from the fact that World Inferno performs music that is significantly influenced by what’s called “punk”. “Punk” was a type of idea that came around in the 1970s in England and New York, and it’s a very interesting and complicated and many-bands-and-artists-involved chunk of musical history, so while I don’t have the time or resolve to completely describe it here, suffice to say that it’s about creating your own expression, rejecting previous standards regarding musicianship or lyricism and putting the emotion of the expression in the foreground of the music. Which is why punk music was often very fast and loud and, sometimes, angry. However, World Inferno is not a strict punk band, because it also incorporates musical influences from cabaret, which pre-dated punk music but was nonetheless a musical form that relied similarly on the shameless and uninhibited expression of emotion in songs, and was also centered around a flamboyant theatrical presentation. Which is to say, World Inferno makes fast, high-energy music with strings, horns, keyboards, as well as the usual punk rock instruments of guitars and drums. Every Halloween they perform a concert called “Hallowmas”, which involves elaborate costumes and props; the lead singer of the band, whose name is Peter Ventantonio but he calls himself Jack Terricloth (like towels), describes Halloween on this album I’m reviewing as “a holiday for us with no Christians or martyrs involved…a holiday for us, just the kids who like to get drunk and break stuff.” A lot of the lyrical themes of the songs on this album can be extrapolated from that sentence. Mr. Ventantonio is a very charismatic and well-dressed frontman for the band, and has a voice which is quite tuneful and not at all rough or unmusical like many other punk singers.

WHAT?

“Hallowmas Live At Northsix” is a live album, recorded on Halloween (Oct. 31st) of 2002 at a musical venue called North Six, which is located at 66 North 6th Street in Brooklyn New York. Thus the name. It is less than an hour in length, and many of the songs are played faster than the versions which were recorded in the studio, and are preceded or followed by Mr. Ventantonio speaking to the band or the crowd, which is known as “stage banter”, about topics which may be related to the songs ahead or previous, or simply random. Here are some examples: “Being from New Jersey there’s not so many people I can point to as a hero because as you know, it is a crappy crappy state.” “Come here, I gotta tell you something. There’s a shop on the next corner, north 6th between Wife and Barrie…I’d like you to go smash it up. Now if anyone asks who told you to do this, i want you to keep mum. It was Franz.” (That refers to the keyboard player, Franz Nicolay, who is also in the band The Hold Steady) “People from other countries often say ‘it must be wonderful to play for your hometown crowd. And I say ‘yes yes yes of course’…but what people don’t realize is that there is a WORLD of difference between New York…and NEWWWW JERSEY!” And then the band plays a song called “My Ancestral Homeland, New Jersey” which is probably autobiographical because Mr. Ventantonio comes from a town called Bridgewater in New Jersey. You have songs named “Zen And The Art Of Breaking Everything In This Room”, “I Wouldn’t Want To Live In A World Without Grudges”, “Let’s Steal Everything”, stuff like that. He also sings about Paul Robeson because he says Paul Robeson, who came from Princeton NJ and was a renaissance man (which means he was skilled at lots of things) who deserves getting a look-up from you the reader.

I’m rambling a little here. But getting back to the album: It is a fun, fast-paced selection at what makes this band so very popular with people. You’ve got a few frenetic guitar solos, lots of stage banter, a wide variety of instrumentation, and Mr. Ventantonio’s singing, which is strong though he often sings fast enough and with enough passionate inflection that the lyrics, which are about things like having enemies, the actor Peter Lorre, the singer/songwriter Jeffrey Lee Pierce (who was the frontman of a band called The Gun Club which I think are very good) become an amusing mess that the listener can only 3/4s of the way understand. Though the visual aspects of the show are, obviously, not visible through headphones, you can still imagine a lot of movement and dancing and dramatic gestures.

WHY?

Because one of the best parts about being passionate about music, and the people who make it, is witnessing them doing so in front of you! Sure this is just a live album, as opposed to a video, but you don’t need to see the World Inferno to believe in their appeal. Their combination of various musical styles both old and new comes across perfectly on this album, and that’s what a successful live act like World Inferno  does; appeal to their audiences with more than just comes out in the studio, with more types of music than than just what the punk crowd might enjoy, and with more than just a charismatic frontman. Specifically though, for this album, I think it’d appeal to:

1) People who like going to high-energy “shows” (that’s what people who go to a lot of concerts call concerts) and are looking for a new band to check out. Subsection: People looking for such shows on Halloween and who live in whatever area the World Inferno are playing this year.

2) People who like music that espouses a good/chaotic/deviant time and doesn’t take itself too seriously in the process.

3) People looking to have conversations about “punk cabaret” with people you want to connect with who like it. If you listen to this album you can lie relatively easily about having actually been there.

4) People who like old-timey music (like klezmer and cabaret and waltzing and so on) and like seeing it performed by young(ish) happy energetic people.

5) Punk lovers who are looking to expand their musical horizons. (Those people should also check out The Gun Club.)

AND TO ALL YOU STODGY SVETLANAS OUT THERE…

Sure this music sounds like it’s going so fast that it’s about to shake apart at any second, and maybe that would be more appealing in real life when it’s going on ten feet from you right in front of the the fists-swingin’, leather-slappin’-against-sweat-against-dyed-hair mosh pit. And maybe you don’t like those types of shows at all and in fact are a much more sedate person who enjoys a nice glass of scotch and a quiet Saturday evening in. But though World Inferno as a band and a music-making entity may not strike a chord with you specifically, you should respect bands that marry musical styles from past and present to make fervent crowds of people very happy and exhilarated. The spirit of passionate live musicianship is alive and well and its frontman wears a suit and thinks he’s a towel. Not really though.

Here’s a live video of the World Inferno! As befits such a concert, it’s shaky, low quality, and shows a lot of people having lots of physically interactive fun, both on stage and off.

Artysta: Frank London
Album: Scientist at Work
Data wydania: 2002 (nagrany w 1997)

1. Alef (6:34)
2. Notreve (4:27)
3. Golem Khosidl (7:49)
4. Fela (4:35)
5. Shabbos Bride (8:33)
6. Imanu Malketeynu (5:55)
7. Pesakh Nign (7:49)

Mało jest płyt, które można pokochać po pierwszym przesłuchaniu. Ba, mało jest takich artystów, którzy wcześniej w ogóle nieznani, po kilkunastu minutach spędzonych z albumem muzycznym zaczynają być dla nas ważnym elementem naszej “ścieżki dźwiękowej życia”. Mnie ostatnio spotkało coś takiego – płyta “Scientist at Work” stworzona przez nieznanego mi wcześniej z autorskich projektów Franka Londona. Przygoda z tym albumem była efektem poszukiwań muzyki klezmersko-jazzowej. Masada Johna Zorna jest trochę zbyt “nadmuchana” (to nie znaczy, że zła!), a ja szukałem czegoś hmmm… “czystszego” i mniej “popularnego”. Czy znalazłem to, czego szukałem? Szczerze – nie. Nie znaczy to jednak, że się zawiodłem. Wręcz przeciwnie – “Scientist at Work” wywarło na mnie ogromne wrażenie, czego od dawna nie przeżyłem.

Muzyka na płycie Franka Londona jest połączeniem kilku elementów. Według “wybitnych znawców muzyki zwanych krytykami” sporo tutaj cool jazzu. Ja osobiście nie słyszę tu ani krztyny np. Milesa Davisa (no dobra, może trochę jego wcielenia za “elektrycznych” czasów), choć może inni przedstawiciele “ynteligentnego jazzu” się tutaj przewijają. Cool jazz nie jest “moim” gatunkiem, trawie tylko Tristano oraz Burbecka. No, ale skoro “znawcy” mówią, że to “cool”, to cool. Muzyka faktycznie jest dosyć “zaplanowana”, wiele tutaj smaczków m.in. cichej i przesterowanej gitary elektrycznej, która w tle tworzy bardzo konkretny klimat. Muzyka jest też dosyć przestrzenna, bardziej nastawiona na tworzenie odpowiedniego krajobrazu muzycznego, niż na emocjonalną furię w stylu avant-/free jazzu.

Klezmer – to kolejny element charakterystyczny dla tej płyty. Jak to zwykle z tego typu muzyką bywa, melodię są przepiękne, przepełnione mistycyzmem. Skala żydowska ma to do siebie, że nawet banalnie proste zagrywki mają w sobie magię – te na “Scientist at Work” banalne nie są, więc logiczne, że ich oddziaływanie na wrażliwego słuchacza jest spore. ;] Słuchając utworów wpadamy w dziwny trans, przenosimy się do innego świata pełnego miłości do muzyki i baśniowych tajemnic historii narodu żydowskiego. Jeżeli ktoś, dajmy na to, będzie do tego tańczył – nie zdziwi mnie to w ogóle… sam tak robię. ;] Muzyka to tego typu, że nie pozwala usiedzieć w miejscu. Cały czas jesteśmy świadkami pewnego religijnego rytuału i to jest właśnie najpiękniejsze.

Jak na razie nic nie napisałem o konkretnych utworach. Opowiem o moich ulubionych trzech. “Notreve” rozpoczyna się ultraklimtyczną grą bębnów – robi wrażenie na dobrych głośnikach! Towarzyszy im fantastyczna gra “dędziaków”. Po chwili utwór przechodzi właśnie we wcześniej wspomnianego “elektrycznego cool Milesa”, co jest bardzo charakterystyczne i nie wymaga opisu. Gdzieś tak w połowie utworu motywy te łączą się w klezmer pełną gęba, a pod koniec jesteśmy już świadkami istnego kolektywnego szaleństwa.
“Golem Khosidl” znowu wymaga dobrego sprzętu, by zrobić naprawdę doskonałe wrażenie. Utwór jest typowym przedstawicielem dzieł wypełniających pokój niczym jakaś mgła. Prawdziwie mistyczne melodie, rytualne gra sekcji rytmicznej i jakaś taka magiczna otoczka sprawiają, że przeżywamy coś naprawdę niesamowitego. A “Fela”, to już szybszy, bardziej żywiołowy jazz inspirowany oczywiście klezmerem. Improwizacje muzyków sprawiają dużo frajdy w słuchaniu, znowu dzięki fantastycznym melodiom i radości z gry.

Polecam!!!

Si je vous dis groupe finlandais, et si je vous dis que Alamaailman Vasarat signifie, en finnois, les marteaux de l’enfer, vous allez penser à un de ces obscurs groupes de black métal. Non non, ne fuyez pas comme ça, attendez ! Car ici, point de pochette d’album arborant une photo de forêt en noir et blanc et à moitié floue. Et pas de guitare électrique non plus ! Ici la place est laissée libre aux violoncelles, saxophones, clarinettes, trombone, clavier et batterie.

Emmenés par le saxophoniste/clarinettiste Jarno Sarkula, ancien présentateur d’une émission de jeux vidéos sur une chaîne câblée finlandaise, Alamaailman Vasarat, joyeuse bande de fous furieux, pratiquent ce qu’on pourrait appeler de la fanfare-klezmer-jazz-métal. Dzing-dzing-boum-boum-pouêt-pouêt-tchack-plouf ! Alamaailman Vasarat, ça fuse dans toutes les directions. Si il y a bien quelques moments de repos, de jolies envolées klezmer, c’est pour mieux exploser l’instant d’après. Les vents s’époumonent, soutenus par des violoncelles qui n’hésitent pas à rajouter par moments une pointe de disto pour saupoudrer le gâteau d’une pincée de rock/métal. Car c’est bien d’un gâteau qu’il s’agit. Un gros gâteau dont on aimerait s’empiffrer jusqu’à s’en faire éclater l’estomac (et dont le père Jarno a peut-être un peu abusé …). Alamaailman Vasarat est un groupe énerg(ét)ique, jouissif et avant tout, festif.

Comme la technologie d’aujourd’hui permet des choses formidables, voici le clip de Kebab Tai Henki, extrait de leur 1er album, Vasaraasia. Vous pourrez y admirer le sérieux du groupe dans toute sa splendeur.

Après déjà 4 albums au compteur depuis 2000, c’est pour notre plus grand plaisir qu’ils nous reviennent en 2009 pour ce 5ème album, Huuro Kolkko. Et un album un peu particulier, apparemment. Ils nous informent sur leur site internet qu’il a été écrit en hommage à Huuro Kolkko, donc, explorateur finlandais méconnu du début du XXème siècle. Richard Kolkko, un lointain descendant, a hérité un beau jour de 2008 d’une mystérieuse boîte contenant des notes, de vieilles photos, une collection d’insectes, et le journal de bord de son ancêtre d’explorateur. Ce journal faisait allusion à des îles désertes et à un petit continent qu’aurait découvert notre ami Huuro. Ou dont il aurait juste rêvé. Vraie ou pas, en bon fan d’Alamaailman Vasarat qu’il était, il a pensé que cette petite histoire pourrait les intéresser, eux qui ont leur propre continent imaginaire, Vasaraasia. Et il n’en faudra pas plus à nos compères pour en faire un album, où chaque morceau raconte une partie du récit de l’explorateur, et dont la pochette exhibe fièrement une bien jolie collection d’insectes (j’ai personnellement une préférence pour le gros tout à gauche). Allez donc lire l’histoire complète sur leur site officiel.

Musicalement, l’album apparaît légèrement plus posé que ses prédécesseurs. On y trouve des morceaux plus mélodiques et même, n’ayons pas peur des mots, beaux. Ecoutez-donc Liskopallo ou encore Lautturin viivat, et vous verrez de quoi je veux parler. Les compositions sont un peu moins brutes de décoffrage, les instrumentations sont plus riches, de nouveaux instruments font d’ailleurs leur apparition : un tubax, sorte de saxophone contrebasse, et un thérémine (il est censé apparaître vers la fin de Mielisaurus, mais je le cherche encore …). Sonnant plus klezmer que jamais mais aussi et toujours rock, Alamaailman Vasarat signe là un bien bel album, très réfléchi, varié et riche, sans pour autant jeter à la poubelle leur furie d’antan.

Vous trouverez bien sûr quelques morceaux sur leur page myspace, ou encore sur jiwa.

NB: Toute remarque désobligeante, pouvant être interprétée comme une insulte au black métal est totalement assumée par l’auteur.

Ok, Brodinksi sells as Gucci Vump now, which might be a translation to Gucci wearing Vamp, and he obviously likes Klezmer music these days. Has he been to Israel lately? Eaten too much humus? Going out with a beautiful Islraeli girl? Who knows. It might just remain a mystery, just as his alias should have remained a mystery according to Institubes (well, it just did a few days – but worked as viral marketing tool whatsoever). However, if you want to know what this is all about, get the EP “Sha! Shtil” – The Boogieman” on Beatport.

Or just download it here.

domingo   4/10    15:00  café inglês, silves  (perto do castelo)

sábado 10/10  23:00  associacão artistas, faro

estes concertos, num mix de música reggae, afro, ambiente, tradicional portuguesa, klezmer, cumbia e mais, preparam uma curta digressão na suécia com os marenostrum a iníciar no dia 14 de outubro.

zilverzurf aka joão sueco aka johan zachrisson

A video vegn vi Jazz musik iz erstanen fun der bagegenish fun Yiden oys Misrakh Eyrope un shvartse amerikaner.

Du in Youtube gibt nur epes  a shtikele. Shraybt mir a blitsbrivl un ikh vet oych shikn dus farbindung tsum der gantse muvi in fransozish.