Ack! I forgot to mention how much I enjoy Steven Bernstein's two discs -- "Diaspora Soul" and "Diaspora Blues." Sex Mob is a terrific project, but I enjoy his solo albums even more. Tom In a message dated 10/8/02 10:35:25 AM Eastern Daylight Time, efrendv@yahoo.es writes:
Hi,
Besides the Masada stuff, I've enjoyed the RJC material quite a lot. One of the first I purchased was Anthony Coleman's "Sephardic Tinge", which is pretty good. It obviously deals with a mixture of Spanish-Jewish traditional melodies plus a good Monkian-piano trio sound. Really entertaining. It mixes Coleman originals with those Hebrew traditionals, Jelly Roll Morton and Monk's tunes if my memory serves. I recently bought their latest outing, "Our Beautiful Garden is Open" and despite sticking with the same formula, is a totally enjoyable album (Kurt Weill cover included). Two that I've incessantly recommended are Tim Sparks' "Tanz" and "At the Rebbe's Table". Beautiful renditions of Jewish traditionals as well, this time arranged for strings and percussion. I didn't hear his first solo album on Tzadik but it's probably as delightful. The two Krakauer cds are really good too. If you are looking for a more straight-ahead klezmer style, this should definitely match your tastes. Krakauer is absolutely amazing on clarinet. Although they deal with the same stuff, the albums are pretty different, with "Klezmer NY" clearly more funk-oriented. It's definitely a good mixture. Although at first it sounded the same throughout, Steve Berenstein's "Diaspora Soul" is really enjoyable. It blends Jewish melodies with Latin rhythms and a nice Wurlitzer sound. Then there are other RJC releases that have little or nothing to do with traditional Jewish folk music like Marty Ehrlich's "Sojourn" (amazing album), Marc Ribot's Shrek live, the Kramer album, or Anthony Coleman's "Selfhaters".
Some of my biggest disappointments: the Roberto Rodríguez album, Satlah and Davka. Just an opinion, but I wouldn't invest a cent on this.
Best,
Efrén del Valle
______________________________________________________ Discs I'm listening to at work: Elvis Costello Glastonbury Festival 6/20/87 Bruce Springsteen 12/8/01 Golden Smog -- Keys and Filler