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