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36 of 39 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Musician as a leader, June 26, 2003
This review is from: Exile (Audio CD)
With this wonderful album Atzmon establishes his role as a musician who is involved in what goes on in the world, and is not afraid to express himself. The music on this CD is not political - it is rather a beautiful combination of Arab music, East-European jewish music, and Balkan music - all soaked with Jazz sensibility. Atzmon Clarinet playing is simply amazing - his tone on this small instrument is as big as a tenor sax. Atzmon's saxophone playing - here he plays alto and soprano - is highly original, with welcome traces of Coltrane influences. Everything here is top quality - the Palestinian singers (Reem Kelani and Dhafer Youssef), the Gypsy guitar and violin players, and Atzmon's quartet that provide the Jazzy linking glue throughout. But Atzmon goes further than that, and states that the CD is dedicated to the Palestinian right of return. This is part of the package, he insists. Atzmon's attitude elevates the role of the musician from a mere entertainer to that of a leader, realizing that the moral commitment of the musician should not be less than that of a writer, painter, sculpturer, or any other true artist. This is a breakthrough CD both musically and conceptually. It should be heard by every serious person.
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27 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fabulous and Unique, May 21, 2003
This review is from: Exile (Audio CD)
This album is a musical prayer for the Palestinian Right of Return. It features a Palestinian woman singer Reem Kelani whose voice is incredible, singing side to side with the best jazz flute and clarinet player of our time, Israeli expatriot Gilad Atzmon. It raises two simple questions regarding the Israeli occupation of Palestine: How is it that people who have suffered so much and for so long can inflict so much pain on the Other? How can Zionists, who are motivated by a genuine desire to return be so blind when it comes to the very similar Palestinian desire? The questions are posed musically, by taking haunting Hebrew folk melodies and changing them into songs about the Palestinian intifada. The tunes are vibrant, not sorrowful. It is a joyous jazzy mix of Klezmer and Arabian sound. "Exile" is a celebration of being a stranger in a land which is not one's own.
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31 of 38 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Cambridge censor notwithstanding-this soulful journey...., February 24, 2004
This review is from: Exile (Audio CD)
His music gets better and better ...especially for those of us who grew up with the music of Dexter Gordon, Coltrane, Parker, Kirk etc...Atzmon self-taught many lessons of past masters.
He reveals a spirit which synthesizes his own internal melodies with the world he came from and the larger world...a musician's musician.
How can one not mention the longing of people in diaspora and their experience of exile?...listening to this album particularly these musicians of EXILE?
How can one not talk about the deep places that Gilad's music evokes or the political issues related to EXILE... its causes.?
Problem is there are some who want that attention curtailed, but the grief and rage of this decades long brutal occupation goes disconnected in US msm as it whitewashes unending
Zionist cruelty. Despite the cruel backdrop this music/musician evokes, evolves and expands our world for the better.
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