Customer Reviews

Great Jewish Music: Burt Bacharach

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This was the first of Tzadik's 'Great Jewish Music' tributes, and definitely the best, due to the musicians involved, and of course the source material. There's been quite a resurgence of Bacharach's music of late (thanks to Austin Powers, among other things) and this tribute helps to show that this resurgence is well-deserved. When some of the biggest names in modern music (Bill Frisell, Eyvind Kang, Marc Ribot, Fred Frith, etc.) record your music, that is some pretty high praise.

So, onto some of the music... Dave Douglas reworks 'Wives And Lovers' into a wonderfully swinging version for trumpet, piano and bass sax/piccolo/flute, and one wonders why we haven't heard more of Dave with this lineup. Accordionist Guy Klucevsek mixes 'Who Gets The Guy?' with 'This Guy's In Love With You' with a result that is almost unrecognisable due to his extreme reharmonisation. 'Walk On By' gets a relatively straight but beautiful reading by downtown legend Kramer.

And so it goes - most of the tracks are reworked beautifully, or covered relatively straight, but great versions nonetheless. One that most notably breaks the mold is Joey Baron's solo drum version of 'Alfie'. Kind of interesting, but doesn't really hold up to multiple listens.

As another reviewer said, there's probably just too much music here - though I love Marc Ribot, it is probably not necessary to have two tracks by him (one solo, one with band). And some of the tracks, towards the end of the second disc in particular, are a bit lacking.

But all in all, this is a worthy tribute to a great songwriter.

If you are a fan of Hal Wilner's tribute albums to Charles Mingus, Thelonious Monk, and Nino Rota, and also of Burt Bacharach, this album is right up your alley. At 20 songs, there are about six too many, but at least two of them are worth the price of admission by themselves. I'm speaking of Bill Frisell's beautiful solo version of "What the World Needs Now Is Love" on what sounds like an acoustic archtop guitar (none of his volume pedal/tape delay effects, just pure Bill), and also of Medeski Martin and Wood's super-funky version of "Do You Know the Way to San Jose." If only MM&W had such strong material to work with on their own albums...The more experimental things work in about half the cases on this album, and there are a small number of tracks you will never want to hear again. I distilled my favorites onto one CD so I wouldn't have to program and switch the discs out to get to all my favorites.

remember the english class where the teacher gave as an assignment a sonnet by shakespeare and everyone in the class had to rewrite the sonnet in their own version? that's pretty much what this collection is about, interpretation and variation.

for this project, john zorn assembled some musicians, some as individuals, others as groups. make believe he said to them, okay, gang, I want each one of you or your group, for those of you in a group, to take a burt bacharach song and arrange it any way you want, the only rule i want you to follow is to keep it jewish, jewish meaning persecuted and unwelcome. now not all of the selections are as somber as, say, joey baron's drum solo of alfie, but they all do lack the joy and exurberant tone of the original recordings.

there's a dave douglas group doing wives and lovers. there's a bill frisell solo of what the world needs now is love. eliot sharp making music with several instruments by himself doing his version of the man who shot liberty valance.

basically, what's here is a kind of sampler of musicians who have their own recordings. so don't really think bacharach, unless you're a music student, think musician. if you're familiar with any of the players, chances you'll like what they do here, if you generally like what they do. the musicians you're not familiar with you can kind of decide if you want to hear them elsewhere based on how they play here, instead of what they play, the particular chosen song by bacharach.


some other musicians: anthony coleman, zeena and sara parkins, marc ribot, fred frith, and eyvind kang

Fans of the incredibly handsome and supremely talented Burt Bacharach may now learn he is Jewish and a world of wonderfull recordings and soundtracks are yours for the asking as all his "dstuff" is thankfully available. I dare say that he sells more music today than he did in the 60s-70s. Buy and enjoy that first. If you are a true aficianado you then will be fascinated by the range of music that Bacharach inspires from Punk to Lounge and yes, Jewish. Someday I would love to hear Klezmer musicians have a go at this. But here, Bacharachs music is deconstructed and that unique Yiddisha talent for reflection, suffering even, ennui, arcane internecian and occult "schtick" is center stage. Very introspective the songs of love and loss are seen, and played with a spiritual angst that finds its way into things like the popularity of Kabbala. If Burt were Black a Gospel treatment would be due. But Bacharachs world weariness, like Cole Porters dark side, is focused. It takes some listening but the mood is beautiful as a vacation to Greenland where you sit and look at the glaciers.