Customer Reviews

Melt Zonk Rewire

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The New Klezmer Trio, fronted by clarinetist Ben Goldberg, have as much in common with the free jazz scene as they do with klezmer; while they're definitely part of the current renaissance in Jewish cultural product being spurred by John Zorn, they're doing much to interpret and reinvent klezmer, bending it far, far away from the manic, playful music typically designated by that name. In fact, oft times, the music on this album is dark and broody, sometimes even aggressive; it doesn't sound like any other klezmer you're likely to here. I'd recommend this to anyone interested in free jazz, particularly in the use of the clarinet in free contexts, before I'd recommend it to a fan of traditional klezmer. Someone who likes BOTH these forms should buy it in an instant, needless to say. See also my review for SHORT FOR SOMETHING, a slightly more accessible, but less, I found, rewarding disc.

Something about this album has never quite sat well with me since the first time I listened to it. I think that Zorn and all of his cronies are doing some really creative things in the Radical Jewish Culture movement, and, compounding that, I've always had an affinity toward avant-garde clarinet; rare an occurance as it may be. So you'd think the album would fit comfortably between Naftule Brandwein and Giuffre's Free Fall, but it falls painfully short, and I never could quite grasp why. But the other day I pulled it out again and gave it a listen and it hit me: the bass. Not knowing anything about the bass player of the band, I'd venture to guess that he's more influenced by rock than anything else, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, especially in a group like this, but it sounds like he brought all of the wrong techniques to the table. Often times, he'll just hit one note arbitrarily, out of synch with the rhythm, tossing in triplets and the like of this one note, but never really expanding on the idea. This gives many of the tracks this vamp-like feel all the way through, giving the impression that the song never really started. Dig?