jewish

The Israeli-born bass player (not the other Israeli-born trumpeter with the same name, honestly, two jazz players with the same name is kind of confusing.) well known for his successful leader career as well as being a Chick Corea sideman, sings on most of Aurora and this one is the first one that leans almost exclusively on the folk side.

The last two centuries in the world has seen a rise of nationalism and conflicts, an imposed war between different cultures, different religions, the east and the west, modernity and tradition. The memories of different cultures and ethnicities living together in relative peace has faded out and it seems like a surreal fantasy. Thankfully it hasn’t been totally destroyed and there are some Honest Jon’s around to prove it.

For some reason I’ve skipped Xaphan from The 2nd Masada Songbook on Tzadik. I thought this year’s invincible Bar Kokhba Sextet release was the first one yet indeed Trey Spruance’s madmen Secret Chiefs 3 were the first to step up to that holy task of getting 16 bar sheets of music from John Zorn and crafting them into their own creations.

Oy! Back from what seems to be the last vacation of this summer. Let’s end the one week drought with one of the best albums of 2008, from the powerhouse sextet of the downtown scene (which I’ve been holding back since April).

If there’s one person I won’t tire composing similar music, it’s John Zorn. His 2008 title The Dreamers is out and it’s basically The Gift No.2 with a lot of great references to genres like exotica and surf with the help of Cyro Baptista’s mood setting percussions and Marc Ribot’s delicate guitar tone

Here are some of the dead links from the past months, the Shackleton remix by Ricardo Villalobos has been getting mad clicks but it’s been dead for a while, so are the others. Enjoy!

Yesterday night though I had to act spontaneous as Marc Ribot was in town with his Spiritual Unity project playing Albert Ayler pieces.

For all the balkan & klezmer fans out there, this one goes out to you. It’s not one of my best shows i must admit, but i’ve been trying to tone the musical variety down in these last shows, attempting to make more wholesome shows and i hope in time i’ll get better at it.