Zebrina: Hamidbar Medaber

Jewish / Avant Pop / Muzyka Alternatywna
premiera polska: 2014-12-11
seria wydawnicza: Radical Jewish Culture
kontynent: Ameryka Północna
kraj: USA
opakowanie: Jewelcaseowe etui
opis:
multikulti.com:
Sextet Zebrina w składzie Ben Goldberg (B-flat Clarinet, E-flat Contra-alto Clarinet), Jonathan Feldman (Rhodes, Wurlitzer, Hammond B3 Organ), Bret Higgins (Electric Bass), Juan Carlos Medrano (Percussion), Joel Schwartz (Electric Guitar, Resonator Guitar) i Max Senitt (Drums) z werwą godną Marka Ribota i Medeski Martin & Wood przeprowadza słuchacza przez grząski grunt muzycznych i kulturowych fuzji.
Czego tu nie ma, ekstatyczny funk podlany R&B, bałkańska fiesta, klezmerska śpiewność, jazzowa improwizacja, czuje się fantastyczną energię i witalność, jaka bije z wielu tzadikowych produkcji. Słychać, że w studio powstała atmosfera rodem z filmowych światów Davida Lyncha i Emira Kusturicy.

Samego siebie przechodzi klarnecista Ben Goldberg, jeden z liderów nowojorskiej sceny downtown, ogniste solówki przywodzą na myśl najgorętsze nagrania Davida Krakauera. Wspaniale wypada na organach fendera Jonathan Feldman, tworzy unikalny puls płyty, wystarczy posłuchać 'Chant of Ages' i 'The Spirit Within.'
"Hamidbar Medaber" z kolei to swoisty hołd dla elektrycznego Milesa Davisa z okresu ‘Bitches Brew’
Gitarzysta Joel Schwartz, wydaje się być zapatrzony w Marka Ribota, od międzygatunkowej awangardy po psychedelię i surf rock, tak jak chociażby w 'Breath of Life'. Inspirująco wypadają bliskowschodnie nawiązania w 'The Spirit Within', porywa puls funkującego 'Freedom Groove'.
'Hamidbar Medaber' to płyta wyjątkowa, pełna grania o wysokiej temperaturze, można jej słuchać wg. różnych kluczy, gatunkowych, kulturowych, instrumentalnych, jednak za każdym razem wielkie wrażenie robić będzie rzadko spotykana dzisiaj spoistość, jednorodność muzycznej opowieści. To płyta przemyślana, powstała na 'jednym oddechu'.
Kolejna doskonała pozycja w serii wydawniczej Radical Jewish Culture wytwórni Johna Zorna.
autor: Piotr Szukała

Editor's info:
A dynamic and powerful band out of Canada, Zebrina brings Jewish music into the 21st century with their brilliant second CD. Featuring Ben Goldberg on clarinet, Hamidbar Medaber is one of the most exciting and successful blending of modern jazz with the Jewish tradition. Referencing Masada and late Miles, the music contains mysterious moods, fiery solos, and lyrical melodies that will keep you coming back for more. One of the most exciting young bands working in Radical Jewish Culture, Zebrina is a band you will be hearing from a lot in the coming years!

somethingelsereviews.com:
Back when the 1980s turned into the ’90s, clarinetist extraordinaire Ben Goldberg led a small combo called the New Klezmer Trio that pioneered and perfected the combination of traditional, Eastern European Jewish folk music - or klezmer - with adventurous jazz. The three records they made over the ensuing decade were issued on John Zorn’s Tzadik Records and Zorn himself would soon adopt this concept in launching his long-running Masada series.

Now another combo, from Canada, is taking klezmer jazz and combining that with jam funk-jazz, a la Miles Davis, 1970. Toronto-based Zebrina, headed up by keyboardist Jonathan Feldman, is poised to release on August 19 its first album for Tzadik Hamidbar Medaber. It’s the logical outcome for the jazz pianist Feldman who long listened to early fusion jazz but didn’t really explore his Jewish heritage musically until he witnessed Masada firsthand, though he always dug Goldberg’s own excursions.

And so it’s fitting that Hamidbar Medaber gets a boost from Goldberg’s guest appearance on several of the tracks. Though Goldberg is brilliant in fitting right in with this five-piece electric band, nowhere is that brilliance more upfront than on “The Desert Speaks,” presented above in this exclusive stream. The song opens with a sublime clarinet soliloquy, soon gently supplemented by Feldman’s gurgling Rhodes and Bret Higgins’ electric bass, which provides a bridge to the vamp that makes up the meat of the song.

The song adopts a smoldering groove not unlike “Bitches Brew,” the song, and Goldberg’s clarinet — at this point, a contra alto clarinet — even evokes the wandering bass clarinet Bennie Maupin had played on that classic Miles tune. But unlike that classic Miles tune, there’s an acoustic blues slide guitar from Joel Schwartz playing right alongside Goldberg and Feldman, and though that comes from a completely different world, it sounds better than you think it would. Matter of fact, it sounds great.

If anything, “The Desert Speaks” shows that the ideas in Jewish jazz first put forth by Goldberg and expanded on by Zorn still have plenty of untapped potential. Feldman & Co. are finding interesting new twists on this style with their Miles-meets-Masada alchemy.
BY S. VICTOR AARON


inner-magazines.com:
I read about "Jewish music combined with jazz", about "hybridization and cross-pollination", about "Klezmer, jazz, and jam", about weaving in "jazz modes, klezmer modes, hybrid modes, and the blues", about the influence of John Zorn; and so on.

But all that I hear is Eastern-sounding funk with a taste of R&B, rhythmic groove music that essentially hovers around one key. Just for those ignorants as me, the music doesn't sound etno, it sounds Western lyricless psychedelic soft rock with enough extra material (improvization, solo/bass interaction, jazz references etc.) to call it "guitar" jazz. This is not intended to be an understatement; just to point to the obvious fact that how is music is received is very much culture-dependent. For example, some more easy-going tracks (Higher Power) of the disc feature universally recognizable melodies that automatically signify "world music".

The music has a certain immediate appeal in it, especially on a rhythmic plane, and no doubt grows richer on a deeper level too for those lucky with sharper ears. Great, not unintelligent music for sunny Sunday afternoons on a green lawn in a public park.

Hamidbar Medaber is the second DC of the Canadian Zebrina, featuring Ben Goldberg on clarinet.
by Kari Nevalainen

muzycy:
Ben Goldberg: B-flat Clarinet, E-flat Contra-alto Clarinet
Jonathan Feldman: Rhodes, Wurlitzer, Hammond B3 Organ
Bret Higgins: Electric Bass
Juan Carlos Medrano: Percussion
Joel Schwartz: Electric Guitar, Resonator Guitar
Max Senitt: Drums

utwory:
1. Chant of Ages
2. Revolution in my Mind
3. The Spirit Within
4. The Desert Speaks
5. Higher Power
6. Breath of Life
7. The Guru’s Advice
8. Freedom Groove

total time - 56:54
wydano: 2014-08-20
more info: www.tzadik.com