Composer and ace trumpeter
Paul Brody and his fine group
Sadawi have established their wonderfully eclectic trademark sound with two previous outings on Tzadik -- 2002's
Kabbalah Dream and 2004's
Beyond Babylon. In the interim he's released a pair of wild avant klezmer platters (
South Klezmer Suite and
Klezmer Stories) on Laika and one (
Sadawi, Minsker, Kapelye) on Ferment. The last three were all issued in 2006! This new set is even more adventurous than anything the band has issued previously. While using klezmer as a base,
Brody is strident in his aims to create a new place for klezmer in the pantheon of music, both popular and otherwise. Previously employing everything from digital and analog dub to Appalachian mountain music in his approaches to reestablish the music's integral harmonic, lyric, and improvisational palette,
Brody digs deeper into jazz, classical, and rock this time out. Beginning with the mournful intro to "Warsaw," which passes for a Yiddish folk tune, he and guitarist
Brandon Seabrook waste no time getting to the call-and-response notions of klezmer. Here, Yiddish party music and heavy metal guitar are arranged inside a Sephardic theme, with breakbeats by
Eric Rosenthal, who adds a slightly funky edge to his pulse. The solo by
Brody is strictly on the composition's theme, but
Seabrook goes off into
Slayer territory. Meanwhile, bassist
Martin Lillich and clarinetist
Christian Dawid blend the stew -- in the latter case in the twinned front-line melody with
Brody, and in the former holding the drummer and guitarist in check. The bassline keeps a reggae touch throughout "Too Low," but there are skittering double breaks by
Rosenthal -- and the gorgeous contrapuntal harmonic theme is straight from the tradition, as the three front-line players assert themselves immediately. There are some dubby sound effects as
Seabrook engages
Lillich, but they never hold sway over the composition's unique, mournful call-and-response playing between brass and woodwind -- even when the feedback and electronic sounds threaten to overcome the mix. Killer!