Search - New Klezmer Trio :: Short for Something

A fine album

Allan MacInnis | Vancouver | 02/25/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The New Klezmer Trio are part of the growing rennaisance in Jewish music that John Zorn has been promoting and releasing on his label, Tzadik. Ben Goldberg, the front of this band -- who has also recorded other material on Tzadik -- is a fine clarinetist, and the composer behind the band, but Dan Seamans (bass) and Kenny Wollesen (drums) are also very accomplished musicians in their own right (I think it was Wollesen who sat in for Joey Baron at a few Masada shows once upon a time). Fans of klezmer might really be surprised and dismayed, however -- the music the New Klezmer Trio make, while indeed steeped in Jewish culture, is at times moody and brooding, and at times VERY free and improvisatory. It's wonderful music, don't get me wrong, but it's serious, and seriously jazzy, stuff; it would fit better on a playlist beside, say, an Eric Dolphy record than one by Naftule Brandwein.(Actually, some folks might disagree with that, but...). Of their albums I've heard (this and MELT ZONK REWIRE) I think I prefer the other -- MELT ZONK REWIRE has, besides a better title and cover painting, a more aggressively new feeling, is more challenging. There are some surprisingly pretty melodic bits on SHORT FOR SOMETHING, though, which might make it a better introduction to this band for someone who is afraid of freer material. Goldberg is also one of the best writers of song titles after John Lurie -- "All Chords Stand for Other Chords", anyhow, is a wonderful phrase. Oh, yeah, and there's a cut on this disc dedicated to the late Lester Bowie, for what it's worth."

More of a modern jazz record...

Joe Sixpack -- Slipcue.com | ...in Middle America | 11/10/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Clarinetist Ben Goldberg is one of the best, brightest and most capable of the modern Jewish klezmer interpreters... Here he opens with a soft, beautiful tune called "The Because Of," which wonderfully frames his more lyrical playing. From there it devolves into more standard jazz tropes... whirlagig loop-de-loops, swingin' drum solos... the whole works. It's a bit too jazzy and downtown-New York for me, but Goldberg's pure tone and bright presence certainly stand out. Not as "Jewish" as the band's name might imply, but still a strong set in musical terms."