Featured Artist: Hasidic New Wave
* CD Title: Kabalogy
* Year: 1999
* Record Label: Knitting Factory Works
* Personnel: London, tpt; Wall, sax; David Fiuczynski, guitar; Fima Ephron,
b; Aaron Alexander, d.
* Review: The Hasidic New Wave is a NYC-based group that puts
its own spin on the ancient/modern folk-based urban Jewish music known as klezmer.
They merge ancient Hebrew melodies with hard bop so fine that the shade of Woody
Shaw must be guiding them, as well as dense electric textures that sound like
Weather Report (circa I Sing The Body Electric) after a field trips to Jerusalem
and a few Passover seders. The sharp, edgy guitar work recalls (a bit) pre-Mahavishnu
John McLaughlin and Terje Rypdal, the trumpet is well-rounded & bristling
and the saxophone Coltrane-tinged, haunting & mysterious. Kabalogy is an
album of rich textures and soundscapes that engage the consciousness and rhythms
that move the spirit. VERY highly recommended to the eclectic.
* Reviewed by: Mark Keresman