Psycho-Semitic

Amazon.com
Even though klezmer music has been on a perennial new wave from its earliest days in New York's crowded Jewish tenements, Hassidic New Wave is definitely not your grandparents' klezmer. Trumpeter Frank London and saxophonist Greg Wall lead this quintet, which is in the vanguard of exploring segues between avant-garde jazz and traditional Yiddish music. London's sharpened his teeth as a founding member of the vaunted Klezmatics, but even they sound downright staid compared to Hassidic New Wave. The band's second CD bears all the brilliant, bright melodies of old-time klezmer, but spikes them with scraggly guitar from David Fiuczynski and peals of sax from Wall. For the klezmer traditionalist, this may seem like a risky venture. However, the music is raucous fun and humorous--in perfect keeping with klezmer's storied past. --Andrew Bartlett

Tracks:

Seven Blessings From The High Priest: Achas
AKS
Seven Blessings From The High Priest: Achas Ve-Achas
Hebe Bop
Seven Blessings From The High Priest: Achas U-Shatayim
Transcendence/U'Mipney Khata'Eynu
Al-Osfour Al Majnoun (The Crazy Bird)
Seven Blessings From The High Priest: Achas Ve-Sholosh
Ve-Samakhto Dub
Seven Blessings From The High Priest: Achas Vo-Sheysh
Habibi
Seven Blessings From The High Priest: Achas Vo-Sheysh
Blues in Exile
Seven Blessings From The High Priest: Achas Ve-Khamesh
Men Trinkt Mashke (People Drink Whiskey)

Amazon.com

Even though klezmer music has been on a perennial new wave from its earliest days in New York's crowded Jewish tenements, Hassidic New Wave is definitely not your grandparents' klezmer. Trumpeter Frank London and saxophonist Greg Wall lead this quintet, which is in the vanguard of exploring segues between avant-garde jazz and traditional Yiddish music. London's sharpened his teeth as a founding member of the vaunted Klezmatics, but even they sound downright staid compared to Hassidic New Wave. The band's second CD bears all the brilliant, bright melodies of old-time klezmer, but spikes them with scraggly guitar from David Fiuczynski and peals of sax from Wall. For the klezmer traditionalist, this may seem like a risky venture. However, the music is raucous fun and humorous--in perfect keeping with klezmer's storied past. --Andrew Bartlett

Customer Reviews:

Bucking the Sophomore Jinx.......2002-08-24

A great follow up album to Jews and the Abstract Truth (a pun on the Oliver Nelson album "Blues and the Abstract Truth" on Impulse), this album avoids the trap of sophomore albums simply retreading ideas from the original, while also escaping the impulse to venture too far from the qualities that made the first a success. For all this, it does not manage to match the freshness and energy of their first release, but is a far sight better than the rather tired (and shorter) third album, "Kabalogy". The personnel remains the same, with the exception of the bassist, and all acquit themselves well. The idea of translating traditional Judaic chants into music (reverse-onomatopeia?) is interesting, but also somewhat interrupts the flow of the album. I am not familiar enough with the original chants to comment further about the success of that experiment. In all very good album.