THE CRACOW KLEZMER BAND / JOHN ZORN
Balan
(Tzadik) Used CD $12.00
All Music Guide describes the beguiling performance here of compositions from Zorn’s second Masada book as an “entrancing, ingenious, and by all means exotic [recording — a melding of] traditional klezmer, symphonic cadenzas, and free improvisation….” Jaroslaw Bester’s witchy bayan signals “from some far-off place to Oleg Dyyak’s hand drums, Wojciech Front’s double bass…, the small army of strings [by] violinist Jaroslaw Tyrala and the DAFO String Quartet…, the seemingly random guttural vocals of Jorgos Skolias…, [and] Ireneusz Socha’s minimal electronics….” Bester’s arrangements push “the klezmer genre to its limit and then past it, letting in a flood of other musical approaches and ideas.” Sealed