Satoko Fujii Orchestra New York

ETO
Libra Records 215-029

Le GGRIL avec Evan Parker

Vivaces

Tour de Bras TDB9006 CD

The Royal Improvisers Orchestra

Live at the Bimhuis

Riot Impro 01

London Improvisers Orchestra

Lio Leo Leon

psi 11.04

Something in the Air: New Soloists for Improvising Ensembles

By Ken Waxman

Adding another voice to an established improvising ensemble is more precarious than it seems. With a group having worked out strategies allowing for individual expression within a larger context – and without notated cues – the visitor(s) must be original without unbalancing the interface. Luckily the sessions here demonstrate successful applications.

Invited to Rimouski, Quebec to give a workshop, British saxophonist Evan Parker also participated in Vivaces Tour de Bras TDB9006 CD recorded with the 12-piece Grand Groupe Régional d’Improvisation Libérée or Le GGRIL. Made up of players from different musical backgrounds living in the Lower Saint-Lawrence region, GGRIL is distinctive in that the group includes two electric guitarists, an electric bassist plus two accordionists, but only three horn players. Using these circumstances to best advantage, these tracks, alternately directed by Parker and GGRIL violinist Raphaël Arsensault, employ the accordionists’ tremolo pulsing and sweeping electronic oscillations to thicken the bottom. With upturned slices from the strings and barnyard cries from the squeeze boxes, two clarinets and the tubaist, it’s often Parker’s restrained undertone that gives a linear shape to the improvisation. The best example of this is “Marcottage” that manages to include contributions from nearly every GGRILer. As Parker pushes forward with staccato split tones he’s backed by sympathetic grace notes from fellow guest, trombonist Scott Thomson, and skittering, slurring accordion lines. Triangle pings signal a timbral shift and presage a ferocious solo from the saxophonist. Band members’ responses range from rebounding percussion ratamacues, crackling electronic runs from the guitars and bassist plus one accordionist sounding a faux balladic line as the other pumps powerfully. Finally the mass cacophony downshifts to a satisfying connective rumble.

The London Improvisers Orchestra (LIO) deals with similar situations during a recital on Lio Leo Leon psi 11.04 where group improvisations are supplemented by two specific concertos. Conducted by guitarist Dave Tucker, “Concerto for Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith & Orchestra” features veteran American trumpeter Smith, who has been involved in similar situations since the mid-1960s. The other, “Concerto for soft-loud key-box No. 2”, is conducted by pianist Steve Beresford and designed for pianist Leon Michener, who is comfortable with both improvised and notated music. Mostly concerned with textural melding and displacement, the 38-piece LIO makes maximum use of counterpoint. Some tracks depend on harmonies among stringed instruments; others mate kettle drum smacks with light flute puffs; most climax as passing tones coalesce into linear narratives. In contrast the Michener piece could be an updated Gershwin keyboard showcase. Kinetic and dynamic, the pianist’s styling is simultaneously methodical and theatrical, allowing him to move chromatically among the orchestra’s crescendos. Individually his key clips and jumps face doubled electric guitar distortion while elsewhere his high-frequency key-pumping parallels whiny brass and yelping reed exhortations. By the finale, Michener’s swing instincts, mated with the drummers’ rim shots, create a lasting syncopation that pulsates impressively without exactly being jazz. There’s no question of Smith’s jazz roots or power on his concerto however. In fact, with verve and boisterousness, the 68-year-old trumpeter often outplays the entire LIO. His fiery triplets and near bugle-calls allow him to soar over stentorian percussion smacks as well as rubato guffaws from the brass plus honks and smears from the 10-person reed section. After a calming vibes-and-piano interlude, the players unite for a conclusive sequence of polyphonic intonation, with the trumpeter’s heraldic tones still slicing through the massed timbres.

More cacophonous then the LIO with a mere 21 members, Amsterdam’s Royal Improvisers Orchestra (RIO) actually find a more cohesive direction on “His Composition”, the track on Live at the Bimhuis Riot Impro 01 featuring veteran Dutch drummer Han Bennink. Encompassing as many of the Netherland’s top improvisers as the LIO does the United Kingdom’s, the RIO is commandingly inventive throughout. Still, the resulting Klangfarbenmelodie often sounds as if every player wants to be heard – no matter what. Thus an extended throaty tenor saxophone solo evolves besides burping bassoon lines plus low-pitched flute blowing. Electronics crackle in-and-out of the sequences as the RIO’s two guitarists produce distorted licks. The contrast between thematic material and free-form interjections is made sonically murkier when two female vocalists yowl inhumanly or scat-sing rhythmically. Using distinctive brush work which has powered many an ensemble over the past 50 years, Bennink introduces a variation of easy-going swing on his track, while leaving plenty of space for avant touches, including descending slides from the four string players; galloping tremolo from the pianist and some impressive flutter-tonguing from saxophonists John Dikeman and Yedo Gibson. At the same time Bennink’s contributions indicate performance shifts and lead the band to a crescendo that also serves as a satisfying finale.

The situation on ETO Libra Records 215-029 is a little different, since it’s pianist Satoko Fujii and her husband, trumpeter Natsuki Tamura who are the outsiders with her Orchestra New York. Fujii, who also leads Japanese bands, frequently assembles this 15-strong collection of some of Manhattan’s first-call musicians to play her compositions. Here, the pianist has written a suite in honor of Tamura’s 60th birthday, with soloists celebrating 12 animals in the zodiac. Along the line of Duke Ellington’s musical cameos such as “Concerto for Cootie” and “Self Portrait (of the Bean)”, her arrangements for these anthropomorphic showcases depend on subtle harmonization of the orchestra’s alternately swinging and sympathetic backing to frame the soloists. Among the stand-outs are “Ox”, where Joey Sellers’ loose-limed, mid-range trombone floats on orchestral pulsations; drummer Aaron Alexander’s percussive drum backbeat alongside Oscar Noriega’s liquid alto saxophone licks on “Ram”; and subsequent trumpet solos from Frank London and Herb Robertson on “Monkey” and “Rooster” respectively which in the first instance mate hand-muted plunger work with an infectious staccato theme played by Fujii; and on the other use reed riffs to highlight Robertson’s mixture of half-valve effects and pure blowing. Not to be outdone, on Snake the birthday boy follows a more experimental strategy, with double-tongued growls and subterranean guffaws. But his solo is still aligned with the bouncy contrapuntal melody.

Tamura’s and Fujii’s subtly connecting additions to an existing band plan demonstrate how novel conceptions can fit in with those from an existing improvising ensemble. Parker, Bennink, Smith and Michener do the same on the other fine CDs.

-- For Whole Note Vol. 17 #10

July 11, 2012

David Bindman Ensemble

Sunset Park Polyphony
No Label No #

A significant statement from saxophonist David Bindman, Sunset Park Polyphony musically reflects both parts of its title. A New Yorker with a master’s degree in World Music, Bindman has spent much of his career blending the time sense of non-Western music with the harmonies and improvisationary freedom of Jazz. At the same time the two-CD set aims to reflect not only the sounds of Sunset Park, his polyglot neighborhood in Brooklyn, but also in the disc-length “Landings Suite”, translate into sound the experiences of a young person who experiencing injustice decides to work for the common good.

While Bindman, who composed the 12 selection, and the other musicians here are able to personify many of the dimensions and perceptions suggested by these ideas, the polyphonic sounds on the disc stand up on their own as music. Knowing which sociological concept birthed a musical idea or which particular African or Indian music time sequence is being used doesn’t really affect the listener one way or another.

It’s not surprising that there’s such a developed social conscience on this set however. Bindman, for instance, who plays tenor and soprano saxophones here, has a long association in the Brooklyn Saxophone Quartet with baritone saxophonist Fred Ho, American improvised music’s most politically radical musician. Furthermore bassist Wes Brown and drummer royal hartigan are also long-time associates of Ho, besides sharing an interest in ethnic musics with the saxophonist. Pianist Art Hirahara brings an intense sensibility to Ho’s projects and does so on this session too, outputting modal chords and echoing patterns without losing sight of the Jazz background. Meantime the Bindman Ensemble’s newest members, who in painterly fashion add more kinetic and melodic harmonies to the composer’s horn writing, are trumpeter Frank London, co-leader of The Hasidic New Wave, who also works in other Jazz and Klezmer projects, and trombonist Reut Regev, who has worked in Latin band as well as with Anthony Braxton’s Ensemble.

Probably the most programmatic of the selections on the first CD is the title track, whose atmospheric improvisations evolve alongside Karnatic beats. At points hartigan sounds as if he’s playing a tabla or khanjira while adding added cymbal claps. Meanwhile Brown’s thumping bass line and Bindman’s intense tenor saxophone shading are well within the tradition of Charles Mingus’ suite writing. Hirahara’s staccato key clipping and rolling glissandi keeps the piece animated, with London’s and Regev’s muted plunger work providing the proper vamps to wrap up the multicolored strands.

The “Landings Suite” which takes up the entire second CD is even more notable in its melding of Third World rhythms and First World improvisation. Given 44 minutes and eight variations in which to express himself, Bindman’s inner Gil Evans appears. Many of the arrangements create connective harmonies resulting from the wash of sonic colors that arises from counterpoint among three horns and three rhythm instruments. Concurrently the pieces use absolute textures or the suggestions of Karnatic and African sound-cycles to give added heft to their solos. Happily though, they avoid any attempt at musical anthropology.

A solo from the pianist owes more to Harold Mabern or any prototypical freebopper than an emulation of a string instrumentalist from the sub continent; while the drummer’s beats relate as much to the advances in Jazz percussion over the century as to the rhythms produced by traditional drummers in Ghana or Togo. Bass and drum call-and-response duets, expressed on tracks like “Invisible Dance” for instance, mate string arpeggios and percussion clatter with tandem, cacophonous brass triplets and irregular vibrations from the saxophone. Elsewhere, “The Transient” adds a Latinesque beat which vibrates energetically alongside Brown’s thumping strings and introduces a high-intensity exposition from Regev that includes sliding glissandi and quick tonguing. There’s even faint fralicher phrasing in London’s solo on “Singing Bird Melody”.

Eventually the suite reaches a climax with the balanced narrative on “Recurring Dream”. Described as relating to two different dreams, the composition introduces a tinge of Reggae to the exposition for the first time, while Bindman’s and Hirahara’s high-frequency contributions are light enough to float above the now-focused beats. Before the tune is summed up with clanking cymbals and press rolls from hartigan, London’s hand-muted brays have defined themselves at different elevations from the other horns’ tones for a satisfying conclusion.

As an earnest CD from a mature artist Sunset Park Polyphony impresses with its professionalism and invention. But Bindman should have more faith in his music to not burden it with extensive ethnic sound explanations or an unnecessary programmatic emphasis.

--Ken Waxman

Track Listing: CD1: 1. Shape One 2. Long Line Home 3. Sunset Park Polyphony 4. Robeson House Echoes CD2: Landing Suite: 1. The Transient 2. Singing Bird Melody 3. Icarus Flies Towards the Sun and Returns 4. Invisible Dance 5. Singing Bird Reprise 6. Recurring Dream 7. Unspoken 8. RH Reprise

Personnel: Frank London (trumpet and flugelhorn); Reut Regev (trombone); David Bindman (tenor and soprano saxophones); Art Hirahara (piano); Wes Brown (bass) and royal hartigan (drums)

June 25, 2012

Frank London/Lorin Sklamberg

tsuker-zis
Tzadik TZ 8141

Greg Wall’s Later Prophets

Ha’orot: The Lights of Rav Kook

Tzadik TZ 8137

Retro Boppers who take their improvisational cues from the music of the 1950s, and Classic Jazz players, who try to replicate 1920s New Orleans Jazz, are veritable late comers when compared to the musical traditions wedded to Jazz on these memorable releases. Reedist Greg Wall, trumpeter Frank London and vocalist Lorin Sklamberg put their musical smarts to work on ecstatic sounds related to the Hasidic Movement, which originated in Eastern European in the 18th Century; tinged with shtetl-popular Klezmer music developed even earlier; involving concepts, lyrics and melodies going back to Talmudic pre-history.

London and Wall, co-leaders of The Hasidic New Wave as well as a legion of side projects, and Sklamberg, lead singer of the Klezmatics, have serendipitously developed solo discs which depend on the voice and words. But that’s where the comparison ends. Wall, who may be the only recording and touring Jazz musician who is also an ordained rabbi, mostly based his 14-track CD on the poetry of Rabbi Avraham Itzchak HaCohen Kook, aka Rav Kook (1865-1935), Israel’s first chief rabbi. Reciting Kook’s verses in both Hebrew and English is Rabbi Itzchak Marmorstein. An expert on the mystic teacher’s work, Marmorstein broached this idea to the saxophonist and clarinetist after hearing the Later Prophets perform at Toronto’s Ashkenez Festival in 2007. The prophets are drummer Aaron Alexander, equally proficient as a committed Jazz drummer, pianist Shai Bachar and bassist Dave Richards.

Also a 14-track CD, tsuker-zis is more universalistic. Tunes sung by Sklamberg and played on his accordion, deal with simkhes, secular celebrations, Lubavitch nigunim, popular melodies and dances, many of which were written when Tin Pan Alley was still a forest. Yet the backing is modern and eclectic enough with London on trumpet, flugelhorn, alto horn and harmonium; Knox Chandler on guitar and electronics; Ara Dinkjian on oud, saz and cümbüş; and Deep Singh on dhol and tabla. The rhythms added by Singh sometimes suggest that if the sounds on Ha’orot are influenced by Rav Kook, then the sounds here are as strongly influenced by Ravi Shankar.

Less a davening cantor than a religious leader giving a sermon, Marmorstein’s modest but self-confident delivery has to be carefully balanced by the band’s arrangements. For instance “Renewal” is somewhat like those 1950s Jazz’n’Poetry recitals with long-lined legato tongue flutters from Wall, understated rim shots from Alexander, swift cadenzas from Bachar underpinning Marmorstein’s recitation and finishing with a triumphant fralicher buzz from the saxophonist. “I Am Filled With Love for God” on the other hand swiftly moves from andante to presto, with the theme borne on Richards’ bass, until the palpable elation in the rabbi’s voice is matched with the bassist’s dramatic rhythmic plunks

Alternating between Hebrew and English, sometimes in subsequent sentences, Marmorstein’s theatricism is the perfect fit for “The Whispers of Existence” and “From a Distant World”. On the first, the lines are intoned and whispered on top of shattering cymbal pressure, while mournful bowed bass sounds suggest an otherworldly if not Messianic location. On the later the ecstatic cries for freedom and liberation are complemented by split tones from the saxophonist and Bachar’s comping.

These two, like many of the other tracks, are enlivened by extended instrumental tags, but a glimpse of an equally valid way to handle the material is offered on the tracks without words such as “Nigun Ha’Rav #1”. Still based on a Rav Kook melody, the presentation is more slippery, as Wall seems to be extending more modern Israel anthems with double-tongued lines, while working in double counterpoint with the pianist, as the bassist clanks his way down the scale.

Both Wall and London have experimented with modifications of the expected Jewish-Klezmer presentation in CDs with add-ons like the all-African Yakar Rhythms. So at times it appears as if London is aiming for the perfect Carnatic-Electronic-Judaic fusion on his CD. But Sklamberg’s overwhelming cheerfulness keeps the proper Yiddishkeit in the project and negates any drift towards pretentiousness. .

“Increase Our Joy” for instance, with lyrics taken from the Book of Esther, sounds like what would have happened if that queen had hooked up with Bob Marley at the Peppermint Lounge. With subtle reggae syncopation creeping into the performance, Sklamberg pumps his accordion’s bellows, London tongues expressive triplets and others add spirited call-and-response voices plus hand-clapping. Could the word “shimmy” have crept in among the different languages used?

“Heed Not the Accuser” and “Elijah the Prophet Bought a Red Cow”, which follow one another here, not only conflate Yom Kippur and Purim holidays, but also reach for a mythical Indo-European-Sephardic sound. The first features the vocalist’s melismatic reading of the tune built on the flowing pulse provided by tabla strokes and droning harmonium. With a geographical mood swing, vocals on the second piece are infused with a child-like elation, definitely Ashkenez, and backed by banjo-like twangs and organ-like pumps.

Elsewhere distortion-heavy guitar fuzz tones are as prominent as suggestions of liturgical songs from Arab countries, and electronic wave forms share space with jerky march-like rhythms from the alto horn plus finger-styled guitar phrasing. Ecstatic presentations or not, some of the ever-shifting instrumental textures on certain tunes seem to mate Orientalized melodies, Latinized brass grace notes à la Herb Alpert and chugging sing-along choruses. “One, Two, Three, Four”, the climatic track, contains first-class blowing from London, echoing wind-tunnel-like pulsations and delay; and vocals that may have been patched in through a megaphone. Perhaps the Baal Shem Tov and Sun Ra are both dancing at this simcha.

Although London, and most definitely Wall, may be Orthodox, their sounds are anything but – leaning more towards the inclusiveness of Reform Judaism. Object lessons in Jewish cultural extension – music division, both CDs are worth seeking out no matter your personal creed.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Ha’orot: 1. Ha’tzofeg Le’Tovah (The One Who Seeks the Good) [English Version] 2. Renewal 3. From a Distant World 4. Take Me Out to the Overflowing 5.Nigun Ha’Rav #1 (Rav Kook’s Melody) 6.Shofar 7.Return of My Spirit 8. Nigun Ha'Rav #2 9.The Whispers of Existence 10. The Wellspring of Existence 11. Freedom 12. I Am Filled With Love for God 13. The Four Fold Song 14. Ha’tzofeg Le’Tovah (The One Who Seeks the Good)[Hebrew Version]

Personnel: Ha’orot: Rabbi Greg Wall (tenor and soprano saxophones, clarinet, shofar and moseno); Shai Bachar (piano); Dave Richards (bass); Aaron Alexander (drums) and Rabbi Itzchak Marmorstein (spoken word)

Track Listing: tsuker-zis: 1. Sukkah of Branches 2.A. Blessings Without End 3. Our Life is Sugarsweet 4. Our Parent, Our Sovereign 5. Increase Our Joy 6. The Days Between #1 7. The Lord Sent His Servant 8. The Days Between #2 9. Heed Not the Accuser! 10. Elijah the Prophet Bought a Red Cow 11. Greeks Gathered Against Me [Intro] 12. Greeks Gathered Against Me 13. Mighty Blessed, Great, Prominent, Glorious, Ancient, Meritorious, Righteous, Pure, Unique, Powerful, Learned, King, Enlightened, Exalted, Brave, Redeemer, Just, Holy, Merciful, Almighty, Omnipotent is Our God 14. One, Two, Three, Four

Personnel: tsuker-zis: Personnel: Frank London (trumpet, flugelhorn, alto horn, harmonium); Knox Chandler (guitar and electronics); Ara Dinkjian (oud, saz and cümbüş); Deep Singh (dholki and tabla) and Lorin Sklamberg (vocals and accordion);

December 2, 2009

Greg Wall’s Later Prophets

Ha’orot: The Lights of Rav Kook
Tzadik TZ 8137

Frank London/Lorin Sklamberg

tsuker-zis

Tzadik TZ 8141

Retro Boppers who take their improvisational cues from the music of the 1950s, and Classic Jazz players, who try to replicate 1920s New Orleans Jazz, are veritable late comers when compared to the musical traditions wedded to Jazz on these memorable releases. Reedist Greg Wall, trumpeter Frank London and vocalist Lorin Sklamberg put their musical smarts to work on ecstatic sounds related to the Hasidic Movement, which originated in Eastern European in the 18th Century; tinged with shtetl-popular Klezmer music developed even earlier; involving concepts, lyrics and melodies going back to Talmudic pre-history.

London and Wall, co-leaders of The Hasidic New Wave as well as a legion of side projects, and Sklamberg, lead singer of the Klezmatics, have serendipitously developed solo discs which depend on the voice and words. But that’s where the comparison ends. Wall, who may be the only recording and touring Jazz musician who is also an ordained rabbi, mostly based his 14-track CD on the poetry of Rabbi Avraham Itzchak HaCohen Kook, aka Rav Kook (1865-1935), Israel’s first chief rabbi. Reciting Kook’s verses in both Hebrew and English is Rabbi Itzchak Marmorstein. An expert on the mystic teacher’s work, Marmorstein broached this idea to the saxophonist and clarinetist after hearing the Later Prophets perform at Toronto’s Ashkenez Festival in 2007. The prophets are drummer Aaron Alexander, equally proficient as a committed Jazz drummer, pianist Shai Bachar and bassist Dave Richards.

Also a 14-track CD, tsuker-zis is more universalistic. Tunes sung by Sklamberg and played on his accordion, deal with simkhes, secular celebrations, Lubavitch nigunim, popular melodies and dances, many of which were written when Tin Pan Alley was still a forest. Yet the backing is modern and eclectic enough with London on trumpet, flugelhorn, alto horn and harmonium; Knox Chandler on guitar and electronics; Ara Dinkjian on oud, saz and cümbüş; and Deep Singh on dhol and tabla. The rhythms added by Singh sometimes suggest that if the sounds on Ha’orot are influenced by Rav Kook, then the sounds here are as strongly influenced by Ravi Shankar.

Less a davening cantor than a religious leader giving a sermon, Marmorstein’s modest but self-confident delivery has to be carefully balanced by the band’s arrangements. For instance “Renewal” is somewhat like those 1950s Jazz’n’Poetry recitals with long-lined legato tongue flutters from Wall, understated rim shots from Alexander, swift cadenzas from Bachar underpinning Marmorstein’s recitation and finishing with a triumphant fralicher buzz from the saxophonist. “I Am Filled With Love for God” on the other hand swiftly moves from andante to presto, with the theme borne on Richards’ bass, until the palpable elation in the rabbi’s voice is matched with the bassist’s dramatic rhythmic plunks

Alternating between Hebrew and English, sometimes in subsequent sentences, Marmorstein’s theatricism is the perfect fit for “The Whispers of Existence” and “From a Distant World”. On the first, the lines are intoned and whispered on top of shattering cymbal pressure, while mournful bowed bass sounds suggest an otherworldly if not Messianic location. On the later the ecstatic cries for freedom and liberation are complemented by split tones from the saxophonist and Bachar’s comping.

These two, like many of the other tracks, are enlivened by extended instrumental tags, but a glimpse of an equally valid way to handle the material is offered on the tracks without words such as “Nigun Ha’Rav #1”. Still based on a Rav Kook melody, the presentation is more slippery, as Wall seems to be extending more modern Israel anthems with double-tongued lines, while working in double counterpoint with the pianist, as the bassist clanks his way down the scale.

Both Wall and London have experimented with modifications of the expected Jewish-Klezmer presentation in CDs with add-ons like the all-African Yakar Rhythms. So at times it appears as if London is aiming for the perfect Carnatic-Electronic-Judaic fusion on his CD. But Sklamberg’s overwhelming cheerfulness keeps the proper Yiddishkeit in the project and negates any drift towards pretentiousness. .

“Increase Our Joy” for instance, with lyrics taken from the Book of Esther, sounds like what would have happened if that queen had hooked up with Bob Marley at the Peppermint Lounge. With subtle reggae syncopation creeping into the performance, Sklamberg pumps his accordion’s bellows, London tongues expressive triplets and others add spirited call-and-response voices plus hand-clapping. Could the word “shimmy” have crept in among the different languages used?

“Heed Not the Accuser” and “Elijah the Prophet Bought a Red Cow”, which follow one another here, not only conflate Yom Kippur and Purim holidays, but also reach for a mythical Indo-European-Sephardic sound. The first features the vocalist’s melismatic reading of the tune built on the flowing pulse provided by tabla strokes and droning harmonium. With a geographical mood swing, vocals on the second piece are infused with a child-like elation, definitely Ashkenez, and backed by banjo-like twangs and organ-like pumps.

Elsewhere distortion-heavy guitar fuzz tones are as prominent as suggestions of liturgical songs from Arab countries, and electronic wave forms share space with jerky march-like rhythms from the alto horn plus finger-styled guitar phrasing. Ecstatic presentations or not, some of the ever-shifting instrumental textures on certain tunes seem to mate Orientalized melodies, Latinized brass grace notes à la Herb Alpert and chugging sing-along choruses. “One, Two, Three, Four”, the climatic track, contains first-class blowing from London, echoing wind-tunnel-like pulsations and delay; and vocals that may have been patched in through a megaphone. Perhaps the Baal Shem Tov and Sun Ra are both dancing at this simcha.

Although London, and most definitely Wall, may be Orthodox, their sounds are anything but – leaning more towards the inclusiveness of Reform Judaism. Object lessons in Jewish cultural extension – music division, both CDs are worth seeking out no matter your personal creed.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Ha’orot: 1. Ha’tzofeg Le’Tovah (The One Who Seeks the Good) [English Version] 2. Renewal 3. From a Distant World 4. Take Me Out to the Overflowing 5.Nigun Ha’Rav #1 (Rav Kook’s Melody) 6.Shofar 7.Return of My Spirit 8. Nigun Ha'Rav #2 9.The Whispers of Existence 10. The Wellspring of Existence 11. Freedom 12. I Am Filled With Love for God 13. The Four Fold Song 14. Ha’tzofeg Le’Tovah (The One Who Seeks the Good)[Hebrew Version]

Personnel: Ha’orot: Rabbi Greg Wall (tenor and soprano saxophones, clarinet, shofar and moseno); Shai Bachar (piano); Dave Richards (bass); Aaron Alexander (drums) and Rabbi Itzchak Marmorstein (spoken word)

Track Listing: tsuker-zis: 1. Sukkah of Branches 2.A. Blessings Without End 3. Our Life is Sugarsweet 4. Our Parent, Our Sovereign 5. Increase Our Joy 6. The Days Between #1 7. The Lord Sent His Servant 8. The Days Between #2 9. Heed Not the Accuser! 10. Elijah the Prophet Bought a Red Cow 11. Greeks Gathered Against Me [Intro] 12. Greeks Gathered Against Me 13. Mighty Blessed, Great, Prominent, Glorious, Ancient, Meritorious, Righteous, Pure, Unique, Powerful, Learned, King, Enlightened, Exalted, Brave, Redeemer, Just, Holy, Merciful, Almighty, Omnipotent is Our God 14. One, Two, Three, Four

Personnel: tsuker-zis: Personnel: Frank London (trumpet, flugelhorn, alto horn, harmonium); Knox Chandler (guitar and electronics); Ara Dinkjian (oud, saz and cümbüş); Deep Singh (dholki and tabla) and Lorin Sklamberg (vocals and accordion

December 2, 2009