Strom, Yale : Garden of Yidyn

Strom, Yale

76005-2

The bloom of this CD is its considered subtlety as a history lesson. It seems to me that the thought behind the arrangements here for both Hot Pstromi and Klazzj share a common wellspring of inspiration with Strom's last album, Tales Our Fathers Sang. There, through the use of folk motif and his own compositions, Strom musically painted evocations of story forms, and here the same is true. The difference though is that this appears to be a history lesson. Strom draws our attention right from the start to the time around the origination of the pieces. Hence I've never heard "A Finf Un Tzvantziker" (A Twenty-five Piece) sound more like a strutting Czarist march, "Papirossen" (Cigarettes) more like a cabaret plea for the reality of the street and "Sheva B'Rachot" (Seven Blessing, a ritualistic song from the repertoire for weddings and barmitzvahs) more ethereal and actually timeless--strange as that may seem. Even the unklezmatic "Moscow Nights", with its lonely street-long brass rasp intro to snare and soft drumming has the silk of early '60s jazz. Given the time, here is a place for everything. The bands are each identifiable and Elisabeth Schwartz's Yiddish is just right. -- Derek Reid

CD x 1

Naxos

6/16/03

636943700525