*** Naftule's Dream

THE EPIPHANY OF GLENN JONES

(Tzadik)

Klezmer great Naftule Brandwein, whose name has been adopted by this local avant-jazz-klezmer sextet, would love the group's boisterous spirit. Their decidedly nontraditional eclecticism might leave him scratching his head, however. On their debut album, part of John Zorn's Radical Jewish Culture series, the tunes range from funky rock to New Orleans improv to labyrinthine jazz, all without losing the fiery abandon of the Jewish wedding music that lies at klezmer's wild heart. Trombonist David Harris's arrangement of the traditional "Oy Tate" ("Oh Father") takes the band on collectively improvised frolics. When the arrangements don't wander that far from tradition, as on Harris's "So Nu" or clarinettist Glenn Dickson's haunting "The Spinoza of Market Street," guitarist Pete Fitzpatrick's electric guitar adds molten textures and noisy skronks not usually found in this context. All these liberties work because everyone in the band is firmly grounded in the music. Naftule's Dream may play intellectual games with klezmer, but they do it with passion and soul.

-- Ed Hazell