Plays John Zorn - Sanatorium U

The Masada songbook seems to be rather ubiquitous these days-- from piano trios to rock bands to this album, arrangements of Masada pieces performed in tribute to author Bruno Schulz and performed by the Cracow Klezmer Band.

The Cracow Klezmer Band, a four-piece consisting of arranger Jaroslaw Bester (bayan-- a kind of accordian), Jaroslaw Tyrala (violin), Oleg Dyyak (bayan, clarinet, percussion) and Wojciech Front (bass), weaves a number of different feels together on this, although to my ears, they excel at moody and melancholy more than anything else-- the swirling, extended arrangement of "Tirzah" (featuring vocalist Grazynah Auguscik in a wordless vocal), the somewhat disjoint "Pagiel" (opening with a lovely unaccompanied violin solo before violin stating the theme over counterpoint accordian) and the moody clarinet feature "Hamadah" are all among the best tracks on the record.

I find that when the band explores different veins though, the pieces are decent enough, but they don't really grab me, and hte soloing sometimes feels a bit out of place ("Galgalim" is probably the best example of it). It's never unlistenable, but it doesn't really grab you as much as you'd like. All in all, it ends up being a decent record, but it doesn't have quite enough excitement to really garner a lot of attention.