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But it is precisely in the synthesis, the mix of phat beats and klezmer, the use of
sampling and cut-and-mix, that this CD represents a significant step forward.

OPIN
NEM YEAR'S
DAY

Ljova: Vjola:

World on Four Strings (Kapustnik).
After hearing this extraordinary album, you'll never tell another viola joke again.
Ljova, a Russian emigre now living in New York City, is a
superb player and composer, and this set mostly of originals
ranges in emotion and colors across the globe.
Multi-tracked alongside accordionist Michael Bregman,
Ljova is a virtuosic violist who can make the instrument do
just about anything, and the set runs gracefully from the
poignant to the jolly. A brilliant debut.
Available from www.kapustnik.com .

Jeremiah Lockwood:
American Primitive (Vee-Ron).
Lockwood got his start playing straight-ahead acoustic blues, and this fascinat-
ing recording draws on that part of his background, but American Primitive is
anything but straight-ahead. Imagine Captain Beefheart
"unplugged," and you have some idea of what this set
sounds like.
Dark and brooding variations on delta blues and the
darker currents of bluegrass, filled with jangling guitar riffs
and strangulated vocals. Not to all tastes but a brilliant call-
ing card from Lockwood.

Frank London: Hazanos (Tzadik).
This has been out since summer 2005, but I only acquired a copy at the end of last
year and reviewed it early this year. Since then, a week hasn't passed in which I
haven't listened to it at least a couple of times.
That is, to say the least, not usual for me, but it tells you how much I love this
record. Working with a brilliant rhythm section (David Chevan on bass, Anthony
Coleman on keyboards, Gerald Cleaver on drums), several other superb musicians
and several brilliant voices — most notably Cantors Jack Mendelson and Simon
Spiro — London has crafted the single most compelling fusion of jazz and Jewish
traditional liturgical music that I have heard to date.
This is simply one of the best records I have heard in 10 years of writing reviews.
Go buy it right now. Period.

Roy Nathanson:
Sotto Voce (AUM Fidelity).
From the start, this is clearly a very different Roy Nathanson album, with human
beatbox Napoleon Maddox supplying the rhythms and Nathanson coming up with
a lot of the words. The result is a very satisfying, frequently funny and always witty
jazz excursion, anchored by Nathanson's superlative sax playing and fellow Jazz
Passenger Curtis Fowlkes offering his usual trombone ingenuity.
The album runs the gamut from a vaguely satirical but surprisingly deeply felt
"Sunrise Sunset" to a funk combustible "Sunny:' And all five of the band members
contribute nicely judged vocals.

Andy Statman: East Flatbush Blues (Shefa); Awakening
from Above (Shefa).

As if there were any doubt, these two magnificent CDs prove definitively that Andy
Statman is not only the best mandolin player on the planet but one of the greatest
klezmorim.
East Flatbush is an elegant, jazzy and often funny return
to bluegrass for Statman, while Awakening is a further
exploration of Chasidic themes and tunes. Each of these sets
is sublime in its way, and bassist Jim Whitney and drummer
Larry Eagle are nothing less than brilliant accompanying
Statman.
Recorded more or less at the same time and occasion-
ally in the same setting (the New York City sanctuary of Derech Emunah in the
Village), these sets complement one another beautifully. Both are an absolute must.
Available from www.andystatman.com .

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43