Jazz
Recorded: June 25-26, 2003, Systems II, Brooklyn, NY
Jenny Scheinman - violin
Russ Johnson - trumpet
Myra Melford - piano, harmonium
Trevor Dunn - acoustic bass
Kenny Wollesen - drums
Produced by Jenny Scheinman and Sascha Von Oertzen
Executive Producer: John Zorn
Associate Producer: Kazunori Sugiyama
Recorded by Sascha Von Oertzen
Mastered by Scott Hull at Hit Factory Mastering, New York City
Violinist and composer Jenny Scheinman has done it again on Shalagaster, her sophomore effort for John Zorn's Tzadik label. With a quintet which includes pianist Myra Melford, drummer Kenny Wollesen, bassist Trevor Dunn, and trumpeter Ross Johnson, Scheinman wrote ten of the 11 tunes here, which range from klezmer-influenced classical music as it encounters jazz in the modern world -- "Wiseacre" -- to muted, loopy, tango bliss-outs ("Tango for Luna"), to the strange country-song-influenced and arcane "New View of the Horse," to the shimmering glissandi of jazz harmony and arrangement in "American Dipper." Melford's pianism adds depth and dimension to this set; she cavorts with Scheinman's compositions, yet never attempts to trademark them with her own notable style. She sings them with comps, fills, or direct harmonic confrontations. On "Nigun," Scheinman's violin creates the place of erased history as she drones through Melford's contrapuntal drone and melody that seems to come from the heart of Jewish antiquity. But this is not "out" music. It is warm, true sounding, and brilliant in its scope. The arrangements are lovely, even moving; and Ms. Scheinman's compositions carry within them the mystery, history, heartbreak, and humor of the American experience as lived through one at the margins of culture, race, ideology, style, and spirituality.
---Thom Jurek, All Music Guide |
