Featured Artist: Full Metal Klezmer

CD Title: Sachor

Year: 2005

Record Label: El Gallo Rojo Records

Style: Free Jazz / Avante Garde

Musicians:

Fabio Basile (guitars, glockenspiel), Zeno De Rossi (drums, mellotron, organ and samples), Giorgio Pacorig ( fender Rhodes, Hammond organ, synth, piano and samples), Enrico Terragnoli (bass, samples and additional beats), Gianni Gebbia (alto sax, flute, jew harp), Chris Speed (clarinet), Vicenzo Vasi (theremin), Claudia Bidoli (vocals), Roberto Lanciai alto sax), Achille Succi (bass clarinet)

Review:

Full Metal Klezmer has striking sounds with its second album, Shachor. The album gathers an impressive line up: guitarist Fabio Basile, pianist Giorgio Pacorig, drummer Zeno De Rossi, bassist Enrico Terragnoli, clarinetists Achille Succi and Chris Speed.  Reedist Gianni Gebbia and vocalist Claudia Bidoli are also on board.

The playing is spontaneous, supersedes all hopes and is profuse enough to get through and to make it worth the journey. The voices juxtapose Basile pieces in exchange for long spacious group jamboree. "Tekia", "Kodem Kol", "Macahr", "Tamid", "Ruach", "Shachor (Noir)", "Beth-Shemesh", "Tema Per Le Golf "and "Callas Remix" flip-flop around to produce surprising results with great intensity and many interplaying voicings.

The band manages to display a high pitched tone; the choices of pulse appear at kind of unnatural moments. At other times they sound more rock-like. The creations are dense and every space is filled with tricky multiple keys. Despite the name of the band, this release contains more of a free avant-garde musing than Yiddish. It will also take you to many vivid moments as when Claudia Bidoli earns her skills through a poignant lyricism on “Shachor”.

Fabio Basile’s musing and compositional style is forged onto the modern jazz world and is also reflective of the artist and the music world we live in today.  This Full Metal Klezmer release is a great scope to explore varieties of modern jazz rhythms, from electric to free improv. Over all, this work of art delivers almost 52 minutes of great craft and is highly recommended.

Tracks:

Tekia, Kodem Kol, Macahr, Tamid, Ruach, Shachor (Noir), Beth-Shemesh, Tema Per Le Golf, Callas Remix

Record Label Website: http://www.elgallorojorecords.com

Reviewed by: Dr. Ana Isabel Ordonez

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