I like jazz, and this is the best jazz I've listened to in a long time. Soft, sweet, very "unjazzy," it opens with violinist Ros Stephen's Sigamos String Quartet playing the old standard "Laura", sung by Robert Wyatt. They are soon joined by Gilad Atzmon's alto sax and Richard Pryce's double bass. The effect is hypnotic. I haven't stopped listening since.
Other songs on the album are "Lullaby for Irena", written by Wyatt's wife Elfreda Benge and sung by Wyatt is hauntingly beautiful, as is "The Ghosts Within", a song about Palestine written by Benge and sung by Gilad's wife, Tali. "We're still here/ under the olive trees./ When will you see/ it's where we belong... We once lived on this land for ever/ in the scent of our lemon trees./ We once drank from our rolling River./ For our land you gave us just/ dust."
A rap "Where Are They Now", sung by Shadia Mansour and Abboud Hashemi, "Maryan", "Round Midnight", "Lush Life", "What's New?", "In A Sentimental Mood", "At Last I Am Free", and a hypnotic "What A Wonderful World" sung by Wyatt.
If you're not familiar with Atzmon, pick up a copy of the CD, download the album or songs from it, and get familiar with him. He's one of the best, and this is haunting, unforgettable jazz like you may not have heard before.
To listen to some of Atzmon's music, click on these links:
http://www.gilad.co.uk/
www.myspace.com/giladatzmon
http://www.jazzaproductions.squarespace.com/
Then sit back and enjoy one of today's greatest jazzmen and his sax and clarinet (plus the other instruments that he plays). Originally from Israel, Gilad Atzmon is based in London, England.I give this album an enthusiastic 5-stars.
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