CD Review: Veretski's Pass' 'The Klezmer Shul Live'

Veretski Pass
The Klezmer Shul Live
Golden Horn Records

The California-based, Veretski Pass, is an instrumental group that reinterprets centers of musicmaking--shuls--which were synagogues that were originally created as gathering places for craftspeople, tailors, stonecutters, and musicians. Utilizing styles and melodies from various lands of Jewish inhabitants, Veretski Pass uses classical, avant-garde, and free jazz genres from Czech Republic, Moldova, Romania, Ukraine, Hungary, and Poland. The instrumental nature of the music is vibrant, reflective, and calming throughout. The twenty-three different compositions are divided into four different poetic groups movements or groupings: Without Beginning, A Sign Upon Your Head, Remembrance, and The Wonder of Being. Cookie Segelstein plays violin, Joshua Horowitz plays button accordion and piano, and Stuart Brotman plays bass cello and the rarely heard tilinca--an end-blown flute from the border of Romania and Ukraine. Anyone with an interest in Klezmer classical music will love it. ~ Matthew Forss

CD Review: SoSaLa's 'Nu World Trash'

SoSaLa
Nu World Trash
DooBeeDoo Records

SoSaLa is Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi, a native Persian, who has lived all over the world. As a composer, saxophonist, and music editor, SoSaLa incorporates Central Asian rhythms and instrumentation with free jazz elements and passionate vocals instilling a sense of peace and unity in Iran and throughout the world. Based in New York, SoSaLa seems to have not only acquired the native influences, but the North American styles of jazz, world music, and improvisation are also evident throughout the album. The music is not particularly modern, but it contains whirling rhythms of folk, jazz, and Mediterranean/Middle Eastern music. SoSaLa's primary vocal delivery is related to spoken word--mostly observed in poetic artforms. At any rate, SoSaLa's poetry fills the album with thoughtful ideas and personal observations that fit nicely amidst a backdrop of percussion, strings, and sax. ~ Matthew Forss