Jewish Libraries,
Album Review
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This disc’s title is a rather cryptic Yiddish for something like "Cosi fan due/So plays the duo," with a nod to Mozart and Da Ponte. Well, this duo is amazing. Joel Rubin is both an academic musicologist at the University of Virginia, as well as one of the leading clarinetists active in the Klezmer music today. His partner on this recording is Uri Caine, both a spectacular jazz pianist and a partner of many musicians in the spectrum of Jewish music including Frank London, John Zorn, Eric Friedlander and others. This is Joel Rubin’s first recording on the Tzadik label in the Radical Jewish Culture series. Uri Caine told me that they were expecting to record a clarinet and piano duo, but when they arrived at the studio the didn’t find a piano. Instead they used a Fender Rhodes and Hammond organ keyboards. The sonorities take some getting used to at the outset but are quickly replaced by amazement as the timbres are so perfect in accompanying the clarinet and as a solo jazz/klezmer instrument. This recording will appeal to aficionados of klezmer, jazz and the avant-garde. The eight tracks explore a wide range of traditional klezmer tunes and Hasidic nigunim all performed with exceptional verve and virtuosity. Highly recommended for libraries building a collection of klezmer music. 12/01/11
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