Festivals on request
Glenn Dickson – cl
Gary Bohan – tr
Michael McLaughlin – p, acc
Brandon Seabrook – git, banjo
Jim Gray- tuba
Eric Rosenthal – drums
(Radical) New jewish music
Starting off with an urgent air raid warning, clearing the air, this album tumbles into a joyous energy and urgency that surpass even the wonderful „In search of the golden dreydl.“ Opening with a reprise of „Black Wedding“, an instrumental that closed their first Shirim album, „of angels and horseraddish“.
Here’s the irony. Even though this album feels freer of the „klezmer“ label that still haunted the first Naftule’s Dream album, there is more here that is definably, obviously klezmer. The more the band has integrated the various tunes and sounds in its collective head, the more things have become distinct parts of something that feels much more organically whole.
Where many of the musicians recording for John Zorn’s „Radical Jewish Culture“ label are using the recordings as a place to explore what „Jewish“ means, or might mean for them, looking inward. This does not appear to be Naftule’s Dream’s dream. Rather, having explored Yiddish culture and klezmer, they are looking out to see where it leads them.
Oh, the music. This is music that defines the edges, and will define the edges ten years from now. To have an ensemble of so many amazing musicians, pulling together and integrating so much of the world around them, is actually not so rare. To have it sound so good, that’s special. Smash! Clap! Clap! Clap! The Klezmershack
„Weaving fiery improvisation into complex arrangements in a style reminescent of Mingus at his best, Boston based Naftule´s Dream has created an instrumental music of passion and intensity. Their album „Search for the Golden Dreydl“ has been released by John Zorn on his radical Jewish culture label Tzadik and the band has created a stir with regular performances at the Knitting Factory in New York and the international Ashkenaz Festival of New Yiddish Culture in Toronto.