Hasidic New Wave

Hasidic New Wave is a five-piece American jazz band, the elements of klezmer music and traditional Hasidic music mixed ( inter alia Niggunim ) in experimental form with jazz improvisation, funk and rock music. The group consists of a number of renowned jazz or fusion musicians around the founders Greg Wall ( sax, clarinet) and Frank London (trumpet ) and makes predominantly, if not exclusively, instrumental music.

The band was active mainly in the 1990s in the avant-garde jazz scene of the New York music club Knitting Factory. At this time, in this environment emerged the concept of Radical Jewish Culture by John Zorn, who wanted to break into the period after the Second World War with the, as adapted to perceived Jewish music. The band Hasidic New Wave was part of this movement, which progagierte a new self- awareness of Jewish music and a hand turned against excessive adaptation to the non-Jewish majority society, but on the other hand, by cross-genre music with ancient traditions broke. Compared to John Zorn's Masada project ( with Dave Douglas, Greg Cohen and Joey Baron ), which also combines elements of avant-garde jazz and klezmer, the music of Hasidic New Wave is much more heavily influenced by the use of guitar and bass.

Band History

The band's founder and London Wall, who had visited together years earlier, the New England Conservatory of Music was established in mid -1990s, even in the Klezmer music scene. London since the eighties is involved in bands like the Klezmatics and the Klezmer Conservatory Band. Even Wall was, inter alia, in groups such as Klezmer Festival and active member of the Institute of Jazz music at Rutgers University. They supplemented the band with guitarist David Fiuczynski and fusion bassist Fima Ephron Screaming Headless Torsos from and drummer Aaron Alexander, who among other things worked with Satoko Fujii and Burton Greene and played in a trio with Babkas Briggan Krauss and Brad Shepik. Originally bassist Kenny Davis was part of the band before he was replaced by Ephron 1998.

The debut album Jews and the Abstract Truth, with guest contributions from Ben Goldberg, Anthony Coleman and Gary Lucas, was mostly recorded in the course of 1996 in the studio of the Knitting Factory. Complemented by four live tracks that were recorded in the same year at a concert in Cologne, it appeared in 1997, like most albums of the formation, first on the Plattenblabel the Knitting Factory connected Knitting Factory Works (later Knitting Factory Records). It contains predominantly rather free interpretations of traditional Jewish songs, complemented by some original compositions by London and Wall, like the piece "Welcome to the McDonald's in Dachau ", whose title to the former controversy about an advertising campaign, at the opening of a McDonald's restaurant in the immediate close to the Dachau concentration camp, alludes.

As a result, the band toured with her crossover music style in Europe and North America at festivals both alternative and jazz music as well as Jewish music. The performance at the Jewish Culture Festival in Krakow in 1998, was documented on a publication of the Polish jazz label Not Two Records.

The album was released in 1999 on the sub-label Kabalogy Jewish Alternative Movement (JAM ) of the Knitting Factory, as part of a publication series with bands and artists of modern Jewish influenced music, such as the album Zohar - Keter of Uri Caine and Aaron Bensoussan. On Kabalogy are increasingly original compositions of the five band members to hear. The album ends with the song Giuliani about everything, a cover version of Dead Kennedys song California over all; this version takes a critical look with the police brutality during the tenure of former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

In 2001, the last album by the band so far appeared; it combined music Jewish and Islamic origin, pointing with his title From the Belly of Abraham to the common origin of these cultures as Abrahamic religions. The album was the result of a collaboration with pianist Jamie Saft, the Senegalese Djembe player and percussionist Alioune Faye ( among other things known from the albums Winard Harper ) and his compatriots, the percussion group Yakar Rhythms, after the band already at the New York Jazz Festival 2000 had occurred together.

The band members, who are all active in other band projects, also occurred in the years to come occasionally together. A new album was promised.

Discography

Albums

• Jews and the Abstract Truth (1997, Knitting Factory Works 192)
• Psycho - Semitic (1998, Knitting Factory Records 203)
• Live in Krakow (1998, Not Two Records) was added, at the Jewish Culture Festival in Krakow 1998
• Kabalogy (1999, Knitting Factory Records / JAM 239)
• From the Belly of Abraham (2001, Knitting Factory Records 294 ), in cooperation with Alioune Faye and the Senegalese percussion group Yakar Rhythms