|
|
At the Rebbe's
Table: Reviews
|
Berkshires
Week
November 2002
Tim Sparks is a guitarist whose work
garners raves in many fields; among his
biggest fans are Bill Frisell and Leo
Kottke, no slouches themselves with an
axe. But Sparks has been slowly building a
tremendous body of Jewish guitar music,
and his third album on Tzadik, "At the
Rebbe's Table," is his best yet, partly
due to the terrific song selection, which
includes old klezmer tunes, Sephardic and
Mizrakhi numbers, and "Mahshav," one of
John Zorn's Masada compositions, and
partly due to the terrific ensemble of
musicians who help out on this
all-acoustic effort, including guitarist
Marc Ribot, cellist Erik Friedlander and
bassist Greg Cohen. One thing is clear: in
Sparks's hands, these Jewish melodies have
a natural affinity for the six-stringed
instrument.
Jewish Music
WebCenter
Before I say all the wonderful things
about the music on this new release on the
Tzadik label, let me first say how great
it is to have around sound engineer Jim
Anderson and digital mastermind Scott
Hull, who actually have ears and make
things work beautifully. It's a rare day
that I'm struck with how nicely something
is recorded in that you can hear every
note totally distinctly and at exactly the
right mix. Nothing is blurred, muffled or
otherwise muted improperly. Great sound
with unusual clarity. Now to the content
of the album.
Tim Sparks,
steel-string acoustic guitar, Mark Ribot,
nylon-string acoustic guitar, Erik
Friedlander, cello, Greg Cohen, bass, and
Cyro Baptista, percussion. If you need
some music as you cuddle with that
favorite book, here's something to enjoy
that's Jewish, very modern with enough
intellectual base, yet very contemporary
and pleasant. There's nothing banal, but
only refreshing intricate arrangements of
some traditional songs, including Nafule
Brandwein's "fun tashlach" (Returning from
the River) and "firn di mekhutonim aheym"
(Walking the In-Laws Home) and two
arrangements of songs by Flory Jagoda,
"the Keys from Spain" and "Todos Si
Hueron". Combining and turning is part of
the essence of this album, such as the
Ashkenzai klezmer with Sephardic tunes and
more modern compositions keep this album
very fresh. One of the striking pieces is
"Mahashav" by John Zorn. "Mashav", is a
song that continually morphs from one
place to another, including sounds echoing
Bach, traditional Spanish guitar
repetoire, klezmer, Jewish, jazz and
modern and back again, but seemlessly and
never jarring. Two of the klezmer tunes
will be familiar to fans of Abe Schwartz,
"Baym Rebn's Sude" (from which the album
takes it's name loosely) and "Sadagora
Chasidl." In "Beatufiul City",(Kirya
Yefefiya) Sparks and Ribot's guitars
intertwine in a most graceful way,
building on the traditional song but
making it truly a totally new hearing.
Similar impressive ensemble playing is
displayed thoughout, characterized by
intimacy, warmth and closeness. Honestly,
great for that dinner party, too, from
suburbia to your NYC apartment.
Dossier
French
website
Il existe un proverbe yiddish
particulièrement juste. En six
mots, un bipède
particulièrement allumé a
décliné la
vérité d'entre les
vérités : «L'homme
pense et Dieu rigole» ! Cette petite
merveille, on l'a découverte dans
un disque. Plus exactement, dans le texte
qui accompagne la publication du nouvel
album du guitariste Tim Sparks. Le titre ?
At the Rebbe's Table.
Toujours est-il
que ce proverbe a été le
prétexte d'une composition suave de
John Zorn qui, soit dit en passant, a
produit l'album en question. Le morceau a
été baptisé Mashav
qui, en yiddish, signifie
«pensée». Pendant trois
minutes et quarante huit secondes, Sparks
déroule par guitare classique
interposée les atermoiements du
bonhomme et les rires de Dieu.
Ce morceau
ajouté à tous les autres
fait de cette production un... un...
régal ! De bout en bout. Entre les
guitares acoustiques de Sparks, la
contrebasse de Greg Cohen, le violoncelle
d'Eric Friedlander et les percussions de
Cyro Baptista, pas une seule note ne tombe
en désuétude. Ce n'est
jamais à plat. Surtout, surtout,
c'est un fantastique voyage dans le temps.
Ici, on nous propose une pièce
yéménite, là une
pièce écrite en Pologne, ou
en Espagne, ou en Grèce. Cette
précision géographique a
ceci d'important qu'elle nous
révèle que parfois les
musiques sont ashkénazes, parfois
sépharades. Si vous aimez les
musiques du monde, ce disque vous ravira.
C'est garanti.
-- Serge Truffaut
Guitar and Bass
Magazine
Germany
Beim selben Label ist auch ,At The
Rebbe's Table' (tzadik) erschienen.
Akustik-Gitarrist TIM SPARKS ist hier mir
Marc Ribot (a-g), Erik Friedlander
(cello), Greg Cohen (b) und Cyro Baptista
(perc) zu hören. Auch hier spielt die
traditionelle Musik der europäischen
Juden eine wesentliche Rolle, sogar eine
tragende: Denn Sparks reibt sie eigentlich
kaum an Jazz oder Folk, sondern spielt sie
auf seine eigene Art: kammermusikalisch,
instrumental, intuitiv. Eine interessante
Kultur, die man entdecken sollte gerade
hier & heute, wo sogar angeblich
freidemokratische Rechtsrücker ihre
Resentiments gegen einzelne
Persönlichkeiten des
öffentlichen Lebens wieder an deren
Herkunft, Religion oder Weltanschauung
festmachen und damit auf Stimmenfang
gehen. Musik gegen Diskrimierung.
lt
The Jewish
Week
Friday, September 13, 2002
This is a sweetly melodic set of
acoustic jazz versions of Jewish tunes
from a wide range of traditions, niggunim,
Sephardic songs by Flory Jagoda, a couple
of Naftule Brandwein klezmer standards and
a John Zorn original. Sparks plays a
beautifully liquid steel-string guitar and
is nicely accompanied by an unexpectedly
mellow Marc Ribot on nylon-string acoustic
and Erik Friedlander, who is his usual
sturdy self on cello. Underneath it all is
Sparks' own handsomely understated rhythm
section of Greg Cohen on bass and Cyro
Baptista on percussion. A deceptively
placid set with some deep currents running
through it. Often pretty but never
saccharine. AAAAA
Jazz Times
Magazine
November 2002
The Jewish music agenda of John Zorn's
Tzadik label takes a gentle left turn with
the albums of acoustic fingerstyle
guitarist Tim Sparks. As heard on his
pleasing new collection, At The Rebbe's
Table (Tzadik), the familiar twang of the
steel-string instrument gives an
unexpected musical spin to material from
the klezmer songbook (including the title
song), tunes by guitarist Flory Jagoda and
other corners of the Jewish musical
universe. On a tune like "Todos Si
Hueron," Cyro Baptista's undulant
percussion and Greg Cohen's coolly
seductive bass put us in mind mainly of
Brazil. As noted in Sparks notes about the
project, one historical link is to the
Judeo-Arabic culture in Spain, the
guitar's ancestral homeland. When Sparks
and Marc Ribot (on both steel-string and
classical guitar) delicately interweave
and swap licks, the Spanish interpretation
rings true. On Zorn's own tender tune
"Mahshav," from the Radical's soft side,
Sparks' sensitive solo reading begs a more
universal appreciation. Whatever the
heritage or cultural pedigree, it's simply
touching music. - Josef Woodard
ONGAKU
Tim Sparks - At the Rebbe's Table
Radical Jewish Culture, ein Sublabel von
John Zorns Tzadik-Label, präsentiert
eine neue CD des amerikanischen
Gitarristen Tim Sparks, worauf dieser sich
- mittlerweile bereits zum dritten Mal -
gemäss der Idee der R.J.C.-Reihe mit
jüdischer Musik verschiedenster
Prägung und Herkunft und insbesondere
auch mit deren Adaption für Gitarre
auseinandersetzt. So findet sich auf "At
the Rebbe's Table" Klezmermusik neben
chassidischen und sephardischen
Traditionals und neueren Stücken
ausschliesslich jüdischer Komponisten
(darunter auch eines aus der Feder von
Meister Zorn himself) - allesamt neu
arrangiert für eine oder zwei
Gitarren und in verschiedenen
Kombinationen mit Bass, Perkussion und
Cello. Neben Tim Sparks an der
steel-string sind mit von der Partie der
bestens bekannte Marc Ribot an der
nylon-string (sein Spiel nach "saints"
hier wieder deutlich konkreter) und am
Bass Greg Cohen - dieser ebenfalls kein
unbeschriebenes Blatt, der Perkussionist
Cyro Baptista, sowie auf zwei Stücken
der Cellist Erik Friedlander. Das ganze
kommt sehr stimmungsvoll, vielseitig,
teilweise etwas verschroben und immer auf
sehr hohem musikalischen Niveau daher, und
ist dank der klanglich ausgewogenen, eher
in den Vordergrund gemischten rhythmischen
Grundlage von Bass und Perkussion
(bemerkenswert das sehr präzise und
markante, trotzdem aber unaufdringliche
Spiel von Cyro Baptista) von der die
meisten Stücke geprägt sind,
auch für Menschen ohne ausgesprochene
Affinität zu Gitarrenmusik sehr
hörenswert.
Folk Roots
Magazine
Great Britain
Tim Sparks At the Rebbe's Table
Sublime take on Klezmer and Sephardic
standards with a stellar Tzadik lineup.
Beautiful understated percussion and
cello, and Sparks and Ribot on steel and
nylon string guitars veering between
bluesy, flamenco-inflected finger-picking
and Jao Gilberto. Gorgeous.
Sing Out!
Magazine
September, 2002
Tim Sparks is a brilliant fingerstyle
guitarist -- he won the 1993 National
Fingerstyle Guitar Championship -- who has
turned much of his attention to
traditional Jewish music. At the Rebbe's
Table is Sparks's third album of Jewish
music and whether he's adapting melodies
from the Ashkenazic/klezmer tradition, or
from the Judeo-Spanish Sephardic
tradition, it is a joy to hear these
beautiful interpretations.
Sparks opens with "Returning From The
River," an arrangement of a tune by
Naftule Brandwein, the clarinetist who was
one of klezmer music's first recording
stars. With support from the hypnotic
rhythms of bassist Greg Cohen and
percussionist Cyro Baptista, Sparks mixes
Old World traditions with New World
creativity. And it's like that throughout
the ten selections that follow. In
addition to Cohen and Baptista, other
musicians that join Sparks on various
selections include guitarist Marc Ribot,
playing on nylon strings to complement
Sparks's steel-stringed Martin, and
cellist Erik Friedlander. ---Mike
Regenstreif
|
|
|
