Gilad Atzmon at Ronnie Scott’s W1
Thursday, March 18, 2010 at 12:55AM The Times
There are two Gilad Atzmons. One is the political activist whose outpourings on Israel and Jewish history have a worrying habit of lurching from legitimate anti-Zionism into something murkier. The other is the footloose reeds player whose Orient House Ensemble bridges the gap between jazz and world music, bebop and Baghdad. It was the latter, happily, who made the running. While the muscular Israeli expat could not resist inserting a handful of political gibes in the commentary between numbers, most of his quietly droll remarks were closer to stand-up than soap-box.
The music itself — a celebration of Charlie Parker’s “with strings” sessions — was superb. Revivalism so often produces overly solemn music-making long on credentials and short on passion. And at the start, as Atzmon edged into the pensive theme of Everything Happens to Me, it seemed the atmosphere might be far too polite. The self-penned ballad that followed was overlong and diffuse too.
From that point on the performance took wing. Although the publicity material had promised a full string section, the band was accompanied only by the Sigamos String Quartet, and was none the worse for that. Terse and agile, the arrangements mirrored Atzmon's searching runs; there was never a danger that the pianist Frank Harrison, the drummer Eddie Hick and the bassist Yaron Stavi would be swamped as they stoked their long, loping phrases.
Atzmon avoided predictable imitations of Parker on If I Should Lose You and I Didn’t Know What Time It Was. And on original numbers such as Burning Bush the string players cast classical decorum to one side as they rattled off fiery call-and-response figures. Atzmon, occasionally adding shards of colour on clarinet, pushed his alto to the limits as the music took on Coltrane-style intensity — at one point he removed the mouthpiece, generating a ghostly timbre by blowing directly into the horn. Bird sounds and muezzin-like vocalising added to the sense that he was carrying us into a world a long way from 52nd Street.
