Chris Searle, Gilad to be free-The Morning Star (albums review)

http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/index.php/news/content/view/full/97974

...For The Ghosts Within (Domino WIGCD263) – Gilad Atzmon And The Orient House Ensemble (World Village 450015)

Tuesday 23 November 2010

by Chris Searle

Israeli sax master Gilad Atzmon's collaborations remain as fluid, complex and competent as ever

The Tide Has Changed is the sixth album of the Orient House Ensemble, led by the Israeli altoist Gilad Atzmon, formed a decade ago and named in honour of the headquarters of the Palestinian people in Jerusalem.

"Ten years ago I realised that beauty is the way forward", Atzmon writes in his sleeve notes. And listening to his solo work on the title song after the hokum of the introductory track, you recognise too how the sheer beauty of his sounds - a unique amalgam of Hebraic, Arabic and jazz traditions - has gained authority, sonic unity and huge emotional depth during those years.

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Guardian Review: 5 stars For The Ghost Within

Guardian Review: 5 stars For The Ghost Within

Robert Wyatt/Ros Stephen/Gilad Atzmon: For the Ghosts Within - review

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The Ghosts within by Gilad Atzmon

Robert Wyatt, that most eloquently lackadaisical of jazz-loving English troubadours, has made some unforgettable albums over his long solo career, but this will rank among the frontrunners. Mingling jazz standards such as Lush Life, In a Sentimental Mood and Round Midnight with a scattering of originals, and imaginatively arranged by violinist Ros Stephen for the poetic Gilad Atzmon's alto sax and clarinet and a string ensemble, it strikes a balance between tradition-observing musicality and Wyatt's knack for getting to the painful or joyous heart of things while sounding as if he has just dropped in off the street. From the moment Atzmon's vibrant alto curls around Wyatt's matter-of-fact delivery of Laura, through the microtonal clarinet intro to a vocal line mixing falsetto sounds with guttural contemplation on Lullaby for Irena, to the Sergeant Pepper-like quirkiness of electronics and vocal whimsy on Maryan, the session barely misses a beat. Wyatt offhandedly whistles his way through Round Midnight, plays movingly muted trumpet on Lush Life, and comes close to Louis Armstrong's Wonderful World for gratefully dazzled simplicity.