http://londonjazz.blogspot.com

Gilad Atzmon at CBSO Centre, January 2011 Photo: Russ Escritt/ Birmingham Jazz

Gilad Atzmon with Strings
(Ronnie Scott's, 8th February 2012. Review by Chris Parker)

In his latest book, The Wandering Who? A Study of Jewish Identity Politics (Zero Books), Gilad Atzmon attributes his Damascene conversion from 'Jewish nationalist' to 'ordinary human being' who had 'left Chosen-ness behind' to his sudden exposure, as a teenage conscript, to the music of Charlie Parker, specifically the great alto player's Bird with Strings album, described by Atzmon as 'an intense, libidinal extravaganza of wit and energy'.

Thirty-odd years on, the Israeli-born saxophonist/clarinettist documented his devotion to Parker, bop and his consequent idealised picture of the country that spawned them in an album, the title of which reveals the depth of his subsequent disillusionment: In Loving Memory of America. The music on this recording takes the jazz-soloist-with-strings format and explores its possibilities, partly via the Parker route (standards in which searing alto improvisations blaze like so many comets across a lush backdrop of shimmering strings) and partly via original compositions ranging from smart tangos to intense personal meditations.