Gabriele Coen Jewish Experience - Yiddish Melodies in Jazz (2013)

Two years after joining John Zorn’s prestigious New York label, Gabriele Coen presents his new album for Tzadik as part of the “Radical Jewish Culture” series that John Zorn dedicated to the best expressions of new Jewish Music at the international level.

In Yiddish Melodies in Jazz, Coen (soprano and tenor sax and clarinet) leads his ensemble (Pietro Lussi, piano; Lutte Berg, electric guitar; Marco Loddo, bass; Luca Caponi, drums) to the heart of the relationship between Jewish music and American Jazz, exploring the influence of Jewish heritage on jazz, through a personal interpretation of works that have become veritable standards of the jazz tradition.

In the United States, the debt of Jewish music to Jazz is well-accepted and broadly recognized. Jewish music got new energy from Jazz, and this has translated over the years into a type of music that joins the Jewish sound with the new frontiers in sound offered by Jazz and other musical cultures.
Gabriele Coen leads us now in the discovery of the penetration of the Jewish sound into the American mainstream, presenting for the first time a contemporary take on a handful of pieces from the Klezmer repertoire and from the Yiddish musical tradition that eventually became full-fledged components of the Jazz tradition, in memorable performances by Original Dixieland Jazz Band, Benny Goodman, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Cab Calloway, Shelly Manne, Terry Gibbs, and Herbie Mann.

With the expressive eclecticism that is the distinctive sign of an artistic and intellectual journey, Gabriele Coen presents these works, along with two original compositions, creating an exciting, unusual, lyrical musical experience through a fabric that touches on Jazz, Rock, and World Music without forgetting the Jewish roots of his inspiration.

Tracklist:

1. Bublitcki
2. Di Grine Kuzine
3. Liri
4. Jewish Five
5. Yosel Yosel
6. Der Shtiler Bulgar
7. Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen
8. Mazal Tov from Tobago
9. Yiddish Mame
10. Leena from Palestina

Personnel:

Gabriele Coen - Primary Artist, Clarinet, Soprano Saxophone, Tenor Saxophone;
Lutte Berg - Electric Guitar;
Pietro Lussu - Piano;
Marco Loddo - Double Bass;
Luca Caponi - Drums.