Krakauer Live In Krakow

Album Review

Clarinetist and klezmer madman David Krakauer (whose name is German for "from Krakow") brought his band Klezmer Madness! to the Indigo Club in his namesake city in June of 2003, and there played a monstrous set of klezmer music both traditional and avant-garde. Augmented by the sampling and beatbox wizardry of Socalled, Krakauer and his band delivered a sweaty, sometimes anarchic program; between Socalled's breakbeats, Sheryl Bailey's masterful funk-jazz-soul guitar, and Krakauer's wailing, keening clarinet, the music maintained that almost impossible balance between the celebratory and the mournful that is the unique domain of the klezmer tradition. "Turntable Pounding" opens the proceedings with a grungy downtempo breakbeat and Middle Eastern vocal samples, over which Krakauer blows crazily while Bailey alternates between funky single-string backup and fuzzy wah-wah chords; "Dusky Bulgar" (composed by the band's accordionist, Will Holshouser) brings in sort of a tango feel and a more traditional instrumental approach; Krakauer's "Klezmer à la Bechet," while evoking Sidney Bechet not at all, does incorporate more of those cool, swinging Socalled beats. The album's only really weak moment comes with the unexceptional waltz "Love Song for Lemberg/Lvov"; other than that, this album is a thrill from beginning to end.