World Music Album Reviews

Ariel Lazarus Ensemble : New World Music

Here in Australia, particularly in Melbourne where I live, Klezmer music is very popular amongst crowds that go to see what you'd broadly term "Gypsy" bands, so it's good to hear what sort of music is actually being played by young Israeli bands.

The Ariel Lazarus Ensemble is led by 32 year old Ariel Lazarus, the offspring of a Sephardic mother from Gibralter and Ashkenazi father - a first generation Irsaeli and son of a Holocaust survivor.

By age 15, Ariel was playing guitar and had taught himself how to compose and write songs. Later he went on to study at the Hed College of Contemporary Music in Tel Aviv, where he initially majored in Jazz Guitar.

Since graduating he has gone on to learn classical guitar under Maestro Yaron Hason and study composition under Dr. Edward Knight at Oklahoma City University. He has also written a number of orchestral works and theatre works, including the The Sefarad Symphony : A tone poem for chamber orchestra. All these works feature a strong ethnic influence - both from his mother's Gibraltan hertitage and father's Israeli heritage.

In addition to Ariel Lazarus, his ensemble consists of Keren Golan on flute, Eli Khentov - 4 and 5 string violin, Dan Eckert on bass and Lior Zusiev on percussion.

7 out of the 8 tracks on New World Music were composed by Ariel and show a strong influence of Klezmer and Jazz. It opens strongly with the bright and bouncy Cucharita which has lots of little syncopated stops, changes of texture and half-spoken singing over the top - it's very friendly and has the feeling of a live party.

I'm a real sucker for interesting rhythms so the track Tocca had me tapping along to the 6/8 + 3/4 rhythm (made famous in America from West Side Story). This piece has what sound like Moroccan influences in the scales and Spanish influences in Ariel's guitar playing.

Alameda and Havaya show of their more sensual side, Alameda sounding a little like Django Reinhart with it's Gypsy Jazz influences.

The Painter from Westfalen shows off their ability to switch between tempos and styles - there's plenty of variation to keep you interested.

The album finishes off with Los Bibilicos a traditional Sephardic Jewish song which roughly translated as "In the trees the night-birds are singing, while under them sit those who are wounded by love."

Overall, this is quite a good album - the instrumentation is tight, the playing proficient, there's plenty of dynamic and rhythm changes to keep it interesting - something I often find lacking in Klezmer influenced music - Ariel's composition and arranging skills definitely show in the construction and production.

This is an album you can put on just to listen to or as party dance music - it fulfills both criteria! If they're touring your area - make sure you catch them live! In the meantime you can listen to their music here.

> Find out more about the Ariel Lazarus Ensemble

Video : Ariel Lazarus promotional video