Jazz Archives

When five Downtown New York improvisers with deep roots in the jazz tradition embrace the Hasidic musical legacy and the scintillating rhythms of the holy land, a new voice emerges. Blending together an intense mixture of ethnic and cosmopolitan sounds, Hasidic New Wave fuses spiritual songs from Hasidic dynasties to funk and jazz, Arabic dances with avant-garde rock, and juxtaposes horas and freylekhs with sheer improvisation. Hasidic New Wave's alternatingly ecstatic and meditative performances, imbued (as is consistent with Hasidic tradition) with joy and passion, has led critics to liken the band to Sun Ra meets Jimi Hendrix at a Jewish wedding and exclaim HNW marries Hasidic music to avant-jazz, spinning traditional Jewish celebratory songs into extended Jazz improvisations that incorporate ferocious horn blowing and raucous electric guitar solos.

:::Review by Adam Greenberg@allmusic.com:::

Hasidic New Wave - Psycho-Semitic (1998)

1. Seven Blessings from the High Priest: Achas
2. AKS
3. Seven Blessings from the High Priest: Achas ve-achas
4. Hebe Bop
5. Seven Blessings from the High Priest: Achas ve-shtayim
6. Transcendence / U'Mipney Khata'eynu
7. Al-Osfour Al-Majnoun (The Crazy Bird)
8. Seven Blessings from the High Priest: Achas ve-sholosh
9. Ve-Samakhto Dub
10. Seven Blessings from the High Priest: Achas ve-arba
11. Habibi
12. Seven Blessings from the High Priest: Achas vo-sheysh
13. Blues In Exile
14. Seven Blessings from the High Priest: Achas ve-khamesh
15. Men Trinkt Mashke (People Drink Whiskey

Credits
Frank London - trumpet
Greg Wall - sax
David Fiuczynski - guitar
Fima Ephron - bass
Aaron Alexander - drums