Sephardic violinist Marc Crofts and his Klezmer Ensemble made up of clarinet, accordion and double bass make for the classic klezmer line-up, yet their approach to this traditional music on their new record, Urban Myths, is tastefully progressive. Exploring the improvisational connections between jazz and klezmer, there's jazz/Yiddish scatting, some juicy clarinet improv on 'Ven Ikh Zol Hobn' and the following 'Volekh' contains some notably jazzy violin licks. The playing of all involved is impeccable but Crofts'` virtuosic (and never ostentatious) violin playing is the star attraction here: mixing styles, bending tonality and drawing the soul out of every melody. Each track here is taken from the transcriptions of ethnomusicologist Moshe Beregovski who travelled the Soviet Union in the first half of the last century collecting tunes, often from amateur musicians. Crofts “selected the ones that seemed the least known and the most compelling." His arrangements were made speedily but realised only gradually. As he says, "Simplicity, too, is something that must be worked at."
Tom Newell - Songlines
