Reconciliation

Daphna Sadeh is a classically trained double bassist and composer. With her fine group the Voyagers, she marries jazz to music from the Mediterranean Sephardic tradition, Arabic Taq'sim to Jewish folk styles, and traditional music to that of the Eastern European Ashkenazi. She adds complex rhythmic structures such as those of klezmer and even latter day New Orleans jazz in a heady, sophisticated brew that is, for all that complexity, an amazingly approachable type of joyous party music. Nowhere is this more evident than on her debut album for Tzadik (and her second overall), Reconciliation. The title may seem serious, but that's because in Sadeh's compositions, the music of the Jewish diaspora comes home in an intoxicating — not too mention astonishing — array of styles, colors, rhythms, and melodies to form something wholly unique.

The Voyagers are Ivor Goldberg on guitars, mandolin, and voice,Ronen Kozokaro on various kinds of drums and percussion, Eddie Hession on accordion, Mark Bassey on trombone, and Stewart Curtis playing recorders and clarinets with Sadeh on bass. Needless to say, there is bound to be some juxtaposition that arrests the listener and makes her listen twice on such an ambitious recording. Take "What Else Is There?": here is the sound of surf guitars, Ashkenazi, Taq'sim , and a rhythmic attack that places both klezmer and ska side by side. But this track, for all its musical sophistication, is also one of the band's more fun moments. Other selections, such as "Kadish," meld the longing lonesome sound of the Sephardim's most mournful music with that of the Yiddish ballad and modern jazz's weaving of modalities and harmonic invention. The opening "Queen of Sheeba," marries the early sounds of klezmer with the sound of the dancehall rhythms of Israel and the sense of staggered staccato drumming inherent in New Orleans jazz.

In sum, Reconciliation is magical, full of surprise and delight, and is an astonishing vision from an artist who is still finding her way through all of her of her musical passions and learning to weave them all into her own signature sound.