Herbie Mann's Eastern European Roots
According to Wikipedia, this was the last Herbie Mann recording made. Britt, of the Nefesh Klezmer Band, spotting this back in 2001.
pardon my enthusiasm, but …
I'm in love with a new CD and I just had to share it with the list. It's Herbie Mann's "Eastern European Roots". Yes, it's the same jazz flute I've loved since I first heard it as a teenager, but there is something more, a soulfulness. Mann explains in his liner notes that a brush with death made him re-examine his musical life, and he realized he had explored many other types of music but not his own Jewish musical roots—his mother is from Bucovina, Romania.
When he recovered, he traveled to Eastern Europe and this CD is the result. He's joined by other exemplary musicians, most notably Gil Goldstein on accordion (sounds to me like a chromatic button accordion) played with a moody musette sound. And Alexander Fedoriouk on cymbalom, my current instrument of choice. His style ranges from a dark, old time klezmer- sound to a jazzy gypsy swing (a la Kalman Balogh). However you classify this album (jazz, klezmer), I'm sure many list members will also enjoy it.