Alex Kontorovich - Deep Minor

Chamsa

The Radical Jewish Culture Movement doesn’t pull in as much press ink as it once did, but that change in profile hasn’t curtailed Alex Kontorovich’s contributions to the idiom. Adept in both clarinet and alto saxophonone, his credentials also include a blackbelt in martial arts and a doctoral degree in Mathematics. Drummer Aaron Alexander and bassist Reuben Radding gel into a tight rhythm team and the latter man also doubles as the ensemble’s sound engineer to fine effect. Brandon Seabrook earns the wildcard assignation in the group, playing both guitar and banjo and also bringing an array of pre-recorded sounds via tapes to keep both his colleagues and listeners guessing.

Klezmer forms from the page of Zorn factor prominently into the program here, but Kontrovich is far from a clone. His approach shares greater similarity to Thomas Chapin in terms of a flair for the dramatic channeled through a sharply deployed improvisatory intellect. “Transit Strike Blues” opens with the odd, but inviting combination of clarinet and electric banjo before Radding and Alexander join the action with a robust rhythm. It’s a lively composite revisted on the spirited closer “Tzizit”. Seabrook’s brittle and often forceful picking gives the band both bite and character, his teeth-rattling arpeggiations on the hora-derived “Kandels Burning” shearing petulantly through resilient revolving groove set up by Alexander and Radding. “New Orleans Funeral March” ties the titular form to Old World elements in a suite-like structure that builds from somber beginnings to a conflagatory finish. Radding’s fibrillating bass preface sets a heady stage giving way to another extended improvisation from Seabrook slathered in oscillating waves of feedback.

Named after the song form at its root, “Sirba” sounds initially like a fast freilach in the mold of Naftule Brandwein, but soon morphs into a stomping heavy metal dirge thanks to Seabrook’s aggressively amplified guitar. “AfroJewban Suite” bridges Klezmer, funk and Afrocuban rhythms in a manner not dissimilar to that of Steve Bernstein’s Diaspora while a delicately-fashioned Piazolla-style waltz taps a rich nuevo tango vein and serves as springboard for liquid clarinet. Even with the rampant genre-hopping at the crux of his compositons, Kontorovich resists the sort of overkill that has sunk projects of similar design. Each of the pieces sounds secure in its piebald construction and the players make the most of each setting in the audible pursuit of creative expression.

~ Derek Taylor