New Songs From the Old Country

The tongue-in-cheek liner notes for this release, the fourth by this amalgamation of New York-based jazz and world musicians, sets the tone for what you’ll hear. The group’s name alludes both to a neighbourhood at the southern end of Manhattan and to the apparent affinity of the performers for instruments and musical styles of Eastern Europe and Central Asia. The list of those instruments is impressive, as is the ability of the nine core members of the band and their ten guests to deploy them.

So it’s not these elements, nor the wry approach to ethnic music, which lets this album down, but rather the loose structure of the songs and the scarcity of attractive, engaging melodies. There’s little in the way of an arc of development in any particular number, and neither the solos nor the jazz riffs are extended long enough to satisfy. This might well work better in live performance, where the sights and atmosphere could assist the music.