The Krakow Klezmer Band — Remembrance

 
Remembrance is the latest release by the phenomenal Krakow Klezmer Band. Recorded at the Polish National Radio Concert Studio in Warsaw in 2005, the album sums up their 10 years together while marking the end of the Krakow Klezmer Band. Today, the ensemble is known by a new name the Bester Quartet.

Their sixth release on the prestigious John Zorn?s Tzadik label since their 2000 debut with De Profundis, the album is a captivating selection of previously published pieces. The program (based on original compositions from De Profundis,

The Warriors and Bereshit) captures the Krakow Klezmer Band?s legendary style ? a unique combination of klezmer, jazz, contemporary chamber music and improvisation. The latter seems to play a more-and-more important role in their music-making.

Drawing on both the traditional and the modern, the compositions of Jaroslaw Bester conjure up the melancholy of a Galician town while at the same time taking klezmer music to a higher level. The imaginative improvisations of these four remarkable musicians — Jaroslaw Tyrala (violin), Jaroslaw Bester (bayan), Oleg Dyyak (bayan) and Wojciech Front (double bass) — keep the audience mesmerized from beginning to end. In The Migration of Souls and The Colors of the Heavens (both from their 2003 Bereshit album), the group are at their best ? expressive, passionate and outstandingly musical.

A splendid way to say goodbye ? Remembrance (the first live album in the Krakow Klezmer Band?s discography) is a must-have for those who have not seen them perform live.