Medieval Music That Really Rocks
NYMusicLover | New York | 11/12/2004
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This group plays Early Music in a way you don't even hear, with passion, bravado, and incredible improvisation. The group's leader, Jay Elfenbein, is a jazz musician as well as a classical musician (he has even released a jazz gamba record called GambaDream) He and the group approach this 700-year-old music as if it were today's music, even though the instruments are vielle, oud, hand drums, and the like. The results are stirring and haunting. I was especially blown away by the singer Margo Grib's and Gerard Edery's singing of a song of a queen who unwittingly lets her husband know she has been unfaithful (La Reine de Madruga). The musicians all contribute exciting improvisations. The music is from Arab, Christian, and Jewish songs, from a time when the groups lived in relative harmony in Spain. Beautiful."