Midnight Prayer
Joel Rubin Ensemble. Midnight Prayer, 2007 (Traditional Crossroads CD 4332) The Joel Rubin Ensemble continues its meditation on the Russian-Jewish musical legacy, which it began with the 1997 release, Beregovski’s Khasene (Beregovski’s Wedding, Wergo). The ensemble brings together some of the world’s greatest improvising musicians to explore how Jewish music could sound at the beginning of the 21st century – music from another time and place, but thoroughly grounded in the present. It features Hungarian cimbalom virtuoso Kálmán Balogh, Italian accordion wizard Claudio Jacomucci and star violinist David Chernyavsky, along with Ferenc Kovács (trumpet), Csaba Novák (bass), Sándor Budai (second violin) and Pete Rushefsky (tsimbl). One of the eight best recordings of 2007: “Rubin is in fine form throughout, but particularly electrifying on the niggunim ... where he weeps with the best of them”(George Robinson, Jewish Week, Jan. 2, 2008,…