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	BESTER QUARTET Jaroslaw Bester - accordion Jaroslaw Tyrala - violin Wojciech Front - double bass Oleg Dyyak - accordion, clarinet, percussion The CKB (The Cracow Klezmer Band) are one of the most creative and innovative music groups in Poland - keep on searching for new forms of expression for their musical fascinations. The group was formed in 1997 as an initiative of Jaroslaw Bester - a young accordion player and composer - and it was soon hailed as one of the most interesting phenomena of the global avangarde scene. Thanks to the original and exploratory character of their music - a result of comprehensive musicianship - the CKB's recordings and concerts have been notable for unusual energy, refinement, beauty of sound and performing perfection. Thanks to these qualities, the CKB's appearances get rave reviews and win increasing appreciation worldwide. The CKB are the only Polish group recording for John Zorn's Tzadik label that has released their five CDs, i.e. De Profundis (TZ 7143), The Warriors (TZ 7157), Bereshit (TZ 7183), Sanatorium under the Sign of the Hourglass (TZ 7349), and the most recent Balan: Book of Angels Vol.5 (TZ 7358). The CKB works with world-renowned musicians like John Zorn, John McClean, Don Byron, Grazyna Auguscik, Frank London, they plays at festivals in Paris, Krakow, Budapest, the Sodra Teatern in Stockholm, New York, Los Angeles, World Music Festiwal Chicago, Folk Festival Dranouter-Heuvelland, the Savoy Theatre at Helsinki, Romaeuropa Festival in Rome, Folk Music Festival Umea, Migration Music Festival Taipei, European Radio Union Festival Diosgor, RASA Center For Worldcultures Utrecht, Festival "Des Rives et des Notes / Jazz a Oloron" Oloron, TFF Rudolstadt, London, Kiev, Odessa Philharmonic Hall, Estonia Concert Hall Tallinn, Toronto etc., etc. REVIEWS ” Passionately blending tradition and modernity with impressive virtuosity, the Cracow Klezmer Band continues to present some of the most breathtaking new Jewish music being made today ” John Zorn, Tzadik “If some klezmer groups seem like they're trying to overtake you on the inside, exhaust pipe dragging the tarmac, The Cracow Klezmer Band are the Rolls Royce purring down the fast lane. There may only be four of them (violin, accordion, percussion, bass) but crucially they make a glorious sound. The CKB were founded in 1997 by young accordionist Jaroslaw Bester, who has taken Astor Piazzolla's liberating approach to writing tangos and applied it to his own Jewish compositions. On "Israel's Tears" a ghostly clarinet shudders below an accordion somehow made to imitate little bells, before the group slam headlong into a grinding yet exhilarating lament. Gnashing of teeth never sounded so good. Grazyna Auguscik adds beautiful wordless vocals to "The Migration of Souls", and the album climaxes with its boldest piece, the title track "Bereshit", meaning "In the Beginning". Recorded in Krakow synagogue, it's darkly passionate portrayal of the creation of the word”. Clive Bell / The Wire “The power of klezmer revival means that nowadays there is almost an excess of groups skillfully raiding the Jewish tradition. But few offer as classy an act as this Polish quartet, whose The Warriors runs tackle for John Zorn's Radical Jewish Culture series. With exquisite, delicate phrasing, violin, accordion, clarinet and double bass create a world of melody as comfortable as your favourite armchair, as nimble as a kitten. Almost everything on this set is written by accordeonist Jarek Bester, starting totally within a klezmer tradition, but branching out to showcase the remarkable talents of the ensemble's members. In this, The CKB resemble Astor Piazzolla's equally virtuoso quintet, and the ghoulishly improvised intro to "Memento Mori" recalls Piazzolla's group invoking the Buenos Aires rush hour traffic. From the racing seven-time of "The Amorous Dance Of The Orchid" to the luxuriating Latin rhythms of the title track, every piece is a sophisticated delight”. Clive Bell / The Wire “There's still plenty to be heard in this last weekend of the World Music Festival, but the performance that the Cracow Klezmer Band gave Thursday night at the Chicago Cultural Center will be difficult to top. The great find of this year's festival, this ensemble dares to view klezmer music not as rowdy entertainment but as sublime, high art. In an era in which many would-be klezmer bands including several in the United States exaggerate and vulgarize klezmer traditions, the Cracow players go in the other direction. They refuse to exploit the most obvious mannerisms of klezmer music, instead regarding this art form as a concert music to be performed with utmost polish, care and subtlety. Rather than dispatch well-worn repertoire in conventional or stereotypical ways, the Cracow musicians create original compositions and intricate improvisations based upon particular elements of klezmer tradition. Thus a specific dance rhythm or turn of phrase or chord progression will become the driving force of an entire work. After unveiling the musical motif at hand, the musicians will develop it as a brilliant jazz musician might to do, transforming a theme until it becomes something new. Yet for all the harmonic and rhythmic sophistication of their work, the Cracow players take pains to keep even the most casual listener engaged. The sheen of their ensemble sound, the virtuosity of their solos and the intelligence and drama of their performances easily persuade listeners to hang on to every note. Perhaps that's why the standing-room-only crowd at the Chicago Cultural Center barely stirred during this performance. Every composition whether exploring ebullient, age-old dance forms or investigating ancient cantorial melody painted an alluring portrait of Eastern European life and culture. At the same time, however, the Cracow players were not trapped in the past. You could hear the freshness of their music in the free-form improvisations that opened many of their pieces, and in the bristling dissonance and freely bent pitches that they wove into klezmer tradition. None of this would have been possible to achieve, however, were it not for the technical and musical accomplishments of this band. Accordionist Jaroslaw Bester drew sonic effects from his instrument that one might not have thought possible. Violinist Jaroslaw Tyrala played with such impeccable intonation and beauty of tone that he probably would have been equally persuasive in a concerto by Mendelssohn or Brahms. Oleg Dyyak was the chameleon of the band, his work on accordion, clarinet and percussion proving remarkably adept and giving the band much of its expressive range. And bassist Wojciech Front helped the ensemble seamlessly finesse changes of meter and tempo. Together, these four musicians created music of extraordinary tonal luster, thanks, in part, to the ingenuity of their arrangements. When Bester and Dyyak played two-accordion passages, with Tyrala's violin singing imploringly in its high register, the effect was haunting. Of all the ensembles that have emerged in recent years to explore the meaning of klezmer in a new era, few have reached as high as the Cracow Klezmer Band, and fewer still have attained comparable results”. Howard Reich / Chicago Tribune [ go Back ] [ go Home ] [ go Top] [ login media ]