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***1/2 Erik Friedlander

GRAINS OF PARADISE

(Tzadik)

Cellist Erik Friedlander’s best recording as a leader is also one of the most distinctive jazz-with-strings albums ever made. Working with up to 10 violins plus bassist Trevor Dunn and percussionist Satoshi Takeishi, Friedlander orchestrates some of his most memorable writing. “Zahtar,” “Na’ Na’,” and “Aley Dafna” build off Eastern European folk music in much the same way the music of Pachora or John Zorn’s Masada does, but the string arrangements add a touch of grandeur and warmth to the exotic melodies and lively dance rhythms. Friedlander solos with special vividness and dignity on “Na’ Na’ ” and “Tziporen,” summoning a dark, cinnamon tone and a singing lyricism that sustain a mood of sweet sadness. Bassist Dunn is the album’s other star: he anchors the odd-metered rhythms with a dancer’s sense of time and an improviser’s sense of melodic shape and harmonic depth, and he and Friedlander work especially well together on “Tapuz” and “Shamir.” Even in the idiosyncratic world of radical Jewish culture, there’s never been an album quite like this one.

— Ed Hazell