Gilad Atzmon

Songs of the Metropolis World Village****

This dissident Israeli musician, philosopher and sometime Blockhead seems condemned, if only by his own principles, to wander the world playing music. Atzmon is a thoughtful and articulate opponent of Zionism in his books and articles, so when he picks up one of his many horns it's clear that there's more than just music at stake. On Songs of the Metropolis, Atzmon makes a virtue of his peripatetic existence, offering eight fine original compositions inspired by cities around the world where he has performed, from Paris and Berlin to Buenos Aires and his native Tel Aviv. But perhaps the standout is the album's only cover, an energetic reworking of Scarborough Fair, in which Atzmon and the excellent pianist Frank Harrison do to the old parsley-sage tune what John Coltrane and McCoy Tyner did to My Favourite Things. gilad.co.uk