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DAVID BUCHBINDER
Odessa/Havana Tzadik ***

Experimentalism doesn't come with a bigger capital E than in this collision of Jewish and Cuban music on John Zorn's Tzadik label (also home to superb klezmer experimentalists The Bester Quartet). The brainchild of Canadian trumpeter and composer David Buchbinder and pianist and composer Hilario Durán, Odessa/Havana is a curious melding of the sultry and the diaphanous. Buchbinder's trumpet weaves gloriously sinuous lines on Prayer, and at times brass and quintessential klezmer fiddle coalesce to startling effect, particularly on Impresiónes. At other times, the sheer mania of the collaboration hints at an indulgence too far. Lurking beneath it all, though, is a glorious delight in challenging the cosiness of any home turf, from Odessa to Havana. www.odessahavana.com

Download tracks: Prayer, Lailadance