"it's a taste well worth acquiring because you realise what a profound, moving experience Atzmon's lone voice raised in protest has been". The Observer

"...the work of an independent and unruly spirit still in turbulent evolution. The Guardian

"This album feels like a spell in a nightclub at the edge of oblivion". Evening Standard

"Atzmon is essentially a jazz man, and everything emanates from his moodily lyrical playing-with the most telling moments those closest to home. The Daily Telegraph

"His flow of ideas and coherent marshalling of them makes for solos that are as exhilarating as they are impassioned". The Herald

".a master of dynamics and the slow-build, mixing lyricism with hoarse, Coltranesque squalls, a combination for which he would have a formidable international reputation as a soloist alone. But his self-appointed mission to restore to jazz a cultural-political clout it had in the first bop era and in the free-jazz of the 1960s makes him something considerably bigger. John Fordham, Cd of the week, The Guardian

"A formidable improvisational array...a local jazz giant steadily drawing himself up to his full height...a blast of fresh air in the UK"-John Fordham, The Guardian

"Atzmon is an astonishing musician with a seemingly effortless ability to demolish and rebuild any old tune he chooses to play."-John Lewis, TIME OUT

"Jazz in the '50s and '60s was inextricably linked to the Civil Rights Movement in the US; and the music of Israeli-born reeds-playing genius, Gilad Atzmon, is similarly enmeshed with the struggles of the Palestinian people" -Joe Cushley , What's On

"A revelation, a multi-reed man of enormous talent."-Tony Richards Musician Magazine

"Atzmon sends his soprano sax and clarinet soaring over complex rhythms
from all points of the globe with a poetry that never forfeits control."- Nina Caplan, Metro

"Audiences are clearly bowled over with Atzmon's whirlwind
approach...dynamic, charismatic and...exasperating!"-Brian Blain, Jazz UK

Unpredictable: Any form of music Gilad Atzmon attempts will contain the element of surprise

Atzmon's long-running Orient House Ensemble roamed across the music of Palestine, Romania, Israel, Britain, Italy and beyond, with American jazz as its calling card. This new quartet doesn't use vocals (except for Atzmon making a hoarse, abstract clamour by talking through his sax mouthpiece while playing), and the Elvin Jones-like polyrhythms of the dynamic young drummer John Blease makes it outwardly jazzier. But that's not the whole story.

A laptop behind pianist Frank Harrison idly displayed its screensaver for much of the show, testament to the fact that a swath of special effects and electronics remained stubbornly silent. Several of Harrison's succinct solos were thus confined to the faintly anticlimactic keyboard sound of a Fender Rhodes. Nevertheless, the band frequently worked themselves up to thrashing, Coltrane-quartet climaxes, with Atzmon making the connection explicit in quotes from Afro-Blue and A Love Supreme.

Flying double-time sax solos over driving jazz swing or intense ballads joined Atzmon's Charlie Parker allegiances to the microtonal pitching and woody sound of Middle Eastern reed instruments. In the second half, the world music and the funky connections became stronger, with bassist Yaron Stavi opening with a bowed drone for Atzmon's swooping soprano-sax sounds; followed by an infectious bass hook underpinning clarinet ascents reminiscent of the Rhapsody in Blue overture; and a polemic on the Iraq war that combined Middle Eastern dance-grooves with Coltranesque free-jazz. Atzmon looks to be on to another winner, with or without computer assistance.

Jazz tribute to Jericho

(Morning Star, Saturday 18 March 2006)

LIVE: Five For Trane featuring Gilad Atzmon and Martin Smith

101 Bar, London W1

SAX maestro Gilad Atzmon gives a sad smile to his audience and explains that he always finishes his sets with his haunting track Jenin, in tribute to the innocents massacred when Israeli forces flattened the refugee camp in 2002.

He says: "As I left the house tonight, I heard that they had done the same thing to Jericho - so this song is Jenin-Jericho."

It is not often that music and politics fit together so neatly, but this remarkable evening of live jazz and spoken word - organised by the socialist bookshop Bookmarks - is a timely one.

The evening is intended to celebrate the life of jazz legend John Coltrane and launch the third edition of Martin Smith's book John Coltrane - Jazz, Racism and Resistance.

It has also coincided with the Israeli Defence Force's (IDF) invasion of Jericho and its destruction of the town's jail.

Atzmon is an Israeli-born Jew who served in the IDF. He now lives in "self-exile" in Britain and is an outspoken critic of zionism.

He is also an incredibly talented saxophonist, influenced greatly by Coltrane's music.

The first half of the evening is dedicated to Trane. Smith takes us through the musician's life, placing it in the context of US society from the 1940s to the 1960s and noting his anger at the racism and savagery that black people faced every day.

For Smith, five tracks chart Coltrane's musical and political epiphany - Bakai, Alabama, The Reverend King, Up Against the Wall and A Dream Deferred.

Trane was an activist primarily through his music, which is shot through with a terrible beauty and anger. It is little wonder that Atzmon appreciates his work.

As these tracks are played out, sometimes using the original recordings, sometimes featuring Atzmon and his band, a slide show reveals pictures of Coltrane, his contemporaries and horrific images too - images of beatings, lynchings, police brutality and slave auctions.

"Coltrane is now even more popular than he was in the 1960s," concludes Smith.

"Maybe because life is still, in his own words, 'a beautiful struggle'."

After the interval, as Aztmon takes centre stage for a blistering set, the images morph from black and white to colour - changing into contemporary scenes of beatings, police brutality and devastation in occupied Palestine.

It is impossible to remain unmoved and perhaps Atzmon realises this when, after Jenin-Jericho, he makes a conscious decision to lighten the atmosphere, joking with the audience and claiming to have bought his drummer on eBay.

He succeeds and we leave without feeling too depressed. The impact of the evening remains, however.

Smith and Aztmon have demonstrated how genuine art and passion cannot be pigeonholed.

DANIEL COYSH