Songs Of The Metropolis made it to Mojo's 2013 Best Albums

Songs Of The Metropolis – Album Launch Tour

Gilad Atzmon & The Orient House Ensemble

Gilad's music facebook page
 

Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.com

 

 

 

‘A formidable improvisational array...a jazz giant steadily drawing himself up to his full height...’ The Guardian.

 ‘The best musician living in the world today’ Robert Wyatt


"The Band has created perhaps their most enduring ensemble work yet" Andy Robson Jazzwise ****


"Whether he’s blowing up a storm of notes or gently caressing a ballad, there’s a luminous vitality at the heart of Atzmon’s playing that’s irresistible to the ear" Record Collector ****


 "vibrant and beautiful" Bruce Lindsay All About Jazz

A hard-hitting but wide-ranging set from an admirably tight and robust band led by one of the most charismatic and focused reedsmen on the planet. Chris Parker LondonJazz


'Atzmon has produced his most mature, and in many ways his most diverse, work to date' Ian Mann Jazzmann *****

 'Tensions, surprises, shocks and ambiguities' John Fordham, The Guardian

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 Irish Time ****


While it is raining (Leonard) Bernstein is waving to a taxi. Mignus who sits on the back seat opens the door for him, he invites Bernstein to come in – This is the musical image of this group.  Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

Conjuring an atmosphere of evocative cinematic suggestion BBC Music Review

Peon to a recent past, when urban spaces belonged to the people who lived in them, and cities had distinct emotional characters Financial Times ****


 Atzmon drafts a panorama of multi-layered sound collages and sound particles...   he is   glamorous. His tone, whether on clarinet or alto and soprano saxophone, dominates the action. It is always penetrating, expressive, and full with passion Badische Zeitung


'Fearless bebop player steeped in the work of Coltrane and Parker' Tony Benjamin This Is Bristol

"Brilliant cosmopolitan tunesmithing from Gilad Atzmon" Lucid Culture


'Conceptualist, composer and soloist' Jazz Journal

'A souvenir-collecting world traveller' Jack Massarik, The Evening Standard ****


"If you love jazz you will love this release of a superlative quality. If you love the music of the world in its individual uniqueness and diversity, and not the pasteurized kitsch of “multiculturalism,” you will love this even more and you will resonate to Atzmon’s worldview as a philosopher of culture" Ariadna Theokopoulos http://www.boldfacenews.com

 

"rhythmically-sophisticated 'Tel Aviv' demonstrates that Anmon's soprano sound is also one of the most satisfying since Bechet." `BBC Music Magazine April 2013 ****


"Atzmon opts for an altogether more impressionistic approach" R2 Magazine ****


"virtuoso, lyrical and straightahead all at once" Mike Butler, Dyverse music


 

Gilad Atzmon - clarinet, sax, Yaron Stavi - bass, Eddie Hick - drums, Frank Harrison - piano.

 

 

Songs of the Metropolis

Paris

Tel Aviv

Buenos Aires

Vienna

Manhattan

Scarborough

Moscow

Somewhere in Italy

Berlin

 

Once upon a time and actually not that long ago, our cities conveyed some meanings, they were a unique reflection of ourselves: they were home to our thoughts, ideas and yearnings.

When we were young, our cities belonged to us: their colours were our shades, their smells our scents; but more than anything else, their sounds were our songs. Each city had a melody, a resonance, a bell, an instrument, a voice.  

This album is a pursuit of the sound of the city. It is an attempt to find that magic instant where melodic texture evokes familiar feelings, when a harmonic shift brings you home, when a crescendo conjures memories of a kiss, when a glissando flies the American to Paris.

Now, our planet weeps. Beauty is perhaps the last true form of spiritual resistance. The song is there to counter detachment and alienation. Let us start with the song of the metropolis, the songs of our cities.

Enjoy your listening

Gilad Atzmon


Paris, in the name of love

Tel Aviv, the birth of the tragedy

Buenos Aires, for the pathos 

Vienna, for the charm of sweetness

Manhattan, in loving memory of America

Scarborough, as opposed to London

Moscow, in honour of greatness

Berlin, as a farewell to productivity

Somewhere in Italy but not too far from home