Hasidic New Wave

All Music Guide:

Trumpeter (and sometimes keyboardist) Frank London has been recording jazz and modern Jewish music since the mid-80s. He has performed with a wide variety of musicians including John Zorn, Mel Torme, LaMonte Young, Gal Costa, LL Cool J, David Byrne, They Might Be Giants and Palestinian violinist Simon Shaheen. As composer and arranger, London has created works for films including Jonathan Berman's The Shvitz (a recording of the music was released by Knitting Factory) and Bruno de Almeida's The Debt, 1993 Cannes Film Festival prizewinner. In theater, London served as music director for Robert Wilson's The Knee Plays, cowrote Chelm, CA with Flying Karamozov Brother Paul Magid, even composed the score for a marionette production of The Golem! London has been a member of Les Miserables Brass Band and the Klezmatics, and leads his own group Hasidic New Wave, in addition to his other collaborations, including his work with vocalist Lorin Sklamberg. In 2000 he collaborated with a number of great New York musicians, including Anthony Coleman, Gina Leishman and Myra Melford to release Invocations for Tzadik's Radical Jewish Culture series.

Wikipedia:

Hasidic New Wave is an American experimental klezmer music group. Its members, all of whom were improvisational jazz musicians from downtown Manhattan, formed for the purpose of fusing Hasidic musical styles (such as freylekhs and horas) with elements of jazz, funk, and avant-garde rock. The band's eclectic style has been compared to Sun Ra and Jimi Hendrix.

Band members on their 5 recordings include Greg Wall (tenor saxophone), Frank London (trumpet; also a member of The Klezmatics), David Fiuczynski (guitar), Aaron Alexander (drums and percussion), and Kenny Davis or Fima Ephron (bass).

The band has recorded 5 CDs, including four on Knitting Factory's Jewish Alternative Movement label and one on Not Two Records from Poland - a live recording at the Krakow Jewish Music Festival from 1998.