A Jewish Odyssey

The diversity of modern Jewish music is a result of centuries of hard traveling and cultural interaction. The secular and religious sounds of the Diaspora now embrace everything from European memories to the Latin experience to folk and modern pop styles from the Middle East. For example, the jazzy pathos of klezmer music reflects shtetl (village) life in Russia and Poland during the early 20th century, while the Arabic-tinged Sephardic repertoire dates from medieval times and then back to Sinai. This thoughtfully assembled sampler covers the major roots and branches plus some bonus oddities. Among the stand-outs are Israeli folk singer Chava Alberstein singing with The Klezmatics, a love song from the late Yemenite chanteuse Ofra Haza, and pianist Uri Caine's avant-garde treatment of a 13th-century Moroccan text. The American ex-hippie Uzca, who sings in an imaginary language, is in a class of his own. --Christina Roden