New York Noise: Radical Jewish Music and the Downtown Scene

Barzel (music, Wellesley Coll.) covers an often overlooked part of the expansion of Jewish consciousness through music: the Radical Jewish Music (RJM) and New York's downtown scene of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. In stark contrast to the artists who participated in the klezmer revival that began in the 1970s, artists such as John Zorn, Marc Ribot, Shelley Hirsch, the members of God Is My Co-Pilot, and others explored the Jewish experience through improvisation, noise, minimalism, jazz references, and (in short) musical experimentation. Barzel addresses the scene in part as ethnomusicologist, cultural analyst, and journalist. The book is detailed, well documented, and a fascinating analysis of a musical milieu that was less visible than the neo-klezmer movement, although not all the artists receive the detailed treatment that is afforded Zorn and Ribot. Just as valuable as the text is the availability of supplemental audio and video through a free account at ethnomultimedia.org; readers are pointed to specific recordings throughout the text.