And finally . . .

Ben Perowsky's Camp Songs. Even though I have been burned many times in the past, I still tend to take chances on projects on John Zorn's Tzadik label. I tend to steer away from his pure-noise exploration, as I simply don't have the appreciation for it that I wish I did, but I have, more often than not, found great joy in the music represented by his Radical Jewish Culture releases. Ben Perowski, a veteran jazz drummer, serves up a bunch of takes on Jewish prayers he learned at, as the title suggests, camp. Where a title like "Camp Songs" might scare some listeners off, with visions of camp fire sing-alongs of "Kumbayah" and other such treats, the album really is exactly what one would expect given any familiarity with "Jewish Music" as represented by John Zorn. What results is a big, fun album full of up-tempo, slightly Klezmer-inspired jazz tunes. This is, actually, one of the least "ethnic" sounding albums I've heard in the Radical Jewish Culture series, and could be enjoyed by anyone with any interest in post-bop jazz.

(There's always more excitement where this came from at unproductivity.)