Earlier in the review I cautioned potential listeners about the danger of trying to anticipate a song's progression on this disc due to what seems like the band's firm believe in chaos theory. Or, everything is interconnected, somehow, and even if we can't quite figure out how at the moment we're sure to come up with something, sometime. The seventh track on the disc, "Ishmael and Isaac", starts off sounding like something from Fiddler On The Roof and somewhere along the way changes into something verging on hard rock. Oddly enough though, it works. You don't even notice the transition happening until all of a sudden you realize just how hard the electric guitar is screaming. Although you might wonder for a second, what ever became of that nice Klezmar music, it really doesn't seem to matter that much because this is what the song sounds like now - and this is what it's supposed to sound like.
Jazz is all about pushing the envelope and discovering new ways of expressing thoughts and emotions musically. If you're going to listen to jazz you have to be prepared to take quantum leaps alongside the musicians and hope that those who you're traveling with know what they're doing. If you decide to take the trip that Garaj Mahal will be offering on their forthcoming release, wOOt, you'll find that not only are you in good hands, but you're going to have a lot of fun. Not only do they play sublimely, they haven't forgotten what it means to play.
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