Barbez with special guest artist Dafna Naphtali at Le Poisson Rouge (9-18-2013)

I went to see the group Barbez at Le Poisson Rouge last Wednesday. It was a CD release show for their newest recording,  Bella Ciao. The CD was released on the Tzadik label

Joining the regular members was Dafna Naphtali as vocalist on pieces inspired and/or transcribed from Roman Jewish music. The Jews of Rome, according to Barbez, and I'm sure there are sources, were neither Sephardic nor Ashkenazic and had their own Judeo-Italian language and music tradition. 

 Barbez is Dan Kaufman on guitar, Peter Hess on the clarinets, Danny Tunick on the marimba and vibraphone, Catherine McRae on violin, Peter Lettre on bass and John Bollinger on Drums.

They played beautifully and Dafna's singing was beautiful but it didn't excite me. There wasn't one piece where I felt let down, but I never felt lifted up.

I am not sure why.

Permalink