Look Beyond The Posturing

Strangely, I don't own any classical recordings featuring violinist Nigel Kennedy, although there is an interesting recent disk of Polish concertos that I may investigate. The only album I have thus far is this one, Nigel Kennedy and the Kroke Band, East Meets East. Kroke are a Polish band dedicated to exploring the musical folk roots of Eastern Europe. Sometimes mistakenly labelled as simply a klezmer band, there are distinct Jewish influences but the scope ranges wider. They provide occasional vocals, viola, flute, percussion, accordion and double bass but the driving force in a solo sense is the electric violin of Kennedy. The fourteen tracks on the disk are linked by a recurring theme that goes through several mutations, not quite in the way of a jazz improvisation, more a traditional theme and variations structure. Kennedy's playing sometimes displays heart on sleeve romanticism with aching lyricism and stacks of vibrato, while at other times he reaches for the effects pedals and launches into Hendrix style fireworks that sound authentic enough to hit the spot with an old hippy like me. This album was toured and I recall seeing a fine live performance broadcast from Womad but Kroke are now back to pursuing their own career and Kennedy will doubtless surprise again after his Polish concertos project. A character that it is easy to dismiss because of his posturings re. clothes and accents, he remains a formidable musician.