Ha-Huncvot is the second album recorded by Raphael Rogiński, Mikołaj Trzaska, and Macio Moretti. In Jewish culture, the shofar has multiple meanings, each equally important. What does the new Shofar album bring into the equation?
A shofar is an instrument made out of the horn of any animal except a cow. Ashkenazi Jews usually use ram horns, while Sephardi Jews tend to utilize antelope. Ideally, a horn used for making a shofar isn’t straight – the more bent and deformed it is, the more interesting the sounds it makes. The shofar resounds at every Rosh Hashanah – the Jewish New Year – when it could be heard during the Mount Sinai revelation, while Prophet Isaiah in his divination associated the ram horn instrument with the resurrection of the dead. What doesShofar think of the above?

The concept behind Shofar is to carry on the Jewish musical traditions that are still alive for us, while also searching for a common denominator shared by Hasidic music and free jazz.
– the band members write.
Tracks featured on the album have been sourced from pre-war musicological research carried out in Ukraine, Poland, and Moldova. Most of them are nigunim – magical religious songs, some of which are supposed to lead one to a state of trance and ecstasy, and freylakhs – more lively tunes deriving from Jewish liturgy. The material, formally preserved, unlocks the whole broad spectrum of Hasidic music and culture. All of this is combined with the modern approach to the creative jazz form.

On their first record (Shofar, 2007), the musicians focused on details. The same sounds, themes, and melodies were repeated over and over again, allowing listeners to immerse themselves in the sounds of old nigunim. All of that was saturated with a breeze of free jazz, and while some sounds initially seem to be intruders, this impression couldn’t be more wrong. Rogiński, Trzaska, and Moretti behaved like Kabbalah practitioners who profess to reclaim sparks of the holy which dispersed after their divine vessels broke.
On Ha-Huncvot, contemplation has been replaced with an extroverted explosion of emotions. Each instrument creates its own, often distraught narratives. Mikołaj Trzaska’s alto saxophone and bass clarinet bring in the most hysteric sounds. On some tracks, the instruments rattle, crackle, and whir, dominating the rest of the sounds with their noise. The screens of noise which Trzaska generates with his lungs maybe bring to mind yet another significance of shofar – at the end of the day, the ram horn instrument destroyed the walls of Jericho.

The most genre-heavy track is You And Cookie = Happiness, followed by Traditional Hasidic Melody. A few minutes later, we hear a composition with the subversive title Think Better About Germans. The musicians refuse to be pigeonholed as yet another Klezmer band and continue to mix sublime and tragic themes. They bring chaos to the listener’s mind, just like the titular huncwot (a ‘rascal’ or ‘scamp’ in Polish). Given the fact that Rogiński, Trzaska, and Moretti are some of the most talented instrumentalists of Polish Jazz, we can rest assured that they have an unforgettable adventure in store for us, throughout which there will be many moments when we won’t know what is going on.

Author: Filip Lech, 20.05.2013