Midnight Minyan

1	Ma Lecha Hayam
2	Freigish Behavior
3	Sim Shalom
4	Haftorah Prelude
5	Atz Chiam He
6	To Life
7	Amidah
8	Lester Young's Misheberakh
9	Haftorah Postlude

Barnes & Noble

Founding member of the Brooklyn Funk Essentials and downtown New York jazz mainstay, tenor saxman Paul Shapiro convenes this Midnight Minyan to render praise unto classic Jewish melodies. A fitting companion to Steven Bernstein's Diaspora Soul (which featured Shapiro; Bernstein returns the favor here), the aesthetic is something like a bar mitzvah afterparty, soaked in Manischewitz and smoky lounge jazz. Liturgical material and Oriental-mode musings make up the tunestack. There's an exploration of the blessing chanted before and after the haftorah reading -- that would account for the bar mitzvah vibe -- a swinging "Amidah," and a pensive, tender "Aitz Chaim He," the Tree of Life, which Shapiro dedicates to his father. While the lounge vibe lends this set a certain campy appeal, there's plenty of serious playing involved, and some serious thought as well. In "Lester Young's Misheberakh," named for the traditional prayer read for the healing of the sick, Shapiro may have found a certain melodic similarity between the religious mode and the melodies of the tenor titan. But this ballad, invoking both the dark suffering of so many jazzmen and the prayers to make them well, betrays enough conceptual rigor to dismiss the schmaltzy premise. Not that schmaltz isn't an important part of Jewish tradition, and Shapiro and the boys (Steven Bernstein, trumpet; Peter Apfelbaum, tenor and soprano sax; Brian Mitchell, piano; Booker King, bass; and Tony Lewis, drums) lay it on thick with "To Life." Subtitled "A Barroom Mitzvah," the jumping tune gives the Fiddler on the Roof showstopper a Louis Prima arrangement and plenty hoots and hollers. It should bring down the house at many a wedding to come. Mark Schwartz

All Music Guide

Throughout the '90s and into the new millennium, John Zorn's Tzadik record label has become known as a medium for jazz musicians aspiring to meld Jewish traditional music with modern jazz. Here, tenor saxophonist Paul Shapiro carries that torch rather superbly on this 2003 release, as the artist interweaves Middle Eastern modal formulations with disparate jazz-based frameworks. Shapiro garners strong support from his musical associates, including slide trumpeter Steven Bernstein and saxophonist Peter Apfelbaum, who collectively make for a powerful front-line horn section. The musicians' altogether rousing performances consist of soul-drenched choruses meshed with festive soloing escapades. Moreover, the ensemble makes it all sound so unaffected via a hodgepodge of toe-tapping romps, built upon the Jewish music vernacular. They swing while incorporating discrete elements of tango along with heated, modern jazz-based exchanges. The ensemble occasionally projects notions of being in a smoky after-hours jazz joint, or perhaps enjoying the sometimes vivacious undertakings of a Jewish wedding. No doubt, there's a lot of goodness going on as Shapiro pegs a bona fide winner here! Glenn Astarita