Michael Zerang & The Blue Lights - Hash Eaters & Peacekeepers (Pink Palace, 2015)

 By Stef

Just for reasons of completeness, and in response to the comment from Mulot received this morning, this album is the companion cassette to the same band's "Songs From The Big Book Of Love". 

I cannot add more than what Martin wrote in his review : I love Tanger (having lived in Morocco for two years), I love the movie "Only Lovers Left Alive" (watched it already three times now), and I love the compelling music on this album which is incendiary, a great genre-bending exercise of jazz, brass band and middle-eastern influences, including a great version of Misirlou, which was originally an Egyptian tune. Other well-known songs are the cover of Lebanese singer Fairuz's beautiful "Al Bint el Chalabiya".

The band is the same : Mars Williams and Dave Rempis on sax, Josh Berman on cornet, Kent Kessler on bass and Michael Zerang on drums. The cassette is by definition a little shorter than the CD, but still highly recommendable and good value for money. And if in doubt, it's a great addition to the CD. 

What the Slavic Soul Party is to Balkan jazz, the Blue Lights are to Middle-Eastern jazz: not very authentic, but great fun. 

For those interested, you can also download both the CD and the cassette format from Bandcamp.