I had a night last week where I could actually go out and catch some live music(A rarity for me.), so I searched listings at everyplace in Manhattan, and I came up with nothing that caught my fancy. I decided to check out what was at The Stone, and they had a group called Rashanim, who are described as 'Jewish jazz-rock'. Intrigued, I hunted around and listened to a full tune of theirs and I really liked what I heard, so I decided to go to The Stone. Besides, I figured if they stunk I was only out $10 and the $ went to the musicians, so no great loss. The Stone is a small room, no drinks for sale, no stuff up on the walls, plastic folding chairs and a capacity of about 70-80. When I came in they had both Rashanim discs for sale at $25 for the two, so I bought them.
THESE GUYS ROCKED!!!. They are a trio of guitar, bass & drums, and what they play certainly owes a lot to jazz, rock, and some of the melodies they played sounded klezmerish. Some of the things the guitarist(Jon Madoff) played definitely had a Middle Eastern bent to them. The drummer(Mathias Kunzli)sp? was an absolute monster, driving the band by playing some beautifully timed/placed accents and framing the rhythm to provide a bed for the guitarist to fly on.
The crowd was young, looked to all be in their 20s, and that was a very positive sign to me, that young folks(I'm closing in on 50) were interested in music that had some substance to it.
I'd highly recommend them to anyone, I was that impressed. They are on Zorn's Tzadik label.