ECM Records may be best known for various kinds of jazz and classical music, but they’ve also provided a home for some true iconoclasts – the kind of composers and performers that simply cannot be placed in any genre-labeled box. Think Annette Peacock, Steve Tibbets, or Stephan Micus. Now add Judith Berkson to that list. Returning to ECM after a sixteen year absence, the L.A. singer/composer/cantor – alongside drummer Gerald Cleaver and bassist Trevor Dunn – proffers an all-original program that straddles many lines. “Torque,” for example, lets Cleaver meander around the beat while Berkson moves between droning vocals and fractured jazz soloing. “Notice” flips that script, with the drummer taking the lead breaks and Berkson staying in her deliberately limited pocket. “V’shamru” nods to her cantor work, while “Amerika” goes straight for the swinging jazz jugular. Frosted with a chirpy chant of the title, the buoyant “Thee They Thy” lets Berkson’s keyboard skills out to play, sounding like a cheery Cecil Taylor at its most frenetic. “Sated” takes the album out with an unsettling minimalist ballad that’s like chamber music minus the strings. It sounds like a cliché, but it’s the truth: there’s not another album like it floating around right now, let alone on the ECM roster.
