Ayelet Rose Gottlieb
Up to Here/From Here
Arogole Records
www.obliqsound.com
By George W. Harris

Cds like this are very frustrating; just what is “avant-garde vocals” anyway? Well, whatever it is, Ayelet Rose Gottlieb attempts it on this disc with a dozen tunes that traverse the universe in range and direction. She’s joined by likeminded souls Avishai Cohen/tp, Loren Stillman/sax, Ana Fort/p, Ed Schuller/b and Take Toriyama/dr for music that is experimental at best, and jarring at worst. She’s got the chops to pull it off, however, as she shows on “Pomegranate Man” and “Wrong Rain.” The most peculiar part of the whole release is a straight reading (and excellently so) of “The Nearness Of You.” It’s plaintive, poetic and delicate, with Gottlieb sounding vulnerable and yearning. It stands out like a reading of The Gettysburg Address in the middle of a Fellini movie.