Jerusalem

Jerusalem Slim released an album titled Jerusalem Slim but broke up in 1992, due to Monroe and Stevens' musical disagreements. When Michael Monroe began working on the follow-up to his Not Fakin’ It solo album, songwriting work with ex-Billy Idol guitarist Steve Stevens metamorphosed into a full band with the recruitment of drummer Greg Ellis and Monroe’s former Hanoi Rocks colleague, bass player Sam Yaffa. However, the guitarist’s bombastic style never really gelled with Monroe’s more straightforward rock ‘n’ roll approach, and the band dissolved when Stevens joined ex-Mötley Crüe vocalist Vince Neil’s band.

By juxtaposing Leonid Desyatnikov’s contemporary song settings of Yiddish texts (offering a glimpse into Jewish life in Warsaw during the Weimar Republic) with a pair of chamber works by Schulhoff and Korngold, which also date from this troubled period between the wars, the present recording highlights the fascinating crosspollination then taking place in the music of Eastern and Western Europe. With soprano Hila Baggio as their featured soloist, members of the Jerusalem Quartet bid us “come to the cabaret” to savour a whole range of stylistic approaches and emotional experiences of the rarest kind.