Sheshbesh is a group from Israel made up of four musicians who have wide experience in jazz and classical music. The basic instrumentation is flute, oud, double bass and percussion, and the music is mostly original although based on traditional tunes. This is almost Third-stream Israeli music--the classical training shows up strongly, especially in Yossi Arnheim's flute playing. And the arrangements seem carefully worked-out, with lots of unison lines. Granted, the oud is not the best instrument for chordal accompaniment. But most of the solos are either unaccompanied or occur during rubato introductions to the pieces. The players are all excellent; there's some nice bowed bass work by Amir Massarik, and the occasional use of marimba gives a nice variation to the tonal color. But for me the passion inherent in much Middle Eastern traditional music (or jazz, for that matter) is here stifled by the too-polite approach. Group interplay and precision are the main qualities in evidence, and while the CD succeeds on its own terms, it's a little too restrained overall. - Joe Grossman