My review of drummer Asaf Sirkis' Shepherd's Stories, today at All About Jazz.

It's getting to the point where it's almost impossible to pigeonhole an artist into any one category---and that can't be anything but a good thing. Sure, some people like to think of the artists they love as jazz, rock or classical musicians, but the truth is that, more and more, musicians simply want to be thought of as people who play music. Still, there's an intrinsic need to categorize music, if for no other reason than to help provide some context in order to help others decide whether or not it's something they might like. There's little doubt, based on his pedigree and C.V., that drummer Asaf Sirkis is, if a category is necessary, a jazz musician. Whether playing with lightning-fast intuitive reflexes with the nearly decade-old trio most recently called simply Simcock Garland Sirkis and heard on 2012's stellar Lighthouse (ACT), recording seven albums with fellow Israeli expat Gilad Atzmon's Orient House Ensemble or working with rising star Nicolas Meier, Atzmon's continually building reputation as drummer/percussionist of choice remains unabated.

But as wonderful as his work with others has been, Sirkis has also established himself as a thinking man's leader with two groups: first, his Inner Noise Trio that, with keyboardist Steve Lodder and vastly underappreciated guitarist Mike Outram, released three records, culminating in the particularly wonderful, church organ-driven The Song Within (SAM, 2007), an album that suggested how Olivier Messiaen might have sounded, were he to write for an improvising jazz trio. Since that time, however, in-between his busy schedule collaborating with others, Sirkis has focused on a more conventionally constructed guitar/bass/drums trio that, featuring Greek six-stringer Tassos Spiliotopoulos and fellow Israeli, electric bassist Yaron Stavi, is anything but conventional.

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