Moishe's Bagel, Spiegeltent, Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival

A five piece band on fiddle, piano, accordion, bass and percussion, playing a mish mash of musical styles.  There's flavours of Eastern Europe and the Middle East, influences from Russia and North Africa, high quality jazz solos and even a bit of a Geordie folk tune.  The results of this mixture are heart stoppingly astonishing.

Quite unlike anything I've seen before, this is a band playing with awareness, intricacy, collaboration, imagination, fascination and passion.  Melody and tempo are constantly changing throughout numbers, each piece a new mood, a new story.  The musicianship is as good as you'll see, and it always feels like they are prepared to take risks to procure the end result.  The fiddler is flamboyant, full of fervour and feeling, there was a stunning passage of jazz piano and an amazing bass solo.  But my eyes were constantly drawn back to the percussionist, who added so much to the complexity of the overall sound.

Although their styles differ greatly, the density of the arrangements and readiness to head off in different directions frequently reminded me of the mighty Lau - and from me there is no higher praise.  Moishe's Bagel have a new fan.  Here's a bit of what they deliver.