Timna Brauer & Elias Meiri in Orient Live, 1987, by request

Despite the (to me) very unpromising title of this 2-LP album due to the fact I don't have a taste for ethnic pounding with simplistic chanting nor live and poorly-recorded songs (at least it wasn't solo piano), this turned out to have some exceptional compositions on it and surprisingly not just a little.

There is a shockingly large bio, perhaps too large, on discogs:

Timna Brauer born in Vienna, she grew up in Israel, France and Austria with an Israeli mother from Yemen and an Austrian father, the painter ARIK BRAUER. 

Education: Conservatory of Vienna (piano and singing) / Sorbonne-Paris, graduated with a masters degree in musicology, „vocals in jazz“ / Summer Academy Salzburg, Elisabeth Grümmer / master courses in Indian singing, München, Prof. Javheri / CIM-Paris (jazz-singing and composition) /masterclass Simon Baddi-Vienna (opera). 

In 1985 she and her husband, the pianist Elias Meiri, established an ensemble, with which they have been touring all over the world and recording CDs, with the emphasis being on jazz, ethno and chansons. 
In 1986, she represented Austria at the Eurovision Song Contest. 
Since 1993 the Ensemble has also performed various concerts for children. 
In 1995 Timna Brauer taught master classes for jazz improvisation at the Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. 
From 1998 - 2000 she has performed with the Ensemble Modern, Frankfurt, the „Threepennyopera“, directed by H. K. Gruber (recordings for BMG, concerts: Musiktriennale Köln, Schleswig-Holstein Festival in Germany etc.) 
2001 she played the role of EVITA at the musical summerstage of Klagenfurt, Austria. 
2002-2004 Big Tour through Europe with “Voices for Peace” (Palestinian and Israeli). 
2004 World premiere of “Percussion” on behalf of the “Wiener-Musikverein”, production of the musical fairy tale “ The enthusiastic drums” for the “Kinderklangwolke” in Linz (Austria) on behalf of the “Brucknerhaus”. 
From 2005 intensive work with the edition Ueberreuter: “Children Songs from Europe”, “Little Mozart”. 

Eliasd Meiri began to take piano lessons at the age of five. Mostly due to his absolute pitch, he mastered the art of improvisation at an early age. He attended the Talma-Yalin Conservatory in Tel-Aviv, and completed his studies at the Berkeley College of Music in Boston. In New York he played with jazz stars like Dizzie Gillespie, In addition to numerous performances with Timna Brauer, he plays with his jazz trio, teaches piano and jazz-improvisation, dedicates himself to composition, the production of CDs and sound-technique. 

In 1985, he won the first prize at the international jazz competition in Hoilaart, Belgium and the second prize at the international jazz competitions in Leverkusen, Germany. 
In 1987, he won the first prize at the international jazz competition for pianists in Kalicz, Poland. 
1998 Production of the CD “Piano Forte”. 
2005 European tour with his jazz trio.


Of course, there is a great deal of filler in here, I mean consider the fact that the last track is twenty minutes long.  I'm also not too crazy about her 80s lounge singer cliched style of breathy silly-jazz-scatting.  And thank god that exaggerated, overstylistic & mannered jazz singing is dead now along with the 80s (think Diane Schuur for example). But they really threw a whole lot of ideas into this kitchen sink.  On the track called Bad Trees the (modern) classical composition education shines through quite clearly with a piece that, minus the utterly unnecessary vocals, could've appeared on a French zeuhl album like "Les Cycles de Thanatos:"





Interesting that she also felt the need to show off her perfect French on that track (reciting a poem by Jacques Prevert, I take it).  Yes it's hard to tolerate the alternated tikitiki-scatting, screeching, squealing and sometimes super-soprano squeaking, as on her rendition of the spiritual folk song Motherless Child in which the orphan seems to have been adopted by a click-speaking African tribeswoman with multiple personalities including one that regressed to infancy and another that channels Muddy Waters, but in a scaldingly hot shower.  A bit less showing off would have been so much more appreciated, as on a track called Nova wherein she admirably restrains herself:





As for the final track, it's truly a mess but with occasional flashes of light, marred by a total lack of cohesion from beginning to end in its attempt to cover the whole of human musical history from the classical days to Art Tatum to the scatty 80s in different passages.

So there you have it, a mixed bag for sure, like those 'third world-made' stalls in every marketplace of every tourist destination everywhere in the world from Europe through Asia to the Americas where you can buy exactly the same 'local artisan-made' carved wooden animals, cloth bags, or bongs or whatever to give to your friends back home who are sure to throw it out the minute your back is turned.