These two new discs, by accordion player Ted Reichman and reeds and clarinetist/guitarist player Doug Wieselman, are the first solo endeavors for each, and fittingly released by Tzadik after long careers of collaborating with other Tzadik regulars. Reichman, who studied,�played and recorded with Anthony Braxton (during Braxton's Trance Ghost Music era),�is a key member of John Hollenbeck's Claudia Quintet and Slavic Soul Party, a guest member of Chris Speed's Yeah No, and played with Tzadik regulars�Anthony Coleman, David Krakuer, Elysian Fields�and Roberto Juan Rodriguez. Wieselman, who is a key member of the Kamikaze Ground Crew, has played with�John Zorn and Bill Frisell, Wayne Horvitz and Coleman and a group of artists as diverse as Lou Reed and Robin Holcomb.

Both releases�deal�with Jewish themes. Emigre is a musical portrait of the Jewish photographer Andre Kertesz (1894-1985) and is released under Tzadik's Radical Jewish Culture imprint. Wieselman�composed the soundtrack for The Long Way Home, a 1997 Academy Award winning documentary film about the perilous life of the Holocaust Jewish survivors and refugees. Wieselman is a member of Reichman's Emigre ensemble and Reichman plays on one of the pieces in Wielselman's soundtrack.

Of the two, Reichman's Emigre,�is more ambitious. His portrait of Kertesz is not only a tribute to a great artist, but also comments musically on the fate of Jews in the last century -�immigration, oppression, alienation and the loss of the family and community in the Holocaust - as it was mirrored in Kertesz photographs. In his "secret" liner notes to Emigre (not included with the disc but posted at http://www.tedreichman.com, Reichman says that "though he was not an observant Jew, and though there are no explicit references to Judaism anywhere in his work, Kertesz followed a typically Jewish path as a person and as an artist, the path from family and community to individuality and alienation."

Reichman�doesn't opt for the easy references to klezmer music, but succeeds in portraying key places in the life of Kertesz: his home town, Budapest, at the beginning of the last century; Paris between the two world wars; and New York. The musical references are subtle and modest, hints of gypsy music (some of Kertesz famous photos are of gypsy musicians and children) with the eerie sounds of zither and chanson songs interweaving these influences into a cohesive modern texture using samples and electronic effects. He manages to grant us insight into the intimate, moody and sometimes hypnotic rhythm of his subject's photos, and Kertesz himself thought that portraying this rhythm was the impetus for his photography. "Every subject has a rhythm. To feel this rhythm is the 'raison d'etre'. The photo is a fixed moment of such a 'raison d'etre' which lives on in itself," in Kertesz's words, as quoted in the liner notes. Indeed, Reichman's great achievement is focusing and fixing our attention, our gaze, into the work of�a great modern artist who was also a secular Jew. Beautiful. It is one of the best releases of the Radical Jewish Culture series so far.

Dimly Lit offers�seven�scores to film�and theater productions, primarily The Long Way home by the director Mark Jonathan Harris. Wieselman plays with Klezmer motifs in the eleven pieces he composed for�The Long Way Home, but he empties the pathos from those motives.�His�interpretation of the Jewish musical tradition is a melancholic�one, as of one who is doubtful�about the merits of this tradition or observes it as a burden.

His version of the Israeli national anthem "Hatikva" ("The Hope") is an excellent�example. Wieselman leaves aside the pompous, uplifting, military march-like motives from the�piece (which is based on a theme by Czech nationalist composer Bedrich Smetana), and offers a low-key version - only�bass clarinet and piano, as a wise and relevant musical commentary about the long lost hope�of many Jews in�the foundation of the�state of Israel.

Wieselman is�able to portray moods with a few precise minimal moves, playing all of the instruments, mainly guitars and assorted reeds, on many of the pieces. The wise programming of the 26 pieces, some of them never used, most of them rearranged especially for this release, emphasizes the shades and dark moods of his compositions. Such a voice, with a larger ensemble, would be an even more welcome recording.