Sasha (Alexander)Argov , who died in 1995 at the age of 81, is one of the most famous composers of Israeli pop music, although he never considered himself a purely Jewish composer. Argov always tried to blend into his elegant, well-crafted songs light influences from Arab music and never identified himself or his songs as belonging to klezmer or any other Jewish musical tradition. This tribute, initiated by Israeli Sax player Danny Zamir, forces Argov back to a musical world and tradition which he abandoned in his Russian homeland when he set out to create a new musical world in Israel.

Argov composed music for hundreds of songs (although not lyrics, as stated in the liner notes to this cd), which reflected the first innocent and optimistic years of the state of Israel. His songs were covered by many leading Israeli singers including Arik Einstein, Matti Caspi, Shlomo Artzi and Yehudith Ravitz.

The best arrangements of Argov's songs in this tribute are the ones without the vocalists. The American accent of all the singers is too obvious and only Zahava Seewald's emotionally charged "Viduy" (Confession), a song about lost love with lyrics by the late Israeli poet Alexander Penn, and Elysian Fields' nice Middle-Eastern arrangement (and Jennifer Charles' tempting voice) on "Ksheor Dolek" (When there is Light in the Window), with lyrics by Amos Etinger,, are worth mentioning.

Of the instrumental tracks, Erik Friedlander does an inspiring cover of "Ahuvaty Sheli Livnat Tsavar" (For my Beloved). The Ben Perowsky Trio with Uri Caine are not surprising with their version of "Ahava Achrona" (Final Love) and the most imaginative and beautiful interpretation is done by the duo of Mark Feldman and Sylvie Courvoisier. The covers that were done by an Israeli musicians are quite disappointing. Israeli-born Ori Kaplan has done better, and the cover of "Kacha Stam" (Just like That) by Shahar Haziza lacks any originality.

Thisis the fourth cd in Tzadik's series of Great Jewish Composers (not counting the tribute to Dave Brubeck, In His Own Sweet Way, that was released by John Zorn's Japanese label, Avant, reportedly after it was found out that Brubeck is not Jewish and wouldn't fit the Tzadik series), and it the weakest one. The previous double-disc celebrating Burt Bacharach is the best conceived in the series, with Zorn seeming to have played a stronger, or at least more successful, role in selecting the musicians.