Too Hot to Sleep

The debut album by accordionist and pianist Sam Reider, supported by his band, the Human Hands, manifests all his joyfully complex, polyglot musical strategy that is too often inadequately dubbed Americana. For Too Hot to Sleep, the 29-year-old Reider has assembled a group of firebrands plucked from the realms of progressive bluegrass, jazz and roots music: violinist Alex Hargreaves, saxophonist Eddie Barbash, guitarist Grant Gordy, mandolinist Dominick Leslie, guitarist Roy Williams and bassist Dave Speranza. The result sounds like a mash-up of the Klezmatics, Quintette du Hot Club de France and the Punch Brothers. ‘Wanderings’, a piano-led excursion, is a seductive mélange of melancholic moods that could score scenes in a film noir soundtrack. ‘Skeleton Rag’ pulls off a Gypsy jazz vibe within a tango-tinged swing number. Reider's accordion drives ‘The Murder’ from plaintive prairie bohemia to hot Parisian café without losing a stray measure. The whole thing is a lovely, lively romp through the mind of an exceptionally gifted bandleader and composer.