Klezwoods

Joe Kessler is making a point with his debut album as a bandleader. The Boston fiddler, who has played with everyone from Robert Plant to Morphine, recorded a collection of largely traditional songs with a klezmer flair but a wider perspective. He calls it “music of the Ottoman Empire,” which is one way of remembering that the sounds of the Near East and Eastern Europe are bound together by many centuries of cross-cultural currents and can’t easily be packed into national boxes. Kessler and company plays this music with a loose, almost swinging jazz feel. Bulgarian, Greek, Turkish, Arabic and Jewish melodies are heard, along with “Giant Jew,” whose structure was suggested by John Coltrane’s “Giant Steps.”