“Clarinetist Anat Cohen’s transcendent appearances with the Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra last February are still resonating. ‘I loved the trip to Seattle, loved meeting all the people there, theSRJO and other musicians. It was great time, and a wonderful hang,’ she said. ‘Everybody there is so nice.’ Her latest CD, ‘Luminosa’ features a number of beautiful Brazilian melodies.”
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“Moving from the disappointing to the sublime, the Cohen clan—tenor saxophonist and clarinetist Anat, soprano saxophonist Yuval and trumpeter Avishai, teamed with pianist Yonathan Avishai, bassist Matt Penman and drummer Ulysses Owens Jr.—shaped the tightest, smartest, most satisfying set of the entire festival. Highlights: a dark, sensuous slither through Ellington’s “The Mooch”; the becalmed majesty of Anat’s clarinet, roiled by a stormy Yuval solo on Fred Hersch’s “Song Without Words”; the siblings’ delightful union on the meandering “A Capella”; a trio of sparkling Yuval gems—his playful, frisky “Blues for Dandi’s Orange Bull Chasing an Orange Sack” (for his young daughter, in attendance in the front row), wildly uplifting “Freedom” and warm, gentle “Family”; and, to close, a bright, spirited “Tiger Rag.” As charming and funny as they were dynamic, the Cohens were also the only festival act to make a point of meeting and greeting audience members after the performance, offering to sign CDs and pose for photos.”
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George Wein & The Newport All-Stars perform during the 2014 Newport Jazz Festival at Fort Adams State Park on August 3, 2014 in Newport, Rhode Island.
"The Boston-born pianist-turned-impresario was then feted by a lineup of musicians who had played with him many times at the festival as the Newport All-Stars -- with trumpeter Randy Brecker, clarinetist-saxophonist Anat Cohen, guitarist Howard Alden, drummer Lewis Nash, and bassist Jay Leonhart. Wein invited pianist Frank Kimbrough to fill in for him because his hearing difficulties make it difficult to play a full set."
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"The young Israeli-born composer's got major chops on saxophone and (unusual since the days of Benny Goodman) the clarinet. According to DownBeat, the globe-trotting bandleader is a "Rising Star," now with seven eclectic studio albums to her name. Her latest, Luminosa, is suffused with tributes to tango, choro, classical music, and - perhaps most dominant - thrilling improvisation in the vein of Brazil's Milton Nascimento."
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“Anat Cohen didn’t know it at the time, but as an aspiring jazz musician growing up in Tel Aviv in the late 1980s, she absorbed a global assortment of sounds. Between immigrants from South America and Israeli musicians who spent time abroad and then returned home to share the styles they studied, she picked up an array of Latin American standards, though the lyrics were often rendered in Hebrew. It wasn’t until after she finished military service and enrolled in Boston’s Berklee College of Music as a tenor saxophonist that she discovered the provenance of her repertoire.”
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"A primera hora, Anat Cohen se ha presentado con la brillantez de su clarinete por delante, y tres músicos más en escena. Piano, contrabajo y batería (Jeff Ballard de nuevo, como ayer con Brad Mehldau) han sido el complemento para un estilo que ha comenzado muy jazz, para, poco a poco, ir reconociendo otros orígenes. Tenía que ser así tratándose de una joven de Nueva York, una de las ciudades más productivas y reconocibles cuando de música se trata, aunque Anat sea originaria de Tel Aviv."
Earlier, Anat Cohen was presented with the brilliance of his clarinet in front, and three musicians on stage . Piano, bass and drums (Jeff Ballard again, as yesterday with Brad Mehldau ) have been the complement to a style that has started very jazz, for, little by little, acknowledging other sources. It had to be so in the case of a young New York , one of the most productive and recognizable cities when it comes to music , but Anat is originally from Tel Aviv.
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Cohen says, "There's nothing better than when everything clicks and you're inside the magic of music. You know you're doing something for your own soul and you can touch some other souls. You're creating something that is positive. And adding positive energy into the world, this is the rewarding part of being a musician."
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The winners were selected through two rounds of voting by members of the Jazz Journalists Association (JJA). They first analyzed the work of well-known jazz artists throughout the 2014 calendar year to select the award nominees before starting a second voting round that determined the winners of each award category.
The aim of JJA’s Jazz Awards is to recognize meaningful contributions to jazz music and journalism, as well as excellence in jazz performance and composition.
Winners of the musical categories, detailed below, will be presented with their awards at one of their upcoming concerts. Media/Journalism award winners will have to wait until June 16 to find out if they won at the JJA Media Awards party on June 16 at the Blue Note Jazz Club in New York City.
To see the full list click here
It begins with meandering clarinet and clipped, four-on-the-floor percussion. A little bit later comes a countermelody, and the image that comes to mind is something from early New Orleans, or perhaps a Mediterranean folk song. It's even called "Putty Boy Strut" — that could be an obscure Jelly Roll Morton tune, right?
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The last time the clarinet was popular in jazz, fans still danced to the music, and they were hailing Benny Goodman for blowing a mean licorice stick with his swing band. But over the past decade or so, the Israeli musician Anat Cohen has been working to make the clarinet relevant and cool again in jazz.
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from jazzdagama.com
When, if ever, have you heard the clarinet played as magically as this; the pure music of the instrument given as naturally as breathing, yet recreated from an entirely novel perspective? When have you seen fingerwork as scintillating and heard the breathing as inspired—short, perfunctory and declarative, and rhetorical gasps alternating with seemingly interminable, heavenly sighs… Anat Cohen gives us tone-poems first and pieces second, her technique as unobtrusive as it is effortlessly fluent, lissom and precise. Her record company, Anzic has struck gold with Luminosa and I can only hope that such a perspective, natural and unforced talent will remain untarnished by commercial pressures. Never for a moment would I want to be without the recordings of Benny Goodman, Buddy DeFranco and Eddie Daniels, but I would give and arm and a leg for Anat Cohen’s. For the sheer memorability and musical recreation, Ms. Cohen stands alone.
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Clarinetist Anat Cohen has always been a world musician, bringing sounds from around the globe into her style of jazz. On Luminosa, she expands on these eclectic musical passions to deliver a beautiful, 11-tune album. Cohen sets the scene with her touring band—Jason Lindner on keyboards, Joe Martin on bass and Daniel Freedman on drums—then sprinkles in Brazilian musicians from her new band Choro Aventuroso and tops it off with guest spots from guitarists Romero Lubambo and Gilad Hekselman as well as percussionist Gilmar Gomes. And the results are stunning.
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The genre choro — a word which means "cry" in Portuguese — is often described as "the New Orleans jazz of Brazil." Like its U.S. counterpart, both are Afro-Western hybrids which emerged in the early 20th century; both call for jam sessions showcasing improvisation and virtuosity. Both jazz and choro are also the domains of clarinetist and saxophonist Anat Cohen. Her newest band, the quartet Choro Aventuroso, culminates an affinity and intense study of Brazilian music — one which began as part of an international community of jazz students at Berklee College of Music in Boston.
Jazz Night In America visits Jazz at Lincoln Center to catch Cohen's group play its modernized take on waltzes, mazurkas and African-Brazilian rhythms such as the lundu — all of which help characterize the essence of choro.
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When she’s onstage, Anat Cohen likes to dance and snap her fingers while bantering with the audience and shouting approvingly at her bandmates. You get the sense she’s trying not to take things too seriously—until, that is, she brings her instrument to her lips and some truly deep stuff comes pouring out.
“I feel like sometimes I get even more goofy onstage than I am offstage,” Ms. Cohen told me recently at her Williamsburg apartment. “I’m not trying to make the music less than what it is. Even if it’s hard for me and I have to think about a lot of details, it’s none of the audience’s business. I don’t want them to feel that I’m having a hard time.”
By: Matthew Kassel
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When guests began to arrive at Longwood Gardens in the early evening this past Saturday, the site was getting ready for closing to the general public, but not for people holding tickets for the Gardens’ Jazz Series, where theAnat Cohen Quartet was set to perform in the grand ballroom to a sold-out audience.
Upon entering one of the best flower conservatories in the world, concertgoers were warmly greeted by Anne, one of the Gardens’ superb volunteers who happened to give a special backstage tour to the four-acre conservatory to one particular pair of guests. The feature on display: “Orchid Extravaganza” (showing now thru March 29).
By: Marianne Gunther
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During the past few years, Cohen has emerged as a singular voice on clarinet, the disarming lyricism of her playing matched by the nimbleness of her technique and the cushioned warmth of her tone (more difficult to achieve on the recalcitrant clarinet than casual listeners might realize). Brazilian music long has been a closely held interest of Cohen’s, and she gives it radiant voice in “Luminosa.” But Cohen defines the music more broadly than some might, stepping far beyond familiar bossa nova repertoire. Instead, Cohen brings her imploring, slightly muted tone to music of Milton Nascimento, rides a pulsing rhythmic accompaniment in an original by Romero Lubambo (who plays guitar here) and duets joyously with accordionist Vitor Goncalves in dance-inspired music by Severino Araujo. Some of the most compelling works here were composed by Cohen, who distinguishes herself with the sublime melody of “Ima,” the wails and whoops of “Happy Song” and the catchy main riff of “In the Spirit of Baden.” She’s joined by her quartet and various guests in music that ultimately addresses the ear gently, as Cohen’s art usually does. (To be released Tuesday.)
By: Howard Reich
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iTunes has selected "Luminosa" as Editor’s Choice on the iTunes jazz page.
You can get the album on iTunes here
"Luminosa" is out today on Anzic Records.
Order your copy here
"Luminosa" reflects the sounds of Brasil from traditional choro music to the songs of Milton Nascimento and Edu Lobo. Along with these influences there are a few of my own songs and our take on Flying Lotus’ “Putty Boy Strut.”
