The River 100.5 Features Anat Cohen - Live at St. Cecelia

"Featured on more than 21 albums, Cohen released her seventh record as a bandleader earlier this year on her label Anzic Records entitled Luminosa. Luminosa features Cohen playing singing/dancing originals, Brazilian classics by the likes of Milton Nascimento, and even re-imagining electronica as acoustica with an ingenious arrangement of a Flying Lotus tune. Luminosa showcases Cohen’s world beat influences spanning from Afro-Cuban, Argentinean, Klezmer, contemporary Brazilian music and classic Brazilian choro.
Voted Clarinetist of the Year for 8 years in a row by the Jazz Journalists Association, Cohen has also topped both the Critics and Readers Polls in the clarinet category in DownBeat magazine every year since 2011. Cohen has headlined at the legendary jazz venue the Village Vanguard and performed at every major Jazz Festival in the U.S. including Newport, Umbria, San Francisco and North Sea Jazz Festivals. In 2014 she served as the Music Director for the “Newport Jazz Festival Now 60! All-Star Band Tour.”"

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SFJAZZ Presents "Sacred Space: Celebrating the Clarinet"

“On November 12, SFJAZZ presented a performance as a part of its long-standing series at Grace Cathedral, on top of Nob Hill in San Francisco. This series of performances, in co-operation with the cathedral staff, offers musicians a unique opportunity to present music of an especially creative kind. The music is linked to the Cathedral, which is a gigantic building with terrifically high ceilings. It is a giant stone chamber with deep and unpredictable resonance. Not even the latest recording technology could possibly recreate sounds like this, changing as the musicians change their own positions. Yet many recordings have been done inside the structure, listed on the cathedral web site. The most famous jazz concert in the cathedral was by Duke Ellington, who performed his “Sacred Concert” on September 16, 1965. There is a recording of this event, still available. More recently, in September 2015, SFJAZZcelebrated the 50th anniversary of the original Ellington concert with a new version scored and directed by alto saxophonist Miguel Zenon (see review here). SFJAZZ had previously celebrated the 25th anniversary of the Ellington show as well.”

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Chicago Tribune Features Anat Cohen

““This year we decided to celebrate women in jazz with three red hot concerts — Anat Cohen, Tammy McCann and Dee Dee Bridgewater,” said President and CEO Mark George. “As long as jazz has existed, there was tremendous amounts of discrimination against female jazz players. But in the present day, great female jazz musicians have been born. We want to acknowledge that struggle but also celebrate the present because there are so many amazing musicians now who happen to be women.”

First up at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 19 is Anat Cohen with her Quartet. The Israeli clarinetist and tenor sax player was voted Clarinetist of the Year by the Jazz Journalist Association for eight consecutive years. “She’s very charismatic,” George said. “She has an open mind to all kinds of musical influences.”“

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Mercury News Features Anat Cohen - Live at Grace Cathedral

"It’s always a privilege to get to hear world-class music played at Grace Cathedral, the incredibly beautiful church perched high atop Nob Hill in San Francisco. Experience it for yourself when SFJazz presents Sacred Space: Celebrating the Clarinet at the cathedral on Nov. 13. The concert features four of the best reed players on the planet — clarinet specialists Anat Cohen and Don Byron, bass clarinet great Todd Marcus and World Saxophone Quartet founder David Murray. With a cast like that — and a venue like Grace Cathedral — this should be a night to remember."

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Columbia Spectator Interviews Anat Cohen

“Few musicians capture the global essence of jazz like Anat Cohen.

After moving from Tel Aviv, Israel to Boston, Mass. to study at Berklee College of Music, clarinetist Anat Cohen developed an ear and a fluency in Afro-Latin music, which she will showcase this Saturday, Nov. 7 at Miller Theatre in a concert titled “Celebrando Brasil.” Cohen will be performing with her quartet, which features pianist Jason Lindner, bassist Tal Mashiach, and drummer Daniel Freedman, and she will also be joined onstage by various special guests.

Spectator had a chance to speak with Cohen ahead of “Celebrando Brasil” on topics ranging from her recent album “Luminosa,” which features Brazilian jazz guitarist Romero Lubambo and a Flying Lotus cover, to her transition into becoming a musician in the U.S.”

To read the full interview click here

KPLU Features Anat Cohen

“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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JazzTimes Reviews 3 Cohens at South Africa's Standard Bank Joy of Jazz Festival

“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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Anat Cohen Joins George Wein's 90th Birthday Celebration

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.

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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Portland Monthly Features Anat Cohen Quartet

"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 Crosses Musical Borders With Her Clarinet"

“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.”

To read the full article click here.

Anat Cohen Featured in El Mundo for Her Performance at the Vitoria Jazz Festival

"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.

To read the full article click here.

"Anat Cohen's music is out of this world. And that's exactly where she wants to be."

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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JJA Names Anat Cohen Multi-Reeds Player and Clarinest of the Year!

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




 

Putty Boy Strut Featured on NPR's "Songs We Love"

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?

To read the rest of the article and listen to "Putty Boy Strut" click here

Jazz Da Gama Reviews Luminosa

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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Jazz Times Reviews Luminosa

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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April 2: Anat Featured on Jazz Night In America: The Radio Program

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.

To stream the show click here