Anat, Yuval and Avishai Cohen: Three horns, plenty of love.
by Eric Herschthal
There were several things the clarinetist-saxophonist Anat Cohen, a fast-rising star, had to do without at her concert last Wednesday night at the New York Society for Ethical Culture, part of the JVC Jazz Festival. One was good acoustics; in the cavernous, oval-shaped venue, sounds were muddled and lost before they reached the third row. Cohen also didn’t have the original rhythm section that helped her achieve the lush, richly textured sounds on her album “Poetica,” released last year. Nor for that matter were there any strings, which lent the album its cinematic breadth. (Forget about the full 16-piece orchestra behind her in her other album “Noir,” released simultaneously.) Cohen didn’t beg for sympathy. The rhythm section — Jason Linder on piano, Daniel Freedman on
drums and Ben Street on bass — performed judiciously. They provided the necessary textures — often Latin rhythms or the gentle swing behind slow, shimmering ballads — that let Cohen showcase her sweet, varied sound. On clarinet she danced through Fats Waller’s classic “Jitterbug Waltz.” And on alto sax, Cohen, in the lightness of her sound and the deceptive ease with which she colors it, brought to mind the lyrical Paul Desmond. Concertgoers were given another treat on Wednesday night. Cohen’s two brothers — Avishai on trumpet, Yuval on soprano sax — joined her band for a few tunes from their own album together, “Braid.” The most memorable was Yuval’s Spanish-tinged “Navad” (“The Wanderer”). The suite-like tune features a lilting, post-bopish melody stated on the three horns, a bridge that feels almost like a lullaby and a contrapuntal section with the siblings weaving melodic lines in and around one another. The music the three perform is worthy enough mainstream-modern jazz, with a rich harmonic feel and a rhythmic sense that carries with it echoes of the Middle East. But to watch the siblings create it together is a joy. Theirs is a love for each another so apparent, it seems to lift the music, the audience coming along for the ride.
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