The Prague Post
July 6th, 2008
Reader's SurveyNEW     Endowment Fund     Book of Lists ONLINE      Reservations      Classifieds    Subscriptions
Hotel Prague Centre

Home » Archives » Night & Day

Reinventing jazz

Israeli bass player Avishai Cohen gets back to his roots
Stage Review | Search restaurants | Archives

By Tony Ozuna
For The Prague Post
April 9th, 2008 issue

COURTESY PHOTO
Cohen is touring as part of a nine-piece group that includes a vocalist.
enlarge
Avishai Cohen Ensemble


When: Sunday, April 13, at 7:30
Where: Palác Akropolis
Tickets: 500 Kč, available through Ticketpro, Ticketstream and at the venue
The New York City–based jazz bassist, band leader and composer Avishai Cohen has a new vocal project. Along with his usual sidemen, he is bringing a six-member Israeli jazz ensemble to Prague this weekend for his performance at Akropolis.
Cohen, born in 1970 in Israel, moved to New York in 1992 after musical studies in Israel and St. Louis, Missouri. In New York, he continued his studies at the New School and the Mannes College of Music, playing with a now-famous fellow student, pianist Brad Mehldau.
Cohen also hooked up early with the city’s finest Latin jazz players, like bassist Andy Gonzalez of the Fort Apache Band. He was then asked to join pianist Danilo Perez’s trio.
This NYC Latin-jazz sound still appears sporadically in Cohen’s music. Rather than receding, it’s an influence that has evolved, along with other early influences such as Middle Eastern and Jewish folk music. Towering over them all, however, is the iconic jazz bassist Jaco Pastorius. As Cohen says on the liner notes of 2007’s As Is—Live at the Blue Note, “Jaco was and still is my most profound influence on electric bass.”
Cohen got his biggest break after playing with Perez, when in 1996 he was invited to join Chick Corea’s sextet Origin. He played with Corea’s New Trio until 2003, then set up the label Raz Daz Records to realize his own ideas, which incorporated a wide range of genres — jazz, rock, pop, classical, funk and Latin. Nowadays, Cohen is mostly on the road, touring with his various musical projects.
As Is—Live at the Blue Note was made over two evenings (Aug. 31–Sept. 1, 2006), marking 15 years since he first moved to New York. The release includes a DVD of the group’s live show and an interview with Cohen backstage, in which he says, “For me, to come back to New York after 15 years and play at the Blue Note, and have so many people come and support what I do — it’s pretty much the right level of reward.”
Cohen plays with a quintet on As Is. But his core over the years has been a trio that includes Mark Guiliani on drums and Samuel Marsh on piano. Recently, Marsh was replaced by Shai Maestro, also from Israel and a newcomer to New York.
The new trio has just released a recording titled Gently Disturbed, on which Maestro — who recently turned 20 — stands out as a virtuoso, at times combining classical and modern jazz chords with the finesse of new stars like Mehldau, or like a relaxed Phillip Glass playing jazz. It is a noticeable departure from Cohen’s previous recordings, despite Guiliani’s consistent dose of high-energy on drums. And overall, it’s beautiful stuff.
For their concert in Prague, Cohen, Guiliani and Maestro will be joined by six additional musicians: two percussionists (Itamar Doari and Rea Bar-Ness), a trombonist (Oded Meir), a guitarist (Eyal Heler), a flutist (Elan Salem) and vocalist (Keren Malka).
This ensemble is called the “Vocal Project,” and its sound (from an unreleased promo) is like ritualistic Middle Eastern jazz chants combined with ethno-pop rhythms and harmonies, making it a pioneering ethno-jazz effort. More than on past recordings by Cohen, it recalls traditional Jewish music and prayer songs, along with the Arabic and Mediterranean sounds he grew up with, combined with East European and Western influences ranging from classical music to jazz to folk. The singing anchors the music with liturgical-sounding vocals, in Hebrew.
It’s no exaggeration to say that with projects like this, jazz is simply being reborn.

Tony Ozuna can be reached at features@praguepost.com


survey banner


Other articles in Night & Day (9/04/2008):

Browse the Current Issue

If you enjoyed this article, why don't you subscribe to the print version!
We accept secure online transactions provided by PayPal and Moneybookers

Be the first to add a comment!


Full Name: *
City: *
E-mail: **
This comment can be published in the print version of The Prague Post
Enter the text on the right:
 visual captcha
Comment: *
* Required field. In order to be approved for display, comments must have a first and last name and a city.
** E-mails are required and will only be used for internal purposes.

Most visited in Book of Lists

Provokator
Hotel booking
The Prague Post Online contains a selection of articles that have been printed in
The Prague Post, a weekly newspaper published in the Czech Republic.
To subscribe to the print paper, click here.
Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited.