MAR 23-27 | SFJAZZ Resident Artistic Director Anat Cohen
Mar 24, 2022
Miner Auditorium
PLEASE NOTE:
This page is an archive of a past production
Please visit our calendar for all upcoming SFJAZZ shows.
Original show description below.
When Anat Cohen and Marcello Gonçalves perform at SFJAZZ, the audience will be pulled inside their musical bubble. You should be able to hear a pin drop as the clarinetist and Rio-based 7-string guitarist delve into the luxurious Brazilian repertoire of samba and the Tropicalia movement. The special connection between these two players has been deepening since 2017, when they released Outra Coisa – The Music of Moacir Santos, their elegant exploration of songs by one of Brazil’s great composers. Nominated for a GRAMMY, the recording illustrates precisely why Cohen adores the duo format: “It’s very intimate,” she says. “You’re always so exposed when you’re playing duo, and there’s a lot of space and a lot of room for emotional expression.” Don’t be surprised if this SFJAZZ performance previews repertoire from the duo’s upcoming album, Reconvexo, which reimagines songs by Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Milton Nascimento, Dorival Caymmi and other Brazilian masters.
Raised in Israel, the GRAMMY-nominated multi-reedist has been a force on the New York jazz scene for nearly two decades. Her talents keep growing, as she absorbs swing, samba, Middle Eastern and classical influences into her organic and inviting concept. Her clarinet evokes “infectious joy,” says the New York Times, calling her “an improviser with gusto.”
Cohen and Gonçalves cast Santos' innovative Brazilian music in a radiant new light.
Chicago Tribune
CONCERT UNDERWRITER
Gail Sinquefield
Anat Cohen: A Jazz Prophet From The Promised Land (SF Classical Voice)
Personnel
Anat Cohen clarinet
Marcello Gonçalves seven-string guitar
An enthralling clarinetist and a persuasive saxophonist, Cohen displays a pan-historical, pan-cultural approach to jazz
The New Yorker
Personnel
Anat Cohen clarinet
Marcello Gonçalves seven-string guitar
An enthralling clarinetist and a persuasive saxophonist, Cohen displays a pan-historical, pan-cultural approach to jazz
The New Yorker
A Q&A WITH ANAT COHEN:
FOUR NIGHTS, GLOBAL CONNECTIONS
Anat Cohen is as comfortable with Brazilian choro as she is with straight-ahead swing. Her performances are flavored with Middle Eastern folk forms, with klezmer, funk, tango, and rock. Tunes by Benny Goodman or Stan Kenton pop up in her repertoire alongside Balkan dirges and breezy bossa novas.
When she moved to New York in 1999, she made a name for herself as a saxophonist. But over the years, Cohen — raised in Tel Aviv — has moved ever closer to her original instrument, the clarinet, which she plays with infectious freedom. During her upcoming residency at SFJAZZ (March 23-27), she will play nothing but clarinet in three different bands: a duo with Marcello Gonçalves, the Rio-based master of the seven-string Brazilian guitar; with her Tentet, a mini-big band that runs the gamut from Goodman to unexpected rock-outs and a clarinet concerto composed by Oded Lev-Ari, the band’s music director; and her new Quartetinho, or Little Quartet, which manages to connects the dots between Brazilian folk forms and contemporary electronic sounds.
An animated conversationalist, Cohen got on the phone recently to talk about her music and life. Since 1996, when she moved to Boston to attend the Berklee College of Music, she has been enamored with Brazilian music, generally, and especially with choro, the complex, fast-moving, jazzlike genre that originated in Rio de Janeiro in the late 19th century. She lives in New York, but spent much of the last two years — during the pandemic — living a quiet life in Rio, so it seemed like a good idea to begin by discussing her love of Brazilian culture.
Watch & Listen
Anat Cohen
Amphibious
Anat Cohen
Outra Coisa
Anat Cohen
Amphibious
Anat Cohen
Outra Coisa
MAR 24-27 | SFJAZZ Resident Artistic Director Anat Cohen
MAR 25–26
Triple Helix
Anat Cohen TentetSUN, MAR 27
Brazilian Expansions
Anat Cohen Quartetinho