Anat Cohen Quartetinho
Quartetinho
Brazilian Expansions

Anat Cohen Quartetinho

MAR 24-27 | SFJAZZ Resident Artistic Director Anat Cohen

Mar 27, 2022
Miner Auditorium

PLEASE NOTE:
This page is an archive of a past production


Please visit our calendar for all upcoming SFJAZZ shows.

Calendar

Original show description below.

Anat Cohen concludes her week with the Bay Area premiere of her latest project, Quartetinho. Culled from the ranks of her Tentet, this new quartet expands the deeply rooted Brazilian influences of Cohen’s music to embrace exciting new sonorities, featuring pianist Vitor Gonçalves doubling on accordion and bassist Tal Mashiach expanding the ensemble sound with his expert skills on the Brazilian 7-string guitar. Percussionist James Shipp blends Brazilian percussion and the melodic possibilities of the vibraphone with a nod to modern approaches, adding electronic elements to Cohen’s masterful compositions.

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.”

ABOUT ANAT COHEN

Grammy-nominated clarinetist presents her latest quartet project, blending together music influences from Brazil and electronics.

Anat Cohen: A Jazz Prophet From The Promised Land (SF Classical Voice)

Personnel

Anat Cohen clarinet, bass clarinet
Vitor Gonçalves accordion, piano
Tal Mashiach bass, nylon string guitar
James Shipp percussion, electronics

 

Chemistry. Alchemy. Telepathy. All are appropriate words to describe the otherworldly quality of improvisation by a band with longstanding individual credentials.

DownBeat

Personnel

Anat Cohen clarinet, bass clarinet
Vitor Gonçalves accordion, piano
Tal Mashiach bass, nylon string guitar
James Shipp percussion, electronics

 

Chemistry. Alchemy. Telepathy. All are appropriate words to describe the otherworldly quality of improvisation by a band with longstanding individual credentials.

DownBeat
Anat Cohen

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.

CONTINUE READING A Q+A WITH ANAT COHEN

WATCH

We use cookies on our site to improve your experience. To find out more, view Your Privacy Choices and Terms of Use for more details.