MAR 23-27 | SFJAZZ Resident Artistic Director Anat Cohen
Mar 25 - Mar 26, 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.
The Anat Cohen Tentet's FRI, MAR 25 concert will be broadcast live as part of Fridays Live, available to all SFJAZZ Members.
At the leading edge of a wave of brilliant Israeli improvisers who have energized the New York jazz scene over the past two decades, Anat Cohen is the most acclaimed clarinetist of her generation and a commanding tenor saxophonist. She returns with her superb Tentet, performing music from their 2017 debut Happy Song and their GRAMMY-nominated 2019 follow-up Triple Helix.
Cohen’s talent-laden group is stocked with some of the most exciting young players in New York and is another synergistic collaboration between Cohen and co-producer/co-arranger Oded Lev-Ari, who is her partner in Anzic Records and a protégé of the legendary arranger and multi-instrumentalist Bob Brookmeyer.
Cohen released two Brazilian jazz albums in the last few years, Outra Coisa with guitarist Marcello Gonçalves and Rosa Dos Ventos with the greatTrio Brasileiro (both on Anzic). Not surprisingly, the Tentet’s book is infused with her love of Brazilian music, but with an expansive palette of orchestral colors and high-spirited rhythms that inspired DownBeat to say “the sense of fun is contagious and swing is seriously the thing.”
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.”
The Tentet’s book is infused with her love of Brazilian music, but with an expansive palette of orchestral colors and high-spirited rhythms.
CONCERT UNDERWRITER
Debra DeMartini
Anat Cohen: A Jazz Prophet From The Promised Land (SF Classical Voice)
Personnel
Oded Lev-Ari musical director & conductor
Anat Cohen clarinet
Christopher Hoffman cello
Josh Reed trumpet
Owen Broder baritone saxophone
Nick Finzer trombone
Sheryl Bailey electric guitar
Vitor Gonçalves piano, accordion
Tal Mashiach upright bass
Anthony Pinciotti drums
James Shipp vibraphone, percussion
Cohen makes it seem easy, mixing a gift for melody and an improvisational fluidity that has few peers today
DownBeat
Personnel
Oded Lev-Ari musical director & conductor
Anat Cohen clarinet
Christopher Hoffman cello
Josh Reed trumpet
Owen Broder baritone saxophone
Nick Finzer trombone
Sheryl Bailey electric guitar
Vitor Gonçalves piano, accordion
Tal Mashiach upright bass
Anthony Pinciotti drums
James Shipp vibraphone, percussion
Cohen makes it seem easy, mixing a gift for melody and an improvisational fluidity that has few peers today
DownBeat
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
Footsteps & Smiles
Anat Cohen
Milonga Del Angel
Anat Cohen
Footsteps & Smiles
Anat Cohen
Milonga Del Angel
MAR 24-27 | SFJAZZ Resident Artistic Director Anat Cohen
MAR 24
Music of Brazil
Anat Cohen & Marcello GonçalvesSUN, MAR 27
Brazilian Expansions
Anat Cohen Quartetinho