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Israeli musician to plumb depths of jazz at Nighttown
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BY: ALAN SMASON Special to CJN
As comely and charming as she is talented, Israeli-born clarinetist and saxophonist Anat Cohen is a study in contrasts.
Her play is brazen yet graceful. She is hot but also very cool.
A Cleveland audience will get to see and hear much of Cohen’s jazz stylings for the first time when this heralded performer and her ensemble appear at Nighttown on Sat., June 21, at 8 p.m.
A resident of New York, Cohen is accomplished in a wide variety of musical styles including contemporary jazz, Dixieland, bebop, Brazilian choro, classical and klezmer.
Cohen owes much of her initial musical influence to the music of her native land and her father, who spent a decade living in the United States. He instilled in Cohen, her older brother Yuval, and younger brother Avishai a love of American jazz and pop standards.
At 12 she picked up the clarinet for the first time, and it wasn’t long before she was playing Dixieland jazz at the nearby Jaffa Conservatory. “I loved the low notes of the clarinet ever since I heard it,” she admits.
With Yuval (saxophone) and Avishai (trumpet) already playing in the conservatory’s big band, Cohen switched from clarinet to tenor saxophone when she was 16 in order to play with her siblings. “I was very blessed to have a very supporting family,” she notes. “We really grew to be very close, my two brothers and I. The music bonded us.”
By the time she graduated from Thelma Yellin School for the Arts, Israel’s national arts high school, her reputation as a tenor saxophonist was firmly established.
As part of her duties in national military service, she played tenor with the Israel Air Force Band. “I did do boot camp,” she reveals. “I did have an Uzi for a while, which I would much rather clean than a clarinet.”
Her career as a professional jazz musician at a crossroads, Cohen immigrated to the United States to continue her studies at the Berklee College of Music in Boston.
On weekends Cohen would sit in on gigs in New York. She moved to New York following graduation in 1999.
Over the past decade, Cohen has played clarinet and saxophone with The Choro Ensemble, a quintet called New York Samba Jazz, and in an all-woman big-band jazz band called Sherrie Marcie’s Diva Jazz Orchestra. She also tours from time to time with her two brothers, an ensemble called The Three Cohens.
Her debut CD “Place and Time” received critical acclaim as one of the best jazz debut albums in 2005. Last year, Cohen followed up with two releases on her own Anzic label, “Poetica” and “Noir.”
Cohen says she is empowered by live audiences, and she enjoys building connections between herself and them. “I want the audience to go through a journey when they hear me play,” she continues. “I want to demonstrate my personal journey and my true feelings and emotions.”
When she appears at Nighttown, she will be fresh from a trip touring Israel with her brothers. Accompanying her will be pianist Jason Lindner, percussionist Daniel Freedman, and bass player Dan Street.
“I want people to get an emotional experience out of my show,” she concludes. “I want them to feel something. That’s important to me.”
Her play is brazen yet graceful. She is hot but also very cool.
A Cleveland audience will get to see and hear much of Cohen’s jazz stylings for the first time when this heralded performer and her ensemble appear at Nighttown on Sat., June 21, at 8 p.m.
A resident of New York, Cohen is accomplished in a wide variety of musical styles including contemporary jazz, Dixieland, bebop, Brazilian choro, classical and klezmer.
Cohen owes much of her initial musical influence to the music of her native land and her father, who spent a decade living in the United States. He instilled in Cohen, her older brother Yuval, and younger brother Avishai a love of American jazz and pop standards.
At 12 she picked up the clarinet for the first time, and it wasn’t long before she was playing Dixieland jazz at the nearby Jaffa Conservatory. “I loved the low notes of the clarinet ever since I heard it,” she admits.
With Yuval (saxophone) and Avishai (trumpet) already playing in the conservatory’s big band, Cohen switched from clarinet to tenor saxophone when she was 16 in order to play with her siblings. “I was very blessed to have a very supporting family,” she notes. “We really grew to be very close, my two brothers and I. The music bonded us.”
By the time she graduated from Thelma Yellin School for the Arts, Israel’s national arts high school, her reputation as a tenor saxophonist was firmly established.
As part of her duties in national military service, she played tenor with the Israel Air Force Band. “I did do boot camp,” she reveals. “I did have an Uzi for a while, which I would much rather clean than a clarinet.”
Her career as a professional jazz musician at a crossroads, Cohen immigrated to the United States to continue her studies at the Berklee College of Music in Boston.
On weekends Cohen would sit in on gigs in New York. She moved to New York following graduation in 1999.
Over the past decade, Cohen has played clarinet and saxophone with The Choro Ensemble, a quintet called New York Samba Jazz, and in an all-woman big-band jazz band called Sherrie Marcie’s Diva Jazz Orchestra. She also tours from time to time with her two brothers, an ensemble called The Three Cohens.
Her debut CD “Place and Time” received critical acclaim as one of the best jazz debut albums in 2005. Last year, Cohen followed up with two releases on her own Anzic label, “Poetica” and “Noir.”
Cohen says she is empowered by live audiences, and she enjoys building connections between herself and them. “I want the audience to go through a journey when they hear me play,” she continues. “I want to demonstrate my personal journey and my true feelings and emotions.”
When she appears at Nighttown, she will be fresh from a trip touring Israel with her brothers. Accompanying her will be pianist Jason Lindner, percussionist Daniel Freedman, and bass player Dan Street.
“I want people to get an emotional experience out of my show,” she concludes. “I want them to feel something. That’s important to me.”
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