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The 3 Cohens: Interaction
by Mike Jurkovic
As a thriving collective, the 3 Cohens have recorded four outstanding studio albums over the first quarter of the 21st century: the self-produced One (2003), 2007's Braid, 2011's Family and 2013's Tightrope, (last three released by Anzic Records, the label founded by clarinetist Anat Cohen with kindred-spirit producer-collaborator Oded Lev-Ari). Dipping, darting, diving, the 3 Cohens have crisscrossed the global stage, bringing their joyful high-flying interplay to Brazil, New York, Europe and Australia. Searing, swerving and soaring, trumpeter Avishai Cohen's revved-up swing testament, ...
Continue ReadingAnat Cohen Quartetinho: Bloom
by Katchie Cartwright
Anat Cohen's Quartetinho emerged from her Tentet with a self-titled album in 2022 (Anat Cohen Quartetinho, Anzic). It is a mighty little group, enhanced by doubling: Vitor Gonçalves plays accordion and piano, Tal Mashiach is on bass and guitar, James Shipp handles vibes, marimba and percussion, Cohen on clarinets. For Bloom, the band's second album, each musician contributed new compositions, generating a harmonious program that mingles flamenco (Mashiach's “Paco") with tango (Gonçalves' “Tango Para Guillermo") and ...
Continue ReadingHilary Gardner: On the Trail With the Lonesome Pines
by Dan Bilawsky
How does an Alaskan-reared, New York-based singer of Great America Songbook virtue come to explore trail songs from the '30s and '40s? The answer is quite simple: A pandemic-produced mixture of curiosity and yearning for open pastures. While cooped up in her Brooklyn apartment during early quarantine days, Hilary Gardner began to research the rich if oft-neglected history of this sub-genre, both as it lives and breathes in its own space and connects directly to first-rate jazz and tin pan ...
Continue ReadingHilary Gardner: On the Trail With the Lonesome Pines
by John Chacona
It might be hard for the young'uns to believe, but there was a time when movie houses and television screens were filled with westerns. Tales of cowpokes and their trusty horses, outlaws, dogies and tumblin' tumbleweeds were so popular that various sub-genres of westerns flourished as brand extensions. One of these featured the singing cowboy trope, and elevated such figures as Roy Rogers, Tex Ritter and most notably, Gene Autry, to stardom. The songs they sang were western-ish, ...
Continue ReadingNicky Schrire: Nowhere Girl
by Dan Bilawsky
The search for identity is a sine qua non of any artist's experience and development. But for a musician like Nicky Schrire, it goes much deeper than most. Born in London, raised in South Africa, studying and entering the professional ranks in New York and working back through her initial points of origin before relocating to Toronto in 2020, this noted vocalist-composer has established herself as a globetrotter of the first order. Stylistically, as with geography, Schrire hits multiple points ...
Continue ReadingSara Caswell: The Way To You
by Jack Bowers
Although The Way to You is heralded as Grammy-nominated violinist Sara Caswell's first album as a leader in more than seventeen years, it was actually recorded in 2019, roughly four years before its release date. Still, it is Caswell's first new album in quite a long time, and those who relish her tasteful and melodic violin should be grateful for that. Caswell leads her longtime working quartet here, with vibraphonist Chris Dingman sitting in on four of ...
Continue ReadingAnat Cohen: Quartetinho
by Mike Jurkovic
As it has manifested on world stages and such noteworthy releases as Luminosa and Claroscuro (Anzic Records, 2015, 2012), Grammy-nominated clarinetist, composer & bandleader Anat Cohen's deep fascination and delight with world music, especially Brazil's hot melding of South African rhythms, cajun swing, and European dance, makes Quartetinhoan irrepressible listen. Infused and bursting with a multitude of melody left, right, and center, the charismatic Cohen takes a few steps back from her masterful tentet outing Triple Helix(Anzic, 2019) ...
Continue ReadingJoel Frahm: The Bright Side
by Hrayr Attarian
Saxophonist Joel Frahm is an accomplished virtuoso with an easily recognizable style. He deftly balances an accessible, mellifluous sound with an explorative spirit. His tenth release as a leader, the captivating The Bright Side, is a collection of ten brilliant originals interpreted in a spare trio setting. The laid back atmosphere and the band's seamless camaraderie make for an engaging listening experience and the warmth, whimsy and intelligent motifs create the album's cohesiveness. “Thinking of Benny" opens with ...
Continue ReadingJoel Frahm: The Bright Side
by Dan McClenaghan
Chordless trio recordings featuring saxophone, bass and drums, no piano or guitar in the building, always draw comparisons to 1957 when a pair of the groundbreakers of the genre were recorded by saxophonist Sonny Rollins with A Night At The Village Vanguard (Blue Note Records, 1958) and Way Out West (Contemporary, 1957). Saxophonist Joel Frahm obviously looked back to that time, having transcribed and memorized Rollins' solo on “Softly As In A Morning Sunrise" (from the Village Vanguard album) as ...
Continue ReadingErnesto Cervini: Tetrahedron
by C. Michael Bailey
Matthew Zapruder, in his book Why Poetry (HarperCollins, 2017), draws an informative parallel between reading poetry and listening to classical music: ...the act of treating poetry like a difficult activity one needs to master can easily perpetrate ... mistaken, and pervasive, ideas about poetry that make it hard to read in the first place. Like classical music, poetry has an unfortunate reputation for requiring special training and education to appreciate.... This same reasoning applies to jazz, ...
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