Anat Cohen Quartetinho: Bloom

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 Brazilian dance music (Cohen and Shipp's "Coco Rococo"). The ensemble developed their arrangements together, producing distinctive settings for—in addition to their originals—classical and jazz repertoire ("Trinkle, Tinkle" and "La Catedral").

"The Night Owl," a head-spinning miniature masterpiece, serves as an overture. Cohen has spoken of the importance of melody, collaboration and even kindness in relation to her music, less about the remarkable rhythmic intricacy and drive it contains. In "The Night Owl," she leads the ensemble through an array of changes—melodic, rhythmic, harmonic, textural, dynamic—before settling into the first of several fanciful and danceable grooves. There are a couple of fleeting references to Charles Mingus ("Better Get It in Your Soul" and "Nostalgia in Times Square"), which seems apt; Mingus knew how to motivate an ensemble. Beautiful bass solo from Mashiach on this one.

The Quartetinho's rhythmic verve is on full display in Thelonious Monk's "Trinkle, Tinkle." The head sparkles, the shout chorus they created is molto giocoso, the ending is perfectly suspenseful. And they rock Agustín Barrios' "La Catedral: III. Allegro Solemne" (1921). Barrios (1885-1944) was a Paraguayan virtuoso guitarist and composer trained in the European classical tradition. It is easy to see why Cohen and company would be attracted to his work, which—like choro—mixes romantic melodies and forms with lively folk dances such as the one the band gets into at the end the track.

For fans of Brazilian music, Cohen and Shipp offer "Coco Rococo," an intricate new melody propelled by a syncopated old Afro-Brazilian groove. As with "The Night Owl" and other album selections, the composition is multipartite, with contrasting sections and refreshing transitions. Gonçalves' solo ignites and Cohen's feeds the fire. The ending is a sweet surprise.

Shipp's poignant "Superheroes in the Gig Economy (from Gletscher)" is one of those pieces that begs for a story. There is a familiar resonance, a tenderness. What is this waltz? Who are these superheroes, impoverished street musicians playing for subway passengers (and musing to themselves between trains) toward the end of a long Saturday night? Better put five bucks in the bucket.

Bloom is a splendid album, a fragrant and colorful bouquet of compositions and arrangements—mostly originals—which Cohen and her Quartetinho perform with a daring virtuosity and a soulful joie de vivre.