Anat Cohen’s Luminosa is one of the most talked-about jazz releases of the year and is my favorite disc of 2015. I only discovered the New York-based, Israeli-born reed player with her 2012 release Claroscuro but she’s been recording since 2005. This album focuses on her love of Brazilian music, particularly choro (pronounced something like “SHO-ru”), a style that originated in the 19th century as a combination of various classical, folk and popular forms. It’s reportedly complex to play right but easy to listen to.
Although in terms of personnel this disc is a bit of a hybrid, it comes off as a unified whole. A couple of the tracks feature her quartet Choro Aventuroso, herself and three Brazilians: Vitor Gonçalves on accordion and piano; Cesar Garabini on seven-string guitar; and Sergio Krakowski on the pandeiro hand drum. These are the lushly romantic six-minute “Ternura” and the classic Brazilian piece “Espinha De Bacalhau.” You can watch a stunning rendition of this tune from the quartet’s appearance on the prestigious Jazz at Lincoln Center program:
The rest of this date features her touring band – Jason Lindner on keys, Joe Martin on bass and Daniel Freedman on drums – and most tracks include one or more Brazilian guests. The piece that has gained the most attention, deservedly so, is Cohen’s creative arrangement of a dance tune called “Putty Boy Strut” by electronica wizard Flying Lotus (Steven Ellison). That’s one of three non-Brazilian pieces on this date. The others are Cohen’s more-or-less straight-ahead “Happy Song,” and the amazingly engaging closer “The Wein Machine” on which she plays tenor and Gilad Hekselman wrings out a fluid electric guitar line.
Cohen’s third original is a sweet Brazilian tune called “Ima” and the final one is the stunning bossa “In The Spirit Of Baden.” The remainder include two slow and lovely Milton Nascimento tunes, the opener “Lilia” and my favorite on the album, the 10-minute atmospheric and tuneful “Cais” featuring Cohen on throaty, sexy bass clarinet. Every track has something, usually many things, going for it, including Cohen’s cross-cultural blending of snippets of klezmer with blues and Brazilian forms. But mostly this disc has Cohen’s deceptively natural style going for it. Warm, fluid, smooth, crystal clear tone and technique that is flawless when called for and raggedly right when necessary. She is a natural master of her instruments who also gives the impression that she is joyously learning something new with each breath.
You can listen to “Putty Boy Strut,” (Flying Lotus) “Ima,” and “Espinha De Bacalhau” on the Anzic website. And Anat Cohen has a website.
Anzic, 2015
