Tuesday September 25, 2012
from seattletimes.com
Israeli clarinetist Anat Cohen sparkles on ‘Claroscuro
By: Paul de Barros
The clarinet went so hopelessly out of fashion in jazz after the swing era it was anybody’s guess when it would make a comeback. Don Byron gained the first major yardage, but the soulful, ebullient Israeli musician Anat Cohen has scored a touchdown. Perhaps because of her international background, Cohen takes jazz as part of a great continuum of rhythm- and blues-driven world musics, so she’s equally comfy wailing like a siren on a New Orleans funeral dirge (“And the World Weeps”), slinking modally over a Middle Eastern vamp (“Kick Off”), waxing spiritual on soprano saxophone with an African Kora and hand drums, and toasting Champagne licks with Cuban clarinetist Paquito D’Rivera on a Brazilian choro (“A Um Zero”).
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