Clarinetist Anat Cohen continues her success rhythmically with "Bloom"!

"Bloom"

Musicians: Anat Cohen (clarinet, bandleader); Vitor Goncalves (piano, accordion); Tal Mashiach (double bass, guitar); James Shipp (vibraphone, marimba, percussion)

Tracks List: The Night Owl; Paco; Trinkle Tinkle; Tango para Guillermo; Coco Rococo; La Catedral III Allegro Solemne; Superheroes in the Gig Economy (from Gletscher); Friends in Every Manner on Conveyance

"Bloom," the highly anticipated second release from Anat Cohen's endlessly colorful Quartetinho. This international ensemble, based in New York City, comprises virtuoso multi-instrumentalists who give Cohen the freedom to explore, experiment, and express a full spectrum of emotions. The result is a mesmerizing blend of melodies and a stunning array of musical styles and colors. This album is a testament to Cohen's boundless creativity and profound love for music in all its diversity.

Quartetinho, being clarinetist Anat Cohen, pianist and accordionist Vitor Gonçalves, bassist and guitarist Tal Mashiach, and percussionist (including vibraphone and marimba) James Shipp, focus on mainly original works. Waving Brazil goodbye (but not South America), this time the group dwells in Manhattan abstractions, which include Theolonious Monks' Trinkle, Tinkle. Cohen's bright, staccato The Night Owl swirls around the sky, her chorolike virtuosity in melody is harmonically mellowed by marimba and bass. Next is Mashiach's Paco, which is in honor of fellow guitarist Paco de Lucía, with flamenco clapping. The sweet ballad is in moderate tempo, sometimes a lament, sometimes a dance. After the Monk — performed with joy and humor — comes the peculiar Tango para Guillermo (perhaps for Argentine choreographer Guillermo Merlo? or De Fazio?). A thoughtfully slow Piazzollian amble with lyrical accordion, vibraphone, and piano chords, Anat adds the tears. While far from a Braziian composition, Brazilian influences persist in the clarinet work in word play Coco Rococco. Rococco is a dense, highy ornamental decorative style full of curves that originated circa 1730 in France. In this case, the music is angular, sometime discordant and dissonant and divided into sections, with here the blues, there a touch of choro, later Monkish rhythmic acrobatics. Latin America, Paraguay to be specific, is further represented in the final movement of guitarist Agustín Barrios Mangoré's La Catedral (1921). The guitar opens the track in a quasi classical form and the other members of the quartet weave baroque counterpoint; hand clapping occurs near the conclusion. Shipp is responsible for the final two works with oddball satirical titles. 'Superheroes' has a New Orleans feel with Latin Tinge. 'Friends' has a low volume sample of a crowd in the background to emphasize the humor. This album is a showcase for diversity in musical style and brilliant musicianship. The matched and atypical combination of instrumental timbre add to the charm. The inventiveness and playfulness of Anat Cohen is found in all her combos and compositions, and here it shines.

Latin Jazz and golf enthusiasts are celebrating this wonderful composition by Miss Anat Cohen, "Birdie." It reminds us of our sport as one of the most cherished and coveted plays. Birdie: "a score obtained when a player takes one swing less than par for the hole."

Enjoy it!

Anat Cohen:

Clarinetist-saxophonist Anat Cohen has won hearts and minds around the globe with her expressive virtuosity and magnetic stage presence, earning esteem both as a musician’s musician and as a performer who charms new recruits to the jazz art like few others. With her acclaimed albums, sold-out world tours and Grammy Award nominations adding up over the past two and a half decades — not to mention the glowing profiles by such totemic outlets as NPR’s Fresh Air and The New York Times — it has become apparent that the Brooklyn-based Anat has evolved into one of the music’s great border-bounding leaders, as not only an artist but as an educator, an ambassador. At the core of this, there is always her jubilant, ever-exploratory music-making, as a soloist, bandleader, collaborator and composer. Revered journalist and jazz sage Nat Hentoff encapsulated her artistry this way: “Anat does what all authentic musicians do: She tells stories from her own experiences that are so deeply felt that they are very likely to connect listeners to their own dreams, desires and longings.”

Miss Anat Cohen has so far released eleven (11) albums as a leader and another eleven (11) as co-leader, in addition to being continually invited to festivals and concerts around the planet.

Viva The Latin Jazz!!

www.jazzcaribe.blogspot.com

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Note: The bestselling music culture book "The Bible of Latin Jazz" by renowned writer, journalist, and educator Luis Raul Montell is now available on Amazon.