Recently my wife and I attended a concert by an up and coming jazz group, featuring Anat Cohen (clarinet and tenor sax) and her brother, Avishai on trumpet. These are fine musicians from Isreal, now living in New York, and they’ve received great accolades, and deservedly so.
Their playing is heartfelt and powerful, with amazing technique. Anat is a composer and arranger, and her tunes are really interesting, with strong melodies. Unfortunately, the structure of the arrangements was the same every time, and that structure didn’t work for me.
Every song had basically the same format. The melody would be stated, with nice interplay between the two horns and great support from the rhythm section. I really liked the use of unusual time signatures, and the way the melodies often floated and moved among the rhythm. But, immediately after the melody had been stated, the solo section would commence. The solos went in a completely different direction then the melody. There was no continuity between the melody and the solos. While the solos were well executed from a technical standpoint, they didn’t even seem to be part of the same composition. They usually went on to build up to a very loud and sometimes discordant peak.
After the solos, the following statement would often not be a recapitulation of the original melody, but a new theme. The new theme did not seem to me to be connected to either the melody or the solos.
My point is that the music was the type of jazz that many folks think of when they say they don’t like jazz. I would prefer to hear melodies, solos and thematic development that are all related to the point of the tune. I understand the desire to do something new and interesting and to test the boundaries. I respect that. But each tune, to me, still needs to make a coherent composition. Listen to any Gerry Mulligan composition, or Benny Golson, or Dave Brubeck, or Duke Ellington, or even John Coltrane, or countless others, and you’ll see what I mean. The solos should extend, explore, and take the harmony and melody in a different direction, but still be part of the same work, not a completely unrelated compositional world.
What do you think?
Tags: composition, concerts, jazz
December 1, 2008 at 5:50 am
Hi.
I know Ms Cohen’s playing, on CD and live, extremely well. My best guess for explaining what you describe having heard…is the “arrangements” were cobbled together by Ms. Cohen and ger brother either on the bandstand… or moments before getting there. Her brother is not part of her band…so perhaps he was there to please some promoter/fan (who knows?).
I have seen Ms. Cohen play with her quartet at least a dozen times (Newport, North Sea, Montreal, the Village Vanguard, elsewhere) …and have always found her arrangements exquisitely musically “coherent”. In fact, directly oposite to your experience, over the years, I have read several critics (in the major jazz media) asserting she “sticks too much to the melody” and should “stretch further” (which she is unfailingly presumed able to do) when she solos [this was a common slight against her "Poetica" CD ...which, to me, is the most beautiful CDs of it's "kind" (whatever that is) since Jim Hall's "Concierto"].
Hmmm…a thought – was “Washington Square Park” one of the pieces you heard her perform? It’s a very long piece with several distinct “sections” or “movements” (meant to be an impressionistic take on the experience of walking through a small park where different groups of musicans have gathered and are playing). This would explain some of what I read into your comments.
But …it seems you’re suggesting every tune lacked the “kind” (amount? degree? sort ? balance?) of thematic/harmonic “continuity” you enjoy. I don’t know your “taste”… so I have no “frame of reference” or “context” within which to place your comments. [P.S. this is why, unlike you, I would not be be willing to make negative comments... even accompanied by several positive ones...about an artist, in a public forum (like the Web). I would be very concerned someone might foolishly imagine my comments to be at all "objective" (because of the presence of comparisons and same such) or "definitive"... which they most assuredly are not ....and I would have then needlessly (as if there ever was a need) harmed that artist. I'll leave that to the vast majority of "jazz critics" to waste their days on].
Anyway…I don’t know if you have ever listened to any of Ms. Cohen’s CDs…especially her most recent one (“Notes From The Village”) …but I suspect (I don’t know why…exactly) you would like them more than what you heard. Perhaps you might also check out her work with the Choro Ensemble, Gilfema+2, Waverly Seven, or Diva. These are all much more “structured” environments and her playing fully reflects as much.
For me, Anat Cohen is one of the most extraordinarily skilled AND soulful jazz (and beyond) musicians around… and hearing/watching her perform live is always a joy.
Opinions are like hearts…most everybody has one. A very good thing.
Thanks for your post.
December 2, 2008 at 3:28 am
I appreciate your thoughtful reply. As you note, I haven’t had the opportunity to see her in any other setting, and while I have listened to some of the tunes from her CD, I haven’t listened to them in depth. Also, you are correct that “Washington Square Park” was one of the tunes. I could tell that there were different sections, but again, the solos seemed out of place within the context of the whole piece. As you say, this was just my opinion, and my preference is for a more melodic approach to things, as noted in other posts. It is true that we all have opinions and that is a very, very good thing. Thank you!