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Israeli-born saxophonist, clarinetist, and flutist
Anat Cohen is an adroit jazz musician with a bent toward sophisticated post-bop, Latin traditions, and layered, modern creative improvisation. Since first emerging in the early 2000s,
Cohen has earned praise for her eclectic sound, working alongside her equally gifted siblings trumpeter
Avishai Cohen and pianist
Yuval Cohen as
3 Cohens, as well as with her Brazilian-influenced
Choro Ensemble and as a member of the DIVA big band. However, it's as a leader of her own groups that she has garnered the most acclaim, issuing albums like 2005's
Place and Time, 2012's
Claroscuro, and 2017's Grammy-nominated Outra Coisa.
Born in Tel Aviv in 1975,
Cohen grew up in a musical family along with her two brothers, soprano saxophonist
Yuval Cohen and trumpeter
Avishai Cohen. As a child, she started with clarinet lessons, later adding saxophone while attending the Jaffa Music Centre. After completing her compulsory military service, during which time she played in the Israeli Air Force Big Band,
Cohen enrolled at Boston's Berklee College of Music, ultimately graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in Professional Music. In the late '90s, she relocated to New York City, where she found work with such luminaries as pianist/composer
Pablo Ablanedo (with whom she made her recorded debut on 2001's
From Down There), bandleader
Duduka Da Fonseca, singer/percussionist
Cyro Baptista, trumpeter
Ingrid Jensen, drummer
Louis Hayes, guitarist
Bucky Pizzarelli, pianist
Rachel Z, and many others.
As a solo artist,
Cohen debuted with 2005's
Place and Time, which featured pianist
Jason Lindner, bassist
Ben Street, and drummer Jeff Ballard. She returned with 2007's
Poetica, which again featured
Lindner as well as bassist
Omer Avital (who also supplied several string quartet arrangements). Also that year, she issued the large ensemble album Noir, which found her backed by the Anzic Orchestra and playing Brazilian-influenced arrangements by
Oded Lev-Ari.
Cohen then returned to her small group with pianist
Lindner, bassist
Avital, and drummer
Daniel Freedman for 2008's
Notes from the Village. Along with her own groups,
Cohen was active during this period as a member of the all-female big band DIVA, as well as the Brazilian jazz-influenced
Choro Ensemble. She also played and recorded with her siblings, trumpeter
Avishai Cohen and pianist
Yuval Cohen, in the group
3 Cohens, issuing albums like One,
Braid, and Family.
In 2010 she delivered the concert album Clarinetwork: Live at the Village Vanguard. With 2012's
Claroscuro,
Cohen began showcasing her growing interest in various world traditions, including African rhythms, New Orleans Creole traditions, Brazilian samba, and more. It was an approach she continued to explore on her next release, 2015's eclectic, Brazilian choro-infused Luminosa. In 2017, she delivered two collaborative Brazilian-tinged albums: Outra Coisa, a duo album with guitarist Marcello Gonçalves, and Rosa Dos Ventos featuring Trio Brasileiro, both of which earned Grammy nominations. Also that year, she debuted her tentet with Happy Song. The duo concert album Live in Healdsburg, featuring the clarinetist and pianist
Fred Hersch, arrived in 2018.
Cohen issued the second album with her tentet, Tripple Helix, in 2019. ~ Matt Collar