┌─┐ ┌─┬─┐
││├┬┬┤├┼┘│
│┌┘┤││├┤┌┤
_________________________ Psychedelic Cyber Zone ______________│├┐│┌┤ │││_____
└┴─┴─┴─┴─┘
Artist.....: Avishai Cohen
Album......: Almah
Type.......: Album (Retail)
Genre......: Jazz
Style......: Fusion, Jazz, Hard Bop, Post Bop
Label......: Parlophone
CatalogNr..: 0825646396818
Url........: http://avishaicohen.com/
Rel.date...: 14.02.2014
Str.date...: 04.11.2013
Source.....: CDDA
Grabber....: EAC 1.0 beta 3
Encoder....: LAME 3.98.4 -V0 --vbr-new / vbr-mtrh --lowpass 19500
Quality....: VBR 216kbps avg. / 44.1kHz / Joint-Stereo
Tracks.....: 10
Size.......: 71.98 MB
Length.....: 43:38
______________________________________________________________________________
Tracklist
01. Overture 'Noam' Op.1 03:54
02. Song for my Brother 04:56
03. Linearity 04:17
04. A Child is Born 06:25
05. Arab Medley 04:12
06. Southern Lullaby 02:39
07. Hayo Hayta 06:09
08. Shlosre 03:52
09. Kefel 03:28
10. Kumi Venetse Hasadeh 03:46
Total Time: 43:38
______________________________________________________________________________
Release Notes
With "Almah", his fourteenth album as leader, the Israeli bass player and
composer, Avishai Cohen has gone back to the roots of his first musical
experience: classical writing and harmony. The jazzman has never stopped
proclaiming this enlightened heritage throughout a career that is colourful
and steeped in all kinds of experiences. But he is taking this to new heights
by celebrating it this time with an instrumental ensemble that brings together
his trio (the pianist Nitai Hershkovits and the drummer Ofri Nehemya), a
string quartet and an oboe.
Blending original pieces, standards and covers of old songs, this tireless
explorer brings together the best of every musical avenue that takes his
fancy: the highly demanding work of the composer coupled with the changing
With "Almah", his fourteenth album as leader, the Israeli bass player and
composer, Avishai Cohen has gone back to the roots of his first musical
experience: classical writing and harmony. The jazzman has never stopped
proclaiming this enlightened heritage throughout a career that is colourful
and steeped in all kinds of experiences. But he is taking this to new heights
by celebrating it this time with an instrumental ensemble that brings together
his trio (the pianist Nitai Hershkovits and the drummer Ofri Nehemya), a
string quartet and an oboe.
Blending original pieces, standards and covers of old songs, this tireless
explorer brings together the best of every musical avenue that takes his
fancy: the highly demanding work of the composer coupled with the changing
textures and brilliance of the improviser, the sophisticated beauty of the
American songbook joining forces with the lyrical power of the popular Israeli
or Arabic melodies."This is an album that defines a new language which carries
the genes of a perfect synthesis between classical music and jazz, giving both
the depth and respect they deserve." (Tal Hashiloni, Presenter and
Broadcaster)
Dense, deep and full of life, "Almah" touches the very heart of what it means
to be an artist with multiple talents and whose expression is totally unique.
Throughout Almah, both entities continuously respond to each other, enriching
the music and forming surprisingly organic bonds between composition and
improvisation. "I have always sensed the strong presence of classical music
and jazz, with the love of musical compositions on the one hand, whether it is
clever or popular, and the wild impulses and irrepressible desires to forget
everything and improvise on the spot on the other hand. In Almah, both of
these worlds, with their constraints and limitations, are empowered as a
result of having been brought together. I love the fact that, as classical
musicians ourselves, we have been put to the test: we have all been forced to
expand our horizons, break our habits. What is happening here is very intense:
it is like the sound of an orchestra that, all of a sudden, is allowed to be
irresponsible and free at times."
In Almah, you will discover an opulent yet balanced programme, bringing
together standards from various traditions, new pieces - such as Shlosre, a
jewel of rhythmical virtuosity bound by the strings that provide it with a
kind of soft setting - as well as a new look at some old tracks. Consequently,
Avishai Cohen is fanning into flame, a theme that he recorded a decade ago,
when he was back in New York: Song for my Brother turns into a playful and
delicate call and response between the quartet and the trio, split down the
middle with a dazzling double bass solo. Taken from the Seven Seas album
(2011), Hayo Hayta becomes a sublime chamber music suite. The sequence is
sophisticated yet always pure with its melodic lines, ellipses and motifs that
reflect this "elaborate simplicity" that is, more than ever, a feature of
Avishai Cohen's art.
This particular type of beauty that is knowing yet stripped of all
pretentiousness also surrounds the standards, the contours and substance of
which are lovingly redefined by the bassist in his role as an arranger. One of
his favourites, the instant classic by Thad Jones' A Child is Born, opens up
"like a flower" at the centre of the record, radiating the most refined
fragrances of American music. Further on, the ravishing charms of the music of
the Middle-East explode in Arab Medley - three melodies by the Lebanese singer
Samira Tawfik, bound up in a breathtaking whirlwind of strings. In response to
this joyful debauchery, listen to the controlled and dreamlike monotonous
chant of Kefel, an old Israeli song illuminated by a mind-blowing piano solo
by Nitai Hershkovits ("the most beautiful piano solo ever recorded on one of
his albums", says Avishai Cohen); and Southern Lullaby, a sumptuous ballad by
one of the founding fathers of Israeli music, Moshe Vilenski, whose piano
harmonies are reminiscent of the lyrical tone of Rachmaninov's delicate touch.
As a result, the Russian influence is not insignificant in the colour pallet
on show in Almah: it also rises to the fore in On a Black Horse, a melody
borrowed from the repertoire of the Red Army and extended with an infectious
groove from another piece composed by Cohen, Linearity. "The heritage of
Russia and Eastern Europe formed a key part in forming the genetic make-up of
Israel and its music. My parents, who always loved singing, performed these
melodies at the parties they organised in our home: they are therefore also
part of my heritage. This was not intentional, but I can now see that Almah is
steeped in historical and cultural elements."
The only thing missing from this work of art was this beautiful veiled chorus
that, for several years now, has been such an expressive addition to Avishai
Cohen's already very complete oeuvre. It emerges at the very end of Almah,
like an essential defining moment, in Kumi Venetze Hasadeh, a deeply moving
romance by another sadly forgotten Israeli composer, Ram Da Oz. Floating on an
instrumental cloud filled with delicate melancholy, the voice of Avishai Cohen
is like the finale, signing off an album that its author wanted to name after
his daughter, aged only just six months, as if to underline the fact that this
album is inspired by its genetic heritage as well as the beautiful promise of
a new beginning. "With each new project, and maybe even more so with this one,
I am reminded that I cannot really get away from myself, he says. And I get a
pleasant feeling when, in an album that is so distinctive, I end up
recognizing and finding these inner spaces, like islands that feel like the
places I go to when I am composing. I believe that I can hear these moments
that I experience as if I was in a bubble, in Almah. Those who have heard it
do not give it a label: they don't tell me, "Hey, that sounds like classical
music of jazz". Rather they say, "That sounds like your music". One could not
receive a better compliment. This means that I have created something that is
sincere and as long as that continues, I have a reason to carry on."
Written by: Richard Robert
Credits
-------
Produced by Lars Nilsson and Avishai Cohen
Executive Producer: Ray Jefford for Razdaz Recordz / Parlophone / Warner
France
Recorded at Kicha Studios, Tel Aviv, Israel, by Lars Nilsson on 2nd to 9th
June 2013 except #10 recorded on 4th and 5th September 2012 by Marko Gurkan.
Mixed and mastered by Lars Nilsson at Nilento Studios, Goteborg, Sweden in
June and July 2013. Production team Nilento Studios: Jenny Nilsson & Michael
Dahlvid. www.nilento.se
All songs written and composed by Avishai Cohen except #3 (On a Black Horse -
Vladimir Grigoryevich Zakharov), #4 (Thad Jones), #5 (Traditional), #6 (Moshe
Vilensky), #9 (Nachum Heiman) and #10 (Ram Da Oz, Lyrics: Y. L. Peretz).
All tracks arranged by Avishai Cohen. All songs published by Gadu Music /
SonyATV Publishing except #3 On a Black Horse (Copyright Control), #4
(D'Accord Music, Inc./ASCAP), #5 (Copyright Control), #6 (Copyright Control),
#9 (NMC Music Entertainment), and #10 (Tarbut-Vechinuch).
Avishai Cohen: double & electric bass, vocals.
Nitai Hershkovits: piano. Ofri Nehemya: drums (except on #10). Cordelia
Hagmann: violin (except on #10). Amit Landau: viola (except on #10). Noam
Haimovitz Weinschel: viola. Yael Shapira: cello. Yoram Lachish: oboe and
english horn. Amir Bresler: drums (on #10). Keren Tannenbaum: violin (on #10).
Galia Hai: viola (on #10).
Fazioli piano provided by Piano World, Tel Aviv, Israel.
Artist Bio
----------
It is whilst on our winding journey throughout life as we devote time to
learning and developing, that we are in fact, preparing the wonderful return
journey back to our origins. This is the message that seems to have been
placed at the very heart of Almah, the latest album from bassist, composer,
arranger and singer, Avishai Cohen. Tireless in his musical explorations and
always ready to shift the boundaries of musical genre, it took thirteen albums
as leader, for this Israeli artist to return to his first loves: classical
music, and more particularly, chamber music. We are familiar with the musical
travels of Avishai Cohen, this jazz prodigy capable of mastering every genre,
as he draws his inspiration from the music of the Middle-East as well as from
Latin rhythms or pop. However, we are less familiar with the fact that Avishai
Cohen started his training studying piano and classical harmony, as he
attended the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Arts.
The vast continent of North America, where his vocation as a musician was
nurtured, is the source of Avishai Cohen's current all-conquering and
unlimited inspiration. Although he has always been proud of his musical roots,
the bassist had not as yet celebrated this classical heritage on such an
ambitious scale. At the helm of his trio, accompanied by the golden-fingered
pianist Nitai Hershkovits and the youthful and brilliant drummer Ofri Nehemya,
for the creation of Almah he indulged himself by calling on the services of a
string quartet and an oboe - in the hands of the devilishly expressive Yoram
Lachish. An incredible ensemble that, for one year now, has shown what it can
do, displaying many wonders on stage, as part of a series of concerts entitled
"Avishai Cohen with Strings". For some musicians, resorting to such a team
would be more akin to satisfying an urge rather than a genuine creative need.
This is not the case for the musician from Israel: the chamber music tone of
Almah is well and truly the crowning achievement of a carefully and patiently
considered reflection and composition process. "In the past, I had already had
the opportunity to work with a string ensemble," he recalls. "But it was
intermittent, a smattering here and there. I have always dreamt of making them
an integral part of a project and some of the people I work closely with also
asked me whether I would take the plunge. Yet, for a long time, I didn't feel
that I was experienced enough or that I had enough self-confidence or time to
go for it. And then, three years ago, I began to gather together the musical
resources and to write more and more for a string quartet as well as an oboe.
The outcome of this turned out to be so sincere, so powerful and corresponded
so much to my own desires that I took it to be a sign: I understood that I had
to pursue this further."
The special composition of his string quartet includes two violas (Amit
Landau and Noam Haimovitz Weinschel) in addition to the violin (Cordelia
Hagmann) and cello (Yael Shapira). Classical tradition is accustomed to having
only one viola. "I chose this formula because my music is written in a low
register. The two violas create an incredible, deeper and more melancholic
sound that, combined with the brightness of the oboe, really establishes a
special colour. With this configuration, the result went so much further than
I had originally planned: the music took on a life all of its own." You do not
notice it straight away in the harmonic make-up of the majestic Overture
(`Noam' Op. 1), a piece that was initially composed for a double bass
concerto, dedicated to the memory of a young cousin who had died in an
accident while serving in the Israeli army. Because of the wide scope of the
sounds as well as the high definition of the arrangements carved out by
Avishai Cohen, the string/oboe ensemble is displayed in the sweeping and
shifting finery of a reduced orchestra that gives it added texture and energy
when accompanying the jazz trio.
____________________________________________________ Psychedelic Cyber Zone __
est. 2001