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Anat Cohen

Idiomatically conversant with modern and traditional jazz, classical music, Brazilian choro, Argentine tango, and an expansive timeline of Afro-Cuban styles, Anat Cohen has established herself as one of the primary voices of her generation on both the tenor saxophone and clarinet since arriving in New York in 1999.

Born in Tel Aviv, Israel, Anat grew up with musical siblings; her older brother, Yuval, is himself a saxophonist of note, and her younger brother, Avishai, is one of New York’s busiest trumpeters. She began clarinet studies at age 12 and played jazz on clarinet for the first time in her Jaffa conservatory’s Dixieland band. At 16 she joined the school’s big band and learned to play the tenor saxophone. The same year, Anat entered the prestigious “Thelma Yelin” High School for the Arts, where she majored in jazz. After graduation, she discharged her mandatory Israeli military service duty from 1993-95, playing tenor saxophone in the Israeli Air Force band.

In 1996, Anat headed to Boston to matriculate at Berklee College of Music. There she met faculty member Phil Wilson, who encouraged her to play clarinet, other inspiring teachers such as Greg Hopkins, Ed Tomassi, Hal Crook, George Garzone, and Bill Pierce, and an elite international peer group of students.

“Berklee was crucial to my development as a musician” says Anat. “I was very closed-minded when I got there. I just wanted to play Coltrane, to play jazz; I didn’t think of world music at all. Since Berklee gives scholarships to musicians from all over the world the student body ends up being very diverse. I met many people who played music from their own country and I came to understand when a chart says ‘Latin’ on top it means almost nothing. You need to know if the music is from the northeast of Brazil, the west coast of Colombia, or someplace else on the continent. I was inspired to explore world music, starting with the music of South America, in detail”.

During her Berklee years, Anat visited New York during breaks between semesters, making a beeline for Smalls to soak up the hybrid of grooves, world music and mainstream jazz that people like Jason Lindner and Omer Avital - a high school bandmate of her older brother - were then evolving. Back in Boston, she played tenor saxophone in a variety of musical contexts; Afro-Cuban music with Ecuadorian bassist Alex Alvear in a group called Mango Blue, Argentinean and original music with pianist Pablo Ablanedo, and klezmer music at weddings. Called by Brazilian bassist Leonardo Cioglia for Brazilian Popular Music gigs, Anat learned selections from the songbooks of Ivan Lins, Milton Nascimento, and Toninho Horta, and studied Brazilian percussion to master the associated rhythms. The group evolved into an instrumental quartet that gigged weekly. After Cioglia left for New York, jobs with Fernando Brandao, a Brazilian flutist, provided Anat with more opportunities to play Brazilian music and exposed her to choro, a particularly challenging Brazilian musical genre, for the first time.

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Live Review

Anat Cohen Tentet at Jazz Alley

Read "Anat Cohen Tentet at Jazz Alley" reviewed by Paul Rauch


Anat Cohen Tentet Jazz Alley Seattle, Washington February 27, 2024 The wonderfully diverse and swinging ten-piece ensemble led by clarinetist Anat Cohen doesn't have the opportunity to tour very often. Since the release of Happy Song (Anzic, 2017), the band's first release on the label that Cohen founded with partner Oded Lev Ari, the evolution of the band's recording and touring life has been interrupted by among other things, a worldwide pandemic. The ...

41
Album Review

Mehmet Ali Sanlikol: Turkish Hipster: Tales From Swing To Psychedelic

Read "Turkish Hipster: Tales From Swing To Psychedelic" reviewed by Jack Bowers


Those who believe the term Turkish Hipster has to be an oxymoron should get to know composer/arranger/multi-instrumentalist Mehmet Ali Sanlikol, a Turk whose seventh album, subtitled “Tales from Swing to Psychedelic," is about as hip as can be. Sanlikol knows where is going but chooses to get there in his own special way, using every weapon in his musical arsenal to create vivid sound pictures whose jazz components rest solidly within a Middle Eastern framework that set them apart from ...

6
Album Review

Laila Biali: Your Requests

Read "Your Requests" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky


While the jazz pipeline produces plenty of artists who pay no mind to an audience's interests, those types--figures with tunnel vision, in many if not most ways--rarely reach their full potential. Instead, it's the musicians who make it a point to communicate who tend to forge the strongest bonds with those on the receiving end. Laila Biali is one such figure. This JUNO-winning gem of a vocalist, pianist, arranger and songwriter always manages to connect. Biali has a keen awareness ...

11
Album Review

Anat Cohen: Quartetinho

Read "Quartetinho" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic


As it has manifested on world stages and such noteworthy releases as Luminosa and Claroscuro (Anzic Records, 2015, 2012), Grammy-nominated clarinetist, composer & bandleader Anat Cohen's deep fascination and delight with world music, especially Brazil's hot melding of South African rhythms, cajun swing, and European dance, makes Quartetinhoan irrepressible listen. Infused and bursting with a multitude of melody left, right, and center, the charismatic Cohen takes a few steps back from her masterful tentet outing Triple Helix(Anzic, 2019) ...

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Radio & Podcasts

New Releases From Anat Cohen, Gentiane MG, Birthday Shoutouts To Lovie Austin, Vi Redd & More

Read "New Releases From Anat Cohen, Gentiane MG, Birthday Shoutouts To Lovie Austin, Vi Redd & More" reviewed by Mary Foster Conklin


This broadcast presents new releases from vocalist Tracye Eileen, clarinetist Anat Cohen, Canadian pianist Gentiane MG plus a single from vibraphonist/marimbist Patricia Brennan, with birthday shoutouts to saxophonist Vi Redd, pianists Lovie Austin (Downhearted Blues), Kait Dunton, vocalists Catherine Russell, Norma Winstone, Sally Terrell and Rebecca Kilgore, among others. In the second hour, a set of Leonard Cohen tunes composed by various women collaborators. Thanks for listening and please support the artists you hear by purchasing their music during this ...

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Radio & Podcasts

Anat Cohen, Mal Waldron, Roberto Ottaviano, Trevor Dunn & More New Releases

Read "Anat Cohen, Mal Waldron, Roberto Ottaviano, Trevor Dunn & More New Releases" reviewed by Ludovico Granvassu


Music by, or inspired by, Charles Mingus, Mal Waldron, Brazil, Humanity... and the Convulsionaries... To know more... click on the embedded player and happy listening!Playlist Ben Allison “Mondo Jazz Theme (feat. Ted Nash & Pyeng Threadgill)" 0:00 Anat Cohen “Boa Tarde Povo" Quartetinho (Anzic) 0:16 Host talks 5:08 Roberto Ottaviano, Alexander Hawkins “Hobo Ho" Charlie's Blue Skylight (Dodicilune) 6:55 Host talks 10:45 Cristina Mazza, Sean Bergin Daniele D'Agaro Bruno Marini Jean-Jacques Avenel Sangoma Everett “Soul Eyese, Changachangachanga" Celebrating ...

2
Radio & Podcasts

Anat Cohen, Weather Report, Craig Taborn and Much More

Read "Anat Cohen, Weather Report, Craig Taborn and Much More" reviewed by Jerome Wilson


This show includes a wide array of jazz musicians from the present and recent past including Anat Cohen, Donny McCaslin, Weather Report, Henry Threadgill and Roy Haynes. Playlist Henry Threadgill Sextett “I Can't Wait Till I Get Home" from The Complete Novus & Columbia Recordings of Henry Threadgill & Air (Mosaic) 00:00 Sextet of Orchestra USA “Mack The Knife" from Theatre Music of Kurt Weill (RCA) 00:54 Alchemy Sound Project “Odysseus Leaves Circe" from Adventures in Time and ...

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Video / DVD

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Spotlight on Anat Cohen

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Spotlight on Anat Cohen

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman

This week, it's time to check out some videos featuring clarinetist and saxophonist Anat Cohen, who's coming to St. Louis to perform with her quartet starting Wednesday, February 27 through Sunday, March 3 at Jazz St. Louis. Born in Israeli and educated at Berklee, Cohen moved to New York after college and began her career by touring with the all-woman big band the Diva Orchestra and working with Brazilian groups. Over the past decade, she has become perhaps the most ...

Performance / Tour

Jazz this week: Ken Page, Miller, Mulkerhar & Lefkowitz-Brown, C. Spencer Yeh & Andrew Lampert, Mark Lettieri, Anat Cohen & more

Jazz this week: Ken Page, Miller, Mulkerhar & Lefkowitz-Brown, C. Spencer Yeh & Andrew Lampert, Mark Lettieri, Anat Cohen & more

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman

It's a busy week for live jazz and creative music in St. Louis, with performances in styles ranging from cabaret to vintage jazz to fusion to experimental intermedia and beyond. Let's go to the highlights... Wednesday, April 4 Singer, actor and St. Louis native Ken Page, now living back in his hometown after a distinguished career on Broadway and in film, will perform his cabaret show for the first of two nights at Jazz at the Bistro . Page (pictured, ...

Performance / Tour

Jazz this week: Tortoise, Jazz at Lincoln Center Group, Anat Cohen, and more

Jazz this week: Tortoise, Jazz at Lincoln Center Group, Anat Cohen, and more

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman

Unpredictable weather is just one reason that a lot of touring acts like to stay home in early January. But whether St. Louis this weekend ends up with the spring-like temperatures we're enjoying at midweek, or with the ice storm being promised (threatened?) by Friday, the calendar of upcoming live jazz and creative music performances in St. Louis features several shows that definitely are worth leaving the house to hear. Let's go to the highlights... Wednesday, January 11 Five young ...

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Event

Anat Cohen To Kick Off NPR's Toast Of The Nation Broadcast

Anat Cohen To Kick Off NPR's Toast Of The Nation Broadcast

Source: Margot Edwards

Clarinetist and Berklee alumna Anat Cohen will kick off National Public Radio’s Toast of the Nation annual coast-to-coast radio broadcast this New Year's Eve, December 31, 2015. Cohen’s concert—a rebroadcast of her acclaimed 2009 New Year’s Eve performance at the Berklee Performance Center—will begin the evening’s festivities at 9:00 pm Eastern time. Heard New Year’s Eve on more than 200 NPR affiliate stations, NPR Worldwide, Sirius XM Radio, and streamed on wbgo.org, Toast of the Nation begins with Cohen’s quartet, ...

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Recording

Composer-Arranger Oded Lev-Ari - Producer Of Anat Cohen, Marty Ehrlich, Duchess And More - Makes Leader Debut With Inspired Chamber Jazz Of Threading

Composer-Arranger Oded Lev-Ari - Producer Of Anat Cohen, Marty Ehrlich, Duchess And More - Makes Leader Debut With Inspired Chamber Jazz Of Threading

Source: Jason Byrne, Red Cat Publicity

Threading - to be released via Anzic Records on April 28, 2015 - presents Lev-Ari's instrumental and vocal works played by an all-star 11-piece band including Anat Cohen and Matt Wilson Composer-arranger-producer Oded Lev-Ari has crafted acclaimed albums by the likes of hit band 3 Cohens, clarinet icon Anat Cohen and woodwind sage Marty Ehrlich, as well as rising-star singers Amy Cervini, Melissa Stylianou and vocal trio Duchess. Now the Tel Aviv-born, New York-based Lev-Ari steps out with the first ...

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Performance / Tour

Anzic Records Artist Anat Cohen Live At The Village Vanguard, June 10-15, And More!

Anzic Records Artist Anat Cohen Live At The Village Vanguard, June 10-15, And More!

Source: Jason Byrne, Red Cat Publicity

ANAT COHEN LIVE AT THE VILLAGE VANGUARD TUESDAY THROUGH SUNDAY, JUNE 10-15, 8:30 & 10:30 PM With NY3, Featuring Martin Wind & Matt Wilson Anat's Brilliant Rendition of “La Vie en Rose" Featured in The Major Motion Picture, The Other Woman (Twentieth Century Fox, 2014) Anat featured with Newport Now 60 at Major Summer Festivals, Including The Newport Jazz Festival on August 2, Celebrating 60 Years of The Newport Jazz Festival Anat Recently in the Studio, Recording the Follow Up ...

Interview

Anzic Records Artist Anat Cohen On The Move!

Anzic Records Artist Anat Cohen On The Move!

Source: Jason Byrne, Red Cat Publicity

Following her sojourn to Istanbul, Turkey to perform and participate in the International Jazz Day Celebration along with Herbie Hancock, Eddie Palmieri, Esperanza Spalding, and many other celebrated artists, the JJA declared reed virtuoso Anat Cohen “Clarinetist of the Year" for the seventh year in a row, and “Multi-Reeds Player of the Year" for the second consecutive year, and in a major feature in the May 5 Sunday Arts & Leisure Section, The New York Times called her, an “ambassador ...

Event

Newport Festivals Foundation / Salve Regina Present Pathways To Jazz / Anat Cohen

Newport Festivals Foundation / Salve Regina Present Pathways To Jazz / Anat Cohen

Source: Carolyn McClair Public Relations

Clarinetist/Saxophonist Anat Cohen conducts master class for high school musicians at Salve Regina University on May 4 Newport Festivals Foundation and Salve Regina Present Free Student Program for Second Year NEWPORT, RI: Stellar clarinetist/saxophonist Anat Cohen will conduct a master class and workshop for high school students on Saturday, May 4, from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at Salve Regina University. The free program, “Pathways to Jazz,” which is presented for the second year by the Newport Festivals Foundation, Inc. ...

Performance / Tour

Jazz This Week: Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival with Anat Cohen, Matt Wilson, Doc Severinsen, Monterey Jazz Festival 55th Anniversary Tour; and More

Jazz This Week: Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival with Anat Cohen, Matt Wilson, Doc Severinsen, Monterey Jazz Festival 55th Anniversary Tour; and More

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman

While this week's big event for jazz and creative music in St. Louis is the Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival, featuring a number of nationally known touring musicians, there also are plenty of noteworthy performances featuring local players coming up in the next few days. Let's go to the highlights... Tonight, singer Mary Dyson and pianist Brock Walker's trio will play at Troy's Jazz Gallery; Cabaret Project St. Louis presents their monthly open mic night at the Tavern of Fine ...

Award / Grant

Anzic Records Artist Anat Cohen To Be Awarded The 2013 Paul Acket Award!

Anzic Records Artist Anat Cohen To Be Awarded The 2013 Paul Acket Award!

Source: Jason Byrne, Red Cat Publicity

Anat Cohen To Be Awarded the 2013 Paul Acket Award at The North Sea Jazz Festival on July 12 Every year, the North Sea Jazz Festival hands out the Paul Acket Award to an artist deserving wider recognition for their extraordinary musicianship. The winner of the 2013 Paul Acket Award is Israeli clarinetist/saxophonist Anat Cohen. Anat Cohen will receive The Paul Acket Award at The Port of Rotterdam North Sea Jazz Festival, where she will perform on Friday, July 12 ...

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Photos

Concerts

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Your Requests

Empress Music Group (North America) / ACT Music (Europe) / CORE PORT (Japan)
2023

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Turkish Hipster:...

Dunya Records
2023

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Quartetinho

Anzic Records
2022

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Reconvexo

Anzic Records
2021

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A Wake of Sorrows...

Origin Records
2020

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A Capoeira Turca (Baia Havası) featuring Anat Cohen

From: Turkish Hipster: Tales From...
By Anat Cohen

Bye Bye Blackbird

From: Your Requests
By Anat Cohen

Flying Waltz

From: Saga
By Anat Cohen

Videos

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