Anat Cohen brings her Benny Goodman tribute to the Dakota

Originally published at MinnPost.com, Thursday, April 22, 2010

Clarinetist/saxophonist Anat Cohen is a regular at the Village Vanguard, the legendary New York City jazz club where all the greats have played and many have recorded landmark albums. She was the first female horn player to headline at the Vanguard and the first Israeli. She has spent five residencies there.

In 2009, she was sitting at the bar when club owner Lorraine Gordon approached her about a new project: a weeklong tribute to the clarinet. Knowing that 2009 was Benny Goodman’s centennial and that Gordon loves Goodman’s music, Cohen decided to focus on songs recorded by the King of Swing.
Cohen’s latest CD, “Clarinetwork: Live at the Village Vanguard” (Anzic, 2010), was released last Tuesday. It’s her first live recording, her fifth as leader, and a good excuse for her biggest U.S. tour to date, which includes her Dakota debut this Sunday.

She’s bringing the rhythm section that joined her for six nights at the Vanguard last July: pianist Benny Green, bassist Peter Washington and drummer Lewis Nash. To jazz fans, it’s a dream team. “They are some of the best musicians,” Cohen said by phone earlier this week. “Super swinging, and incredible human beings. Top of the line.”

Cohen comes to Minneapolis by way of New York, Boston, and Tel Aviv. Born and raised in Israel, she began clarinet studies at age 12 and played jazz in the Jaffa Conservatory’s Dixieland band. At 16, she learned the tenor saxophone. She majored in jazz at the prestigious Thelma Yellin High School for the Arts, whose other graduates include pianist Omer Klein and guitarist Gilad Hekselman.

After her mandatory Israeli military service, Cohen enrolled at Boston’s Berklee College of Music. She spent semester breaks in New York City, moved there in 1999, and immersed herself in the music scene, playing many kinds (traditional and modern jazz, Brazilian choro, Argentine tango, Afro-Cuban styles) with many bands, founding her own record label (Anzic), and earning raves for her virtuosity and expressiveness on an instrument seldom heard in jazz since Goodman’s day.

If you don’t know Cohen, Sunday is your chance to see and hear one of the most exciting and original performers in contemporary jazz. I first heard her live two years ago, playing a version of Fats Waller’s “Jitterbug Waltz” that knocked me out. Her clarinet skipped over the notes like someone crossing a stream on slippery stones.

“Clarinetwork” includes a blistering “Sweet Georgia Brown,” a sexy, strutting “St. James Infirmary,” and a “Body and Soul” so tender it could double as a lullaby, except for about a minute that would wake the baby.

Clarinet is her primary instrument these days, perhaps because her brothers Avishai and Yuval play trumpet and saxophone (as the group known as the 3 Cohens, they’re kind of the Marsalis family of Tel Aviv), perhaps because there are fewer clarinet players than saxophone players and more opportunities to stand out. “I go with the flow,” she said. “The clarinet has become more dominant for me in the past couple of years. You end up working more and realize this is becoming your life.”

The clarinet project at the Vanguard was ideal for her. “Every musician who plays there has a special relationship with the Vanguard,” she said. “It’s a very personal place. [Owner] Lorraine Gordon is 86 and she’s there almost every night. She knows what she likes, she listens to the music, she talks to the musicians. I’m very honored that she let me come in and play, that she allowed me to make a live record there and become part of that tradition.”

What did she hope to achieve with the new CD? “This was my first live record, and the concept was simply to put together a weeklong show inspired by Benny Goodman, and to get a group sound with people I hadn’t played with before. To take four people who haven’t played this configuration, these songs, these arrangements, this vibe and see what happens. Each night, we learned about each other—what we like, what we like to play, what kind of support we look for. I’m very happy with the sound we got.”

Some of the songs were her arrangements, others evolved on the spot. “We call them ‘arrangements as you wait,’” she explained. “They just happened. When you play more than once with a band, you develop together.”

All eight tracks on “Clarinetwork” were recorded on July 5, the final night of the Vanguard residency. The band hasn’t performed together since, so Sunday night will also be a reunion for them. Expect to hear the new CD and maybe (I’m hinting) “Jitterbug Waltz.”

Here’s Cohen with the Louis Armstrong Centennial Band at Birdland in May 2009. Listen on her website and MySpace page. And if you have time, here’s an entire 2008 performance from the Vanguard.
 
Anat Cohen Quartet, Sunday, April 25, 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m., Dakota ($30/$20). Tickets at 612-312-JAZZ (5299) or online.

Benny Green and Bucky Pizzarelli

When: Monday, August 4 and Tuesday, August 5, 2008 • Where: Dakota • Who: Benny Green, piano; Bucky Pizzarelli, guitar

Kudos to Dakota owner Lowell Pickett for conceiving these shows. Green has a good reason to come to town (he’s seeing someone locally) and Pizzarelli was probably scheduled somewhere nearby but it was Pickett who paired them and how brilliant that turned out to be.

Monday’s sound check was the first time they played together. We know that because someone told us; it doesn’t show when the music begins. There’s an essential sweetness in the air, similar to when Kenny Werner and Toots Thielemans perform together, although those two have being doing it for years. Younger man (Kenny is in his 50s, Benny in his 40s); elder jazz statesman (Toots is 86, Bucky 82); lives devoted to music; heads full of song.



“If I Had You,” “Easy to Remember.” Laid back, gentle and pleasing. Intimate from the start. Benny jokes that when Lowell called to see if he’d be willing to play with Bucky, he said “Yes…how much will it cost me? I’m here on the installment plan.” “The More I See You.” The new Dakota neon sign, now dimmed, thank goodness, casts a lovely glow.

Wit, humor, virtuosity, ease. “Body and Soul.” A medley of Duke Ellington tunes: “Do Nothing Til You Hear from Me,” “In a Sentimental Mood,” “In a Mellow Tone,” “Satin Doll.” Simpatico, respect, connection. Every note clearly articulated.

Tuesday’s set has a similar mood but different music: “Robin’s Nest,” “Tangerine.” Benny introduces Bucky as “every self-respecting guitar player’s godfather.” Tonight the Dakota is full, as it should be (as it should have been yesterday); this audience, like yesterday’s, is here to listen.



“These Foolish Things,” “Stompin’ at the Savoy,” a luminous and glittering “Jitterbug Waltz.” Benny’s touch on the keys and Bucky’s on the strings seem similar: precise but delicate. They play as if they and we have all the time in the world. A Harold Arlen medley: “Come Rain or Come Shine,” “Last Night When We Were Young,” “A Sleeping Bee.” And to end it all, a surprisingly fast and ferocious “Limehouse Blues.”

Bucky and Benny will return in late September, this time to record a live CD. Can’t wait.

Second (Benny) and third (Bucky) photos by John Whiting.

Ray Brown Tribute

When: 4/21–22/08
Where: Dakota
Who: Benny Green, piano; Christian McBride, bass; Gregory Hutchinson, drums

The great bassist Ray Brown died on July 2, 2002, after playing a round of golf. He was due at the Dakota a few days later to headline a benefit for the Dakota Foundation for Jazz Education, then play a couple of nights in the club. We had made our reservations well in advance; we knew not to miss Brown when he came to the Twin Cities. His shows were always satisfying and he never played an encore.

Green, McBride, and Hutchinson do play encores, perhaps because they are in a festive mood. "We're here," Green explains, "to celebrate the beautiful music and trio arrangements of our friend, mentor and hero Ray Brown." All three knew and played with Brown. Green and Hutchinson were part of his working trio; McBride played with Brown and John Clayton in Brown's SuperBass trio.

The tribute runs for three nights. We're there for the last two, including the final set on the final night, always my favorite show.

On the first night we hear a tune Brown wrote for Art Blakey, "Buhaina Buhaina" (Abdullah Ibn Buhaina was Blakey's Islamic name), followed by "Billy Boy," a standard Brown played when he was part of Oscar Peterson's trio.

It's so good to hear Green play piano again. The last time he came to the Dakota, in August 2007, he performed with Belinda Underwood, a jazz bassist and vocalist. She even had top billing ("Belinda Underwood with Benny Green"). It was not a successful evening. Most people were there to hear Green, and not a lot enjoyed Underwood's singing. She didn't bring her bass and she should have and that's all I have to say.

(In his Jazz Beyond Jazz blog, Howard Mandel wrote, "I seldom write anything very toxic even about the most insufferable b.s. That's just the kind of critic I am, the kind kind.")

"In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning" begins with a sweet and achey solo by Green. McBride introduces the melody on his bass, and Hutchinson caresses his drums with his brushes. Beautiful.



On both nights, they pass the mike and take turns talking about Brown, about each other, about what they've just played and what's up next. They're comfortable, easy, doing what they love for an appreciative audience. It's straight-ahead jazz heaven.

We hear "Bass Face" and the Monday show ends with "How Could You Do a Thing Like That to Me" and "Captain Bill," a tune written by Gene Harris for Count Basie.

The Tuesday night set list isn't that different—"Buhaina Buhaina," "Billy Boy," "How Could You Do a Thing Like That to Me," "Bass Face," "Captain Bill." Instead of "Wee Hours," they play "Polka Dots and Moonbeams," which begins with a bass solo. And we hear "The Summer Wind," a song Frank Sinatra made famous.

But while the set list is similar and the melodies are familiar, the music is not the same. Plus everyone seems a bit more gregarious tonight. McBride tells a favorite Ray Brown story about Brown's days in Hollywood, playing for movies and television. Toward the end of the evening, Hutchinson says they're here "in the spirit of Ray Brown and also in the spirit of Benny Green, Christian McBride, and Greg Hutchinson. We play his tunes and we make them our own."



Afterward, Green and Hutchinson hang out at the bar. I mention to Hutchinson that I never heard Brown play an encore. He laughs. "Yeah, when Ray was done, he was done."

Photos of the trio and McBride by John Whiting.

Andrea Canter saw early sets and writes about them here.