World renowned jazz clarinet and saxophone player Anat Cohen makes her debut at The Mainstay in Rock Hall, Maryland on Friday July 1 at 8:00 p.m with the Chuck Redd Quartet. Admission is $20. For information and reservations call 410-639-9133.
Information is also available at the Mainstay’s website https://www.mainstayrockhall.org.
Clarinetist-saxophonist Anat Cohen has won hearts and minds the world over with her expressive virtuosity and delightful stage presence. Reviewing one of Anat’s headlining sets with her quartet at the North See Jazz Festival, DownBeat, the jazz magazine said: “Cohen not only proved to be a woodwind revelation of dark tones and delicious lyricism, but also a dynamic bandleader who danced and shouted out encouragement to her group – whooping it up when pianist Jason Lindner followed her clarinet trills on a Latin-flavored number.”
The Jazz Journalists Association has voted her as Clarinetist of the Year eight years in a row, and she has topped both the Critics and Readers Polls in the clarinet category in DownBeat magazine every year since 2011.
At The Mainstay, she will be joined by Chuck Redd on vibes and drums, Robert Redd on piano and bassist Nicki Parrott on bass and vocals.
Cohen has toured the world with her quartet, headlining at major jazz festivals as well as at such hallowed clubs as New York’s Village Vanguard and at Columbia University’s prestigious Miller Theatre.
In March 2015, Anzic Records released Luminosa, her seventh album as a bandleader. Along with interpreting several Brazilian numbers – two choro pieces and a trio of Milton Nascimento songs – the album features multiple Cohen originals, including tributes to Brazilian guitar great Baden Powell and the inspirational founder of the Newport Jazz Festival, George Wein. “The sound of Luminosa reflects my musical life in New York City,” she explains. “I flow between modern and traditional jazz, between samba and choro – all maybe in a week’s time. The title is Portuguese for luminous – something shining, especially in the dark. To me, music is a luminous experience. Whenever I’m immersed in it, life lights up for me, no matter what else is going on.”
Cohen was born in Tel Aviv, Israel, and raised there in a musical family. She attended the Berklee College of Music in Boston, where she not only honed her jazz chops but also expanded her musical horizons, developing a deep love and facility for various Latin music styles. She moved to New York in 1999 after graduating from Berklee and spent a decade touring with Sherrie Maricle’s all-woman big band, The Diva Jazz Orchestra; she also worked in such Brazilian groups as the Choro Ensemble and Duduka Da Fonseca’s Samba Jazz Quintet, along with performing the music of Louis Armstrong with David Ostwald’s “Gully Low Jazz Band.”
In New York, she soon began to bend ears and turn heads; whether playing clarinet, soprano saxophone or tenor saxophone, she won over the most knowing of jazz sages: Nat Hentoff praised her “bursting sound and infectious beat,” Dan Morgenstern her “gutsy, swinging” style, Ira Gitler her “liquid dexterity and authentic feeling,” and Gary Giddins her musicality “that bristles with invention.”
The world’s great jazz festivals have invited her to perform, including the JVC, Newport, Chicago, Monterey, New Orleans Jazz & Heritage, Montreal, Copenhagen, Jazz a Vienne, Umbria, North Sea (Netherlands), Tudo e Jazz (Brazil), Caesaria (Israel) and Zagreb Jazzarella festivals. Her performances have been broadcast internationally.
The Mainstay (Home of Musical Magic) is the friendly informal storefront performing arts center on Rock Hall’s old time Main Street.
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