Description

Avishai Cohen impressed a lot of listeners with his soulful contributions to Mark Turners Lathe of Heaven album in 2014. Now the charismatic Tel Aviv-born trumpeter has his ECM leader debut in a programme of expansive and impressionistic compositions for jazz quartet (trumpet, piano, bass, drums), augmented by tenor saxophone on a few pieces.

Into The Silence is dedicated to the memory of Avishais father David, reflecting upon the last days of his life with grace and restraint. Avishais tender muted trumpet sets the emotional tone of the music in the albums opening moments and his gifted cast of musicians explore its implications. Israeli pianist Yonathan Avishai has played with Cohen in many settings and solos creatively inside the trumpeters haunting compositions, sometimes illuminating them with the phraseology of the blues. Cohen and drummer Nasheet Waits have a hypersensitive understanding and their interaction can, from moment to moment, recall the heyday of Miles Davis and Tony Williams or Don Cherry and Billy Higgins.

Yet this music, while acknowledging inspirational sources, is very much of our time. Bassist Eric Revis, a cornerstone of the Branford Marsalis quartet for two decades, provides elegant support throughout. And saxophonist Bill McHenry, a subtle modernist who has worked with Paul Motian and Andrew Cyrille, shadows Cohens lines with feeling. The album, released on 180g vinyl (with a free MP3 download) as well as CD, was recorded at Studios La Buissonne in the South of France in July 2015 and produced by Manfred Eicher.

Cohen is a multicultural jazz musician, among whose ancestor is Miles Davis. Like Davis, he can make the trumpet a vehicle for uttering the most poignant human cries. The New York Times

Personnel: Avishai Cohen (trumpet), Yonathan Avishai (piano), Eric Revis (double bass), Nasheet Waits (drums), Bill McHenry (tenor saxophone)