Shifting Sands Avishai Cohen

• 1 Intertwined 05:40
• 2 The Window 04:34
• 3 Dvash 07:05
• 4 Joy 05:27
• 5 Below 04:31
• 6 Shifting Sands 06:45
• 7 Chacha Rom 03:23
• 8 Hitragut 04:15
• 9 Videogame 04:15
• 10 Kinderblock 05:12
• Total Runtime 51:07

Info for Shifting Sands

In the end it’s all about connection. The connection with your inner self, the connection between the musicians on stage, and, of course, the connection between the band and its audience. For the last twenty five years, legendary bassist, singer and composer Avishai Cohen has grown to be one of the heavyweights of contemporary jazz, with a catalogue to rival those of even the most legendary in the field of jazz… and beyond. He became a name of concert hall stature around the world and headlined the best festivals any artist could dream of.

Shifting Sands – his brand-new album – proves he’s not resting on his laurels, but don’t take our word for it. Listen to ‘Intertwined’ – the charged opening track and the cornerstone of the record – and you’ll feel right away that he raised the bar again. The message is loud and clear: it’s a new adventure on the DNA that you were already familiar with. Since the beginning of the century Avishai Cohen has travelled a varied road. He appeared leading with orchestras, led smaller ensembles and even duets. But it is the Trio format that he always returns to.

A trio always works because all elements are there. The piano is like an orchestra in itself. Add a beat and the low register of the bass, and you have everything. Yes, there have been different line-ups over the years. In 2008 he made Gently Disturbed, a landmark album considered a classic now, and some people even wondered if Avishai Cohen would ever be able to better it. Today we know he has. “That time with Shai and Mark was very special. But I honestly think I now have a trio where that kind of magic is happening again. First of all, Elchin Shirinov from Azerbaijan is a magnificent pianist in his own right. He’s very focused and confident, and I’m sure that comes across. Then I found drummer Roni Kaspi. She may only be 21, but she’s an exceptional talent and a new spirit who brings her own strong personality.

On stage, it’s about trust and feeling good in each other’s company. You can feel the joy we have in playing together, and – to be completely honest – the concerts we’ve been doing evolved way beyond the record.” Kaspi is very young, Shirinov will be 40 shortly, and Avishai Cohen celebrated his half-century back in 2020

Still,the age gap evaporates from the moment the trio starts playing. “I had that sense with Chick Corea. He was thirty years my senior,but when we played together there was a joy in the fact that he was his age, and I was mine. There was no barrier. Kaspi and Shirinov both grew up listening to my music and consider me an influence, which is incredible to me. Because they challenge me too.

One of the reasons why my music has progressed so well, is because of the musicians. I have a clear idea of what I want, but the musicians have total freedom. That, to me, is modern jazz. It’s the most democratic form of music but you have to be well invested and intelligent enough to respect what you’re getting. The hardest thing is to be yourself, and to give the freedom to others to be themselves too. And this new album is the highest level I’ve reached so far: of me being the composer and the idea-maker, but having them both state the mood and the vibe.”

That unity between human, sound and soul creates a sublime, sonically layered record that links mature compositions with a very youthful energy thriving through the music. Avishai feels it too. At this stage of his life, he has a degree of self-belief that gives him the courage to keep on pushing the boundaries. The compositions on Shifting Sands were born at home near Jerusalem on his piano during the pandemic. For the first time in years, this kept him off the road for several months. He kept communicating with his audience through regular live sessions on Facebook and Instagram. He considered it his little assignment. He had to practice, and it gave him motivation, and some distraction in a period of time where the whole world felt lost and lonely.

“It was an unusual way of working, but at the same time I found it cool and challenging to at least excite a few people every day. And excite me. Not being able to play shows for such a long time had never happened to me. It made me appreciate what I get to do for a living even more than I did before.”

The compositions came to life when the trio played a handful of shows in the summer of 2021 in Europe, before they travelled to Sweden to record them.

The result is a splendid, uplifting recording that ranks among his very, very best.

Avishai Cohen, double bass
Elchin Shirinov, piano
Roni Kaspi, drums

Avishai Cohen
For four years running, Cohen has been voted a Rising Star-Trumpet in the DownBeat Critics Poll. Along with leading his Triveni trio with Omer Avital and Nasheet Waits, thetrumpeter was a member of the SF Jazz Collective for six years. He also records and tours the world with The 3 Cohens Sextet, the hit family band with his sister, clarinetist-saxophonist Anat, and brother, saxophonist Yuval. Declared All About Jazz: “To the ranks of the Heaths of Philadelphia, the Joneses of Detroit and the Marsalises of New Orleans, fans can now add the 3 Cohens of Tel Aviv.”

The trumpeter began performing in public in 1988 at age 10, playing his first solos with a big band and eventually touring with the Young Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra to perform under the likes of maestros Zubin Mehta, Kurt Masur and Kent Nagano. Having worked with Israeli folk and pop artists in his native country and appeared on television early on, Cohen arrived as an experienced professional musician when he took up a full scholarship at Berklee College of Music in Boston. In 1997, the young musician established an international reputation by placing third in the Thelonious Monk Jazz Trumpet Competition. Avishai came of age as a jazz player as part of the fertile scene at the club Smalls in New York’s West Village.

Cohen first recorded for ECM as part of saxophonist Mark Turner’s quartet on Lathe of Heaven, released in September 2014. The trumpeter has performed at the Village Vanguard and beyond with Turner, as well as widely in a band led by pianist Kenny Werner. Cohen has played often in the Mingus Big Band and Mingus Dynasty ensemble, and he has lent his horn to recordings by Anat Cohen, Yuval Cohen and keyboardist Jason Lindner, along with collaborating on stage and in the studio with French-Israeli pop singer Keren Ann. In addition to performing, Cohen was named the Artistic Director of the International Jerusalem Festival in 2015.

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

This album contains no booklet.