From Darkness Avishai Cohen

• 1 Beyond 02:06
• 2 Abie 03:48
• 3 Halelyah 05:53
• 4 C#- 05:14
• 5 Ballad For An Unborn 07:40
• 6 From Darkness 03:04
• 7 Lost Tribe 02:59
• 8 Almah Sleeping 02:54
• 9 Signature 01:11
• 10 Amethyst 03:23
• 11 Smile 03:26
• 12 Crazeology 02:54
• Total Runtime 44:32

Info for From Darkness

With his new album From Darkness, Avishai Cohen comes back to the essence of its language, starting from his musician experience to conquer new horizons and new lands, towards a new creative and expressive dimension created in trio. “I felt it was the right moment to record in trio”, Avishai Cohen says, “because it is the first time since the album Gently Disturbed that I had the feeling I was reaching a truly new, fresh and incredibly substantial form.”

The unity of the three artists is so strong that Avishai Cohen states “in the trio there is such a form of equality that three become one”. Nitai Hershkovits has been filling the music of Avishai with grace since the album Duende (2012). Daniel Dor entered Avishai’s musical world in late 2013 and quickly managed to breathe new life into it. “Between them -Cohen says- a common, friendly space appeared that can only strengthen the moments we share: they take my music to places and perspectives that I had never suspected it would go.”

Much like the importance of a Compass to an Explorer, when Avishai Cohen is asked what he would consider his favourite navigational instrument, he replies without hesitation, that it is his bass-piano-drums Trio that helps him to find his orientation and drive, to push forward. Avishai reflects that “… my discography has only one trio album [Gently Disturbed, 2008] which doesn’t really reflect the fact that my music has always been written for – and executed by – Trio”

From Darkness sees the Israeli composer, bassist and singer go back to the very core of his musical idiom and activity, but with Avishai, what may seem as a return to the basics always brings the promise of a new beginning. From Darkness once again opens an essential gateway into a new creative and expressive dimension. “It is the first time since Gently Disturbed that I have the feeling I am reaching a new, fresh and incredibly substantial form with the trio.” A belief reinforced by two outstanding partners, pianist Nitai Hershkovits and drummer Daniel Dor. “Both Nitai and Daniel take my music to places and perspectives that I had never suspected it would go and I couldn’t dream of anything better.” Avishai goes on to describe this chemistry between them as; “Here, three becomes one.”

This unity between human and sound owes a lot to a virtue brought here to its highest intensity; mutual listening, a soulful and heartful science that presides over the destiny of true music. The opening track “Beyond”, showcases in just over two minutes the greatness of this album; the art of occupying space and time in trio, tugging at the heartstrings of each in harmony, of melting the parts of a boundless imagination in the crucible of a true and unfailing intelligence.

It is indeed a key step in Cohen’s long-term quest for the absolute and for purity. The art of this trio is rich and condensed; swarming with new ideas, reduced to the essential and crossed by a thousand subtly harmonized shades. From Darkness unveils itself as a strong, contentious beauty, that’s aware of its strengths and its vulnerability, Avishai confirms, “Our trio was so united that the music just flew, in one single stream, in one entity. We present it very purely, without any distractions, of any kind. This includes when we highlight the groove, the trance and the rhythm that define my signature style which feeds and contributes to the positive energy throughout the album.”

In Leonard Cohen’s song “Anthem”, he wrote these penetrating lines; “There is a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.” It is through these majestic flaws, carved by humans and musicianship, that From Darkness lets the light radiate from an art that, more than ever, can legitimately claim to reach the truth of the human soul.

„A Jazz visionary of global proportions.“ (Downbeat)

„…his playing remains as jaw dropping as ever.“ (Downbeat)

„It’s his presence as a highly influential composer and bandleader that has helped bring a fresh energy and outlook to modern acoustic jazz.“ (Bass Guitar Magazine)

Avishai Cohen, bass
Nitai Hershkovits, piano
Daniel Dor, 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.