AVISHAI COHEN - Two Roses
NaȈve/Believe: M7425
Avishai Cohen ( bass, vocals, composer, arranger) Elchin Shirinov (piano) Mark Guiliana (drums) with The Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra conducted by Alexander Hanson.
No recording details given
It’s been said that just as many comedians nurture an ambition to play a dramatic acting role, jazz musicians aspire to performing in a symphonic context. There are many instances within the repertoire but with two or three notable exceptions, few can be said to have produced a satisfactory result, the heavily scored orchestral element encasing the more spontaneous jazz passages like a fly trapped in amber. Israeli born bassist and composer Avishai Cohen’s latest project represents a further attempt to bring together classical and jazz genres but notwithstanding the excellence of the musicians engaged in the undeniably masterful realisation of his scores there isn’t much to hold the interest of the typical jazz listener though others may marvel at its extravagant audacity.
Cohen’s musical ambitions clearly exceed his role as the leader of a jazz combo as evidenced in his previous release, `Almah` in which he added a small chamber ensemble to his piano based trio. Here, he revisits some of the pieces included there combining a couple of his favourite standards with Middle Eastern folkloric and Slavic tinged pieces rounding out his programme with several originals including a pop flavoured song, `When I’m Falling`, which features his rather expressionless singing voice. He also gives us a rather anaemic rendering of the ballad `Nature Boy` but sounds more at home as a vocalist on some the folk oriented tunes.
The dominating feature of the set is, however, the orchestral score which as you would expect from a world class aggregation is delivered with lush opulence and considerable brio. Trouble is, it is rather overblown like the musical soundtracks of the 1940’s which, themselves derived from late nineteenth century musical romanticism, sound rather anachronistic and bathetic. The trio wallow around in this soupy sentimental environment occasionally breaking out like sun coming out from behind a cloud bank but not enough for me to want to wait around for it to happen which is a pity because with spiky, hyper-active drummer, Guiliana recruited to the enterprise the potential for some potent grooving was available.
In the album’s defence there is some music that merits an accolade, namely a translucent, moody chromatic reading of `When A Child is Born` by Thad Jones, a favourite Cohen piece, and an ebullient headlong version of his own `Arab Medley`, which in this orchestral version one could imagine becoming a `concert pop` if played at a BBC Prom.
Reviewed by Euan Dixon
NaȈve/Believe: M7425
Avishai Cohen ( bass, vocals, composer, arranger) Elchin Shirinov (piano) Mark Guiliana (drums) with The Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra conducted by Alexander Hanson.
No recording details given
It’s been said that just as many comedians nurture an ambition to play a dramatic acting role, jazz musicians aspire to performing in a symphonic context. There are many instances within the repertoire but with two or three notable exceptions, few can be said to have produced a satisfactory result, the heavily scored orchestral element encasing the more spontaneous jazz passages like a fly trapped in amber. Israeli born bassist and composer Avishai Cohen’s latest project represents a further attempt to bring together classical and jazz genres but notwithstanding the excellence of the musicians engaged in the undeniably masterful realisation of his scores there isn’t much to hold the interest of the typical jazz listener though others may marvel at its extravagant audacity.
Cohen’s musical ambitions clearly exceed his role as the leader of a jazz combo as evidenced in his previous release, `Almah` in which he added a small chamber ensemble to his piano based trio. Here, he revisits some of the pieces included there combining a couple of his favourite standards with Middle Eastern folkloric and Slavic tinged pieces rounding out his programme with several originals including a pop flavoured song, `When I’m Falling`, which features his rather expressionless singing voice. He also gives us a rather anaemic rendering of the ballad `Nature Boy` but sounds more at home as a vocalist on some the folk oriented tunes.
The dominating feature of the set is, however, the orchestral score which as you would expect from a world class aggregation is delivered with lush opulence and considerable brio. Trouble is, it is rather overblown like the musical soundtracks of the 1940’s which, themselves derived from late nineteenth century musical romanticism, sound rather anachronistic and bathetic. The trio wallow around in this soupy sentimental environment occasionally breaking out like sun coming out from behind a cloud bank but not enough for me to want to wait around for it to happen which is a pity because with spiky, hyper-active drummer, Guiliana recruited to the enterprise the potential for some potent grooving was available.
In the album’s defence there is some music that merits an accolade, namely a translucent, moody chromatic reading of `When A Child is Born` by Thad Jones, a favourite Cohen piece, and an ebullient headlong version of his own `Arab Medley`, which in this orchestral version one could imagine becoming a `concert pop` if played at a BBC Prom.
Reviewed by Euan Dixon
