AVISHAI COHEN / YONATHAN AVISHAI / BARAK MORI / ZIV RAVITZ - Naked Truth
ECM 389 9594
Avishai Cohen (trumpet); Yonathan Avishai (piano); Barak Mori (double bass); Ziv Ravitz (drums)
Recorded September 2021
Avishai Cohen is a musician who is not unwilling to surprise his audiences. Radical departures, small and subtle changes in his music and thinking, even using continuity to elicit new directions by drawing on the familiar before entering uncharted territory. In this respect Cohen is proving himself to be quite the adventurer, yet still working with parameters that ensure the identity of the creator of the music is clear to hear.
A big departure from his last outing for ECM, Big Vicious, the trumpeter returns to an all acoustic quartet for Naked Truth and only drummer Ziv Ravitz stays on from the previous album. Joining forces once again with pianist, Yonathan Avishai with whom he has a long musical association and has played on four of the five recordings that Cohen has made for ECM including the outstanding duo set, Playing The Room (2019). The quartet is completed by another long term colleague in bassist, Barak Mori, but once again the music presented is quite different from the earlier albums that all four musicians have created together.
If previously the emphasis has been very much on the composition, and the interpretation by the quartet as a unified ensemble working as one, Naked Truth is more improvisational in nature. More interested in the interaction than the song, Cohen has set out look at how the quartet work together working with the melodies and letting the story being told by each unfold in the moment. So much so that Avishai had said that "the melodies somehow didn’t want to be written down before the recording".
From the opening bass notes and Cohen's delicate open trumpet sound there is a peacefulness and quietness that fills the air, and the sonorities of the two instruments play out this simple melody in less that two tantalising minutes as if setting the scene for the rest of the set. A prequel if you like to 'Part II' upon which the eight not motif with Cohen on muted trumpet explores with his colleagues in a tight knit chamber quartet. This classical feel to the songs is continued on 'Part III' with Yonathan's gently undulating piano and Mori's bassline underpinning beautifully Avishai's muted trumpet lines.
The pianist gets the brief 'Part V' to himself in a lovely miniature that revels in the unfolding melody and delicacy of touch that Yonathan brings to the keyboard. In contrast, the quartet is heard in a melancholy 'Pat VII' before segueing seamlessly into 'Part VIII' with the open trumpet at its most declamatory, albeit somewhat subdued and reigned in, there is no disguising the urge to fly and being encouraged to do so by Ravitz's authoritative drumming.
This is an outstanding recording from Cohen, full of interest and hushed interplay from the quartet that yields a sense of awe and wonder in the playing. It is almost as if beauty comes from simplicity. Cohen has produced melodies that have been allowed to exist and develop on the day in the recording studio with little rehearsal, and without ever over thinking or worrying over the smallest written detail have a rawness and vulnerability that is truly engaging.
Making sure that he has the last word, Cohen concludes with a wonderful surprise to close the album. Putting aside his trumpet, Avishai recites the poem 'Departure' by Zelda Schneurson Mishkovsky, whose words, accompanied by the trio, capture the mood of the music that proceeds it.
Another departure from the trumpeter that over the course of five albums for ECM has witnessed Cohen focus on composition, interplay in both an acoustic and electronic ensemble, and freeing up the melodies for more improvisational music making. His onwards journey will be fascinating to follow as he continues to meld lessons learned with his inquisitive and restless search for new contexts in which to place his now unique trumpet sound.
Reviewed by Nick Lea
ECM 389 9594
Avishai Cohen (trumpet); Yonathan Avishai (piano); Barak Mori (double bass); Ziv Ravitz (drums)
Recorded September 2021
Avishai Cohen is a musician who is not unwilling to surprise his audiences. Radical departures, small and subtle changes in his music and thinking, even using continuity to elicit new directions by drawing on the familiar before entering uncharted territory. In this respect Cohen is proving himself to be quite the adventurer, yet still working with parameters that ensure the identity of the creator of the music is clear to hear.
A big departure from his last outing for ECM, Big Vicious, the trumpeter returns to an all acoustic quartet for Naked Truth and only drummer Ziv Ravitz stays on from the previous album. Joining forces once again with pianist, Yonathan Avishai with whom he has a long musical association and has played on four of the five recordings that Cohen has made for ECM including the outstanding duo set, Playing The Room (2019). The quartet is completed by another long term colleague in bassist, Barak Mori, but once again the music presented is quite different from the earlier albums that all four musicians have created together.
If previously the emphasis has been very much on the composition, and the interpretation by the quartet as a unified ensemble working as one, Naked Truth is more improvisational in nature. More interested in the interaction than the song, Cohen has set out look at how the quartet work together working with the melodies and letting the story being told by each unfold in the moment. So much so that Avishai had said that "the melodies somehow didn’t want to be written down before the recording".
From the opening bass notes and Cohen's delicate open trumpet sound there is a peacefulness and quietness that fills the air, and the sonorities of the two instruments play out this simple melody in less that two tantalising minutes as if setting the scene for the rest of the set. A prequel if you like to 'Part II' upon which the eight not motif with Cohen on muted trumpet explores with his colleagues in a tight knit chamber quartet. This classical feel to the songs is continued on 'Part III' with Yonathan's gently undulating piano and Mori's bassline underpinning beautifully Avishai's muted trumpet lines.
The pianist gets the brief 'Part V' to himself in a lovely miniature that revels in the unfolding melody and delicacy of touch that Yonathan brings to the keyboard. In contrast, the quartet is heard in a melancholy 'Pat VII' before segueing seamlessly into 'Part VIII' with the open trumpet at its most declamatory, albeit somewhat subdued and reigned in, there is no disguising the urge to fly and being encouraged to do so by Ravitz's authoritative drumming.
This is an outstanding recording from Cohen, full of interest and hushed interplay from the quartet that yields a sense of awe and wonder in the playing. It is almost as if beauty comes from simplicity. Cohen has produced melodies that have been allowed to exist and develop on the day in the recording studio with little rehearsal, and without ever over thinking or worrying over the smallest written detail have a rawness and vulnerability that is truly engaging.
Making sure that he has the last word, Cohen concludes with a wonderful surprise to close the album. Putting aside his trumpet, Avishai recites the poem 'Departure' by Zelda Schneurson Mishkovsky, whose words, accompanied by the trio, capture the mood of the music that proceeds it.
Another departure from the trumpeter that over the course of five albums for ECM has witnessed Cohen focus on composition, interplay in both an acoustic and electronic ensemble, and freeing up the melodies for more improvisational music making. His onwards journey will be fascinating to follow as he continues to meld lessons learned with his inquisitive and restless search for new contexts in which to place his now unique trumpet sound.
Reviewed by Nick Lea
