If you’ve never been to the blue whale in Los Angeles’s Little Tokyo, there’s no better opportunity to check out this intimate, yet funky, jazz space than with this weekend’s performances by the Avishai Cohen Quartet. And if you don’t know Avishai Cohen, there’s no time like the present to see and hear one of the most sensitive and innovative trumpet players around. There are two shows on both Friday and Saturday night.
Joining Cohen are Fabian Almazan on piano, Barak More on bass and Marcus Gilmore on drums. Cohen’s most recent album was Cross My Palm With Silver on ECM Records. Here’s a sample of what makes Cohen and his fellow musicians so impressive.
When we spoke with Cohen in September of 2017 he talked about music as a vehicle for change, both socially and politically. He said of his music, “it’s just another platform and another reason to talk about it, to think about it and the reader or the listener should do whatever they can.”
Absent any details of a new album forthcoming, it will be interesting to see how Cohen has reshaped his music and if there will be any new music being played. Perhaps these gigs are warm-ups for new recording sessions.
Photo by Ziv Ravitz
