Anat Cohen is a world-class clarinet player and composer from Israel, based in the global melting pot of New York City. While she's known around the world for her jazz chops, it was her love for Brazilian choro music that she shared during a 2017 visit to the KNKX studios.
Choro is a hybrid music style, the result of the combination of musical traditions from indigenous Africans and Western Europeans living in Brazil. In essence, choro is South American roots music that includes melodic beauty, rhythmic energy and a passionate, emotional core. According to Cohen, some call it the "father of samba and the grandfather of bossa nova."
"I fell in love with it, not just because clarinet fits perfectly in the style — so for me, it's like I found my place — it's just the music just is so bouncy, it's so happy, and it can be also so emotional and so full of longing," Cohen said.
Likewise, choro reconnects Cohen with the early musical loves she had while growing up in Israel: classical music and the swing of early American jazz.
"For the classical musicians, it really has the precision and the perfection of the classical world. You don't need to know how to improvise, however you need to have this kind of swing, and get the feel of it," Cohen said. "And for jazz musicians, it has a lot of space for interpretation and improvisation. And it's close, for me, to the music of New Orleans. First of all, it has the joy of the music a lot of time, and this music is very complex."
Cohen also talked about her fellow choro-loving musicians: Dudu Maia on the ten-string bandolim, Douglas Lora on guitar, and his brother, Alexandre Lora on pandeiro, a percussion instrument similar to a tambourine. Cohen met these Brazilian musicians, who call themselves Trio Brasileiro, at Centrum's week-long Choro Northwest workshop in Port Townsend, Washington.
"We met about five years ago teaching, and it was a love at first sight...first heard," Cohen said.
Cohen found the trio made for good musical teammates, playfully comparing choro music to soccer, or 'futebol,' as Brazilians call it.
"Things just pass between one person to the other, and yet it sounds just so relaxed and fun. It has so many details, but it just...well with these guys, anything flows. These guys are amazing," Cohen said.
There are other reasons Cohen knew their instant connection in Port Townsend was the real deal.
"There's a word in Portuguese called 'carinho.' Like, when you really care, you're gentle with the person, and you pay attention to their needs. And these guys, they pay attention. They they're really sensitive people and that's what I look for in music and in people," Cohen said.
At the time of their KNKX appearance, Cohen and Trio Brasileiro had just released a new record, Rosa Dos Ventos, which earned them a Grammy nomination. Cohen has since released several more Brazilian-inspired records and tracks, including another single with Trio Brasileiro called "Digital Cowboy."
Songs heard in this episode:
- "Mumurando"
- "Baião Da Esperança"
- "Ijexá"
