YUVAL COHEN / WINTER POEMS ECM2818
Yuval Cohen: soprano saxophone, melodica; Tom Oren: piano; Alon Near: double bass; Alon Benjamini: drums
Soprano saxophonist Yuval Cohen’s debut for the label is a thrilling offering that captures the brother of long-time ECM traveller Avishai Cohen charting innovative paths through eight originals in graceful interplay with his quartet. Pianist Tom Oren, bassist Alon Near and Alon Benjamini on drums are longtime acquaintances of Yuval’s who are not only outstanding instrumentalists in their own right, but share a deep, intuitive understanding for the leader’s musical language and improvisational approach. “I’m very fortunate to be able to play with these young guys,” says Yuval. “I’ve known them for a long time – they’re three beautiful souls and talents with whom I had a great time shaping this music together.” Throughout the album, the saxophonist demonstrates his own understanding of chamber jazz dynamics and explores a broad range of influences – from folk idioms to motif development borrowed from classical music – to lyrical and contemplative, but also energetic and uplifting results.
“Classical music is as much part of me as jazz is,” says Yuval, who was educated in classical music from an early age and, in return, today teaches in Israel’s music education environment himself. “It’s that early formal training that gives you a very clean tone, forces you to develop strict in tune playing. There’s many more qualities in the classical tradition that are useful in jazz and other contexts and genres.” And there’s no one particular genre in which Yuval and his quartet navigate – instead they juggle with a multitude of idioms, wrapped in subtle, familiar interplay that spans a broad dynamic spectrum.
The classical aspect is rather tangentially grazed, part of an underlying musical understanding than bound to any deliberate element. For example, before the final version of the title track “Winter Poem” came to fruition, the quartet used to introduce the piece with a fragment from Franz Schubert’s Winterreise song cycle. The arpeggiated minor pattern played by pianist Tom Oren would still make the perfect bedding for the downward moving piano motif from the cycle’s opening song “Gute Nacht” (it shares the same tonality) in this final version, but as Yuval enters from below, moving upward, new paths are broached and directions taken – “it’s all somehow connected to the literature of classical music,” notes Yuval.
Other influences reign equally strong. The closing piece “Helech Ruach” – the title’s Hebrew term translates to “mood” – is inspired by what Yuval considers an “Israeli classic”, “Hu Lo Yada Et Shma”, written by one of his idols, the Russia-born Israeli popular song composer Sasha Argov. And while working on “Song For Lo Am”, Yuval had Charles Lloyd’s “direct approach and straight forwardness in his playing” in mind – “the harsh mixed with the tender”. Its minimalist, blues-shaped design captures the group at its most intimately expressive.
Folk music undertones of the Levant-region are omnipresent in those songs and also bring an earthy quality to more balladic expositions like the opening “First Meditation”. The flute-like quality of the saxophone’s upper register, through the sensitive playing of Yuval, further emphasises that folk song connotation, while “The Dance of the Nightingale” and “Avia” are injected with yet another compositional facet of Yuval’s. A livelier quartet emerges here, highlighting the players’ technical chops while revealing deeply lyrical melodies at the same time. Tom Oren’s discerning and masterful keyboard playing in particular stands out.
Neither Parker nor Haden are the adressees of “For Charlie”, as jazz aficionados might expect. Instead, the song is dedicated to Chaplin, whose films inspired the music. Yuval felt compelled to use the melodica for this occasion and “schlepped it all the way to France just for this piece”. On “The Unfolding Nature of Iris”, the group is drenched in a soft-spoken rubato context with each player in deep conversation.
The album was recorded in Pernes-Les-Fontaines in September, 2023 and produced by Manfred Eicher.
