Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
The members of the Anat Cohen Quartet are part of a dynamic circle of broad-minded players who’ve been kicking around for a decade or so but only emerged as a force in the last couple years. Many of them, including Avital and clarinetist Cohen, are from Israel, but others hail from Latin and South America and other locales. For example, hot-shit guitarist Lionel Loueke, who plays Symphony Center tomorrow night with Herbie Hancock, is from Benin. Unsurprisingly, this international crew incorporates a wide array of sounds and styles, with post-bop as the foundation and driving spirit. Middle Eastern scales and Latin rhythms are the most obvious elements they draw upon, but the results are rarely predictable and never glib.
Late last year Lindner released Ab Aeterno (Fresh Sound World Jazz), a trio session with Avital and Venezuelan percussionist Luisito Quintero, which better displays his piano prowess. As he says in his liner notes, this project was started in part “to share the way in which the two of us vibe together on our instruments.” With Quintero sticking mostly to hand drums, there’s no question that the focus is on the pianist and bassist, who clearly have a rapport, playing off one another’s lines with a quicksilver grace. Lindner is a restrained, lyric player, and he never indulges in post-bop acrobatics, even on a reading of Bud Powell’s “Sure Thing/Glass Enclosure.” Several tracks feature Avital on the oud, and while the instrument’s twang clearly signifies music from the Middle East, his handling of it fits right in with the music’s flow. The album includes an extended, tender version of Avital’s “Song for Amos”—there’s also a lovely take on Lindner’s big band recording, but this one is far more intimate, with conversational interplay.
