Translated material
Basso profundo
Cohen rose to fame as a member of pianist Chick Corea's trio Origin. As part of Origin, Avishai's deep double bass sounded just right - it was clear to everyone that Corea had discovered a new bass star, just as he had once discovered John Patitucci and many other musicians who can now boast of successful solo careers. Actually, Muscovites had the opportunity to evaluate the sound of Origin for themselves, since several years ago Chick Corea came to Moscow with this particular lineup. But be that as it may, at the first opportunity, the bassist left the stellar and in-demand project of Chick Corea to start a solo career. And now, at 36 years old - for a jazzman the age of childhood - Avishai is the leader of a sparkling trio and the author of six studio albums. If with Corea Avishai played the virtuoso acoustic fusion of his star chef, then, having started his solo career, he began to work in several other styles. In addition to double bass and pure acoustics, he now picks up an electric bass guitar, and his albums contain original music mixed with funk, Latin and hip-hop. Avishai spoke to us about his path, influences and teachers at Stockholm's Scandic Anglais hotel, where we caught up with him just the morning after the trio's successful concert in the Swedish capital.
— Avishai, you have a new album and a European tour...
— Yes, our new album was recently released, it’s called Continuo. We've been playing with this material in Scandinavia for two months now, and, fortunately, the local audience is receiving us well. The album Continuo, by the way, was recorded in Sweden, in a small town. But we had a cool studio there and a cool sound engineer, one whom I would recommend to all acoustic jazzmen! We also recently recorded our concert at the legendary New York club Blue Note, and we will release this program on CD and DVD.
—Aren’t you going to Russia?
“It’s not that I’m not going to, it’s just that we haven’t been invited yet.” The first and last time I played in your country was a Chick Corea concert.
— By the way, why did you leave Corea and start a solo career?
— I always, back in school, had my own groups and solo projects, and I always dreamed that one day I would be a bandleader and composer. But I couldn’t do it seriously, because when I was younger, I simply wasn’t ready yet - neither morally, nor physically, nor professionally. So first I waited until I “grew up”, then - until my collaboration with Chick ended. As soon as the opportunity arose, I began pursuing a solo career. In general, it was a very long journey, many years... When I arrived in New York from Israel, I was 21 years old. It took a year to fit into the surrounding reality, the local party, and start playing professionally. Three years later I began performing in other countries. Five years later, Chick invited me to join his ensemble. So it took about ten years to gain a foothold in the jazz environment. But now everyone knows me everywhere, and I can plan concerts and release albums.
—What are your memories of the Chick Corea trio?
- Wonderful. Chick is a wonderful person and a great musician. I learned a lot from him.
- Who are the guys in your current trio?
-- Pianist Sam Barsh and drummer Mark Giuliana are both from New York, young but very strong musicians. Virtuosos! Sam, Mark, and I started working three years ago. I was just lucky that I met them.
-You composed some strange song in Hebrew... what is it?
- These were verses from the Bible, the passage about “angels of peace.” This is a song for Friday nights, my grandfather often sang these lines. Now I sing them at concerts to the accompaniment of my double bass.
— At one time you made a jazz cover of an Eminem song... Was it a joke?
- No, why, I sincerely like what he does. And not only the texts, but the music. That is, the sound of Eminem is, of course, the merit of Dr. Dre, whose “groove” I simply adore. Whether it's rap or not is not so important: I love almost all genres of music. And this, by the way, has a side effect (laughs) . For example, Swedish and Norwegian journalists told me that my compositions have a “pronounced Scandinavian melodicism.” From where, I wonder? I never aspired to this, at least not consciously!