[NEohioPAL]AVISHAI COHEN AND THE INTERNATIONAL VAMP BAND

[Fox, Chris]

The Jewish Community Center of Cleveland (JCC)
 
is proud to present live in concert
in partnership with the Center for Arts and Culture at Cuyahoga Community
College
the Cleveland performance by
 
AVISHAI COHEN AND THE INTERNATIONAL VAMP BAND
 

 AVISHAI COHEN AND THE INTERNATIONAL VAMP BAND
 
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 23 - 8 P.M.
PERFORMING ARTS CENTER (CCC EAST CAMPUS)
4250 Richmond Road 
(at the corner of Richmond and Harvard Roads; just five minutes from our
Mandel JCC Building)
 
Born in a small village near Jerusalem in 1970, Avishai Cohen's is a
typically Israeli background. His father was an Ashkenazi Jew, his mother
descended from Sephardic settlers who immigrated to Palestine from Greece
and Turkey at the start of the 20th century. 'Growing up in Israel, you're
exposed to many influences which create that special sauce,' Cohen once
commented. 'It's in the music, the culture, the skin tone, everything. My
mother is an artist, and while she worked she listened a lot to classical
music, from Mozart to Chopin to Bartok. We'd have Friday night dinners in
the house she grew up in, where my grandfather would sing religious songs.
And my parents had parties in the house when they were younger, where they
used to play '70s Euro disco-funk, and then you'd hear records by Middle
Eastern or Sephardic singers.'
With music such an important factor in the Cohen household, young Avishai
turned to performing himself. He started his musical journey experimenting
on the piano, which his sister was learning to play. He began composing and
improvising at an early age, trying out different tunes and harmonies, and
memorizing them by marking the keyboard with shells. He began studying
classical piano at age 10 in Israel. After moving to St. Louis, Missouri, he
continued studying both jazz piano and electric bass guitar. His teacher
introduced him to Jaco Pastorius and Stanley Clarke, which, he says,
"changed everything." After moving to New York in 1992, he attended the New
School and Mannes College of Music where he met pianist Brad Mehldau and
percussionist Adam Cruz. He worked a few nights a week with Brad Mehldau's
trio, tenorist Grant Stewart and guitarist Peter Bernstein, and later met
such stellar players as Jorge Rossy and Danilo Perez. Cohen's study of Latin
music continued with rapt attention to the music of Eddie Palmieri. After
taking lessons from bassist Andy Gonzalez, Cohen developed his Latin chops
with a band that included Abie Rodrigues and Ray Santiage. A two-month
sojourn in Jerusalem in the mid-'90s was put to good use when Cohen set up
his own trio, working out some new material and performing as a piano player
with an old friend, Yagil Baras, on double bass and drummer Dan Aran. After
moving back to Israel, Cohen studied at the Music & Arts Academy and
privately with Maestro Michael Klinghoffer, who took him from the
fundamentals to the Bach Cello Suites. 
Cohen headed back to Manhattan to pick up his performing career. Infected by
the leader bug, he formed an ensemble with Diego Urcola on trumpet and Avi
Lebovich on trombone. As an Argentine, Urcola's understanding of
Latin-flavored melody and rhythm was a perfect conduit for Cohen's
frontier-free music. Cuban saxophonist Yosvany Terry was soon on board, and
Antonio Sanchez (whom Cohen had first met at the Nice Jazz Festival in
France) was next. Cohen didn't have to cast his musical net very wide for a
bass player: instrument in tow, Baras answered the New York call. All six of
them form the nucleus of the International Vamp Band, a group whose
international complexion continues to be reflected in its music. The
International Vamp Band made their concert debut in February 2001 at The
Jazz Gallery in New York City and garnered critical acclaim from several
major periodicals, including The New York Times and The Village Voice. 
A vamp is defined in popular music as an improvised introduction or
accompaniment usually consisting of a succession of chords against an
ostinato figure in the bass and used to set the rhythmic pace for the song
or instrumental piece. In the musical vocabulary of Avishai Cohen and the
International Vamp Band, this definition is personified at the forefront of
jazz, world and sophisticated melodies and now has a fresh new meaning on
the global music stage. Together, they function as a new clave-rhythm
workshop for developing new composing and arranging techniques that bring
together Afro-Cuban, Middle Eastern, World and Classical elements into the
jazz idiom. 
Cohen is an accomplished arranger, pianist and composer and is a member of
the Chick Corea New Trio and is a co-founder of Corea's ensemble Origin. The
latter recently received a nomination as Best Small Jazz Ensemble by the
Jazz Journalists Association. Cohen has accompanied such luminaries as
Danilo Perez, Roy Hargrove, Duane Eubanks, Nnenna Freelon, Claudia Acuña,
Jason Lindner and Tim Garland as well as having performed concert works with
the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and The
Boston Pops Symphony. He has composed and arranged compositions for Chick
Corea, Claudia Acuña and Jason Lindner. Cohen also gives lessons,
instructing bass clinics, seminars and master classes throughout the world.
In the words of Chick Corea, "Avishai Cohen is an amazing combination of
influences."
Please join us for what will be an evening of sizzle and swing!
Presented in partnership with the Center for Arts and Culture at Cuyahoga
Community College and a part of the Fresh Notes Festival: A New Look at
Jewish Music.
 
WE ARE VERY PLEASED TO EXTEND
A SPECIAL DISCOUNT FOR ALL JCC MEMBERS
CALL TICKETS.COM AT (216) 241-6000
FOR GROUP SALES CALL TRI-C CENTER FOR ARTS AND CULTURE (216) 987-2544
FOR GENERAL INFORMATION CALL (216) 987-2543
 
TICKETS ARE ALSO AVAILABLE AT THE PERFORMING ARTS CENTER BOX OFFICE AT TRI-C
EAST.  THE BOX OFFICE OPENS AT 6 P.M. ON THE NIGHT OF THE PERFORMANCE!
DELICIOUS TREATS AVAILABLE - KOSHER SUPERVISION - PRIOR TO AND AFTER THE
PERFORMANCE.