Anat Cohen Quartetinho

“An enthralling clarinetist. . . .”—The New Yorker

“Ms. Cohen on the clarinet was a revelation . . .  she took my breath away.”—The New York Times

Everything in Anat Cohen’s musical world is connected, though her high-flying career extends across three continents like a tripod with a foot each in New York City, Rio de Janeiro, and Tel Aviv. Possessing a rich, creamy-toned tenor sax tone and a startlingly lustrous sound on clarinet, the Israeli-born reed master has created a capacious and cosmopolitan body of work ranging across jazz idioms and hybrid styles. A festival favorite since her 2015 Dinkelspiel debut, she’s often brought her abiding passion for Brazilian music to Stanford, and this concert features the latest vehicle for extending her Brazilian jazz reach. With players gleaned from her acclaimed Tentet, Cohen’s Quartetinho features Rio-born keyboard maestro Vitor Gonçalves on piano, accordion and Fender Rhodes, Israeli bassist Tal Mashiach doubling on guitar, and James Shipp on vibes, percussion and some electronics. Cohen focuses on bass clarinet in the group, which she created “to explore more intimate, chamber jazz sounds,” she says. “We played our first show on March 7, 2020 and the next day everything shut down. It’s a group I’ve been trying to play with ever since. I love these guys. It’s a different space. Everyone contributes some original music, and everyone has an affinity for Brazilian music, but with open space for improvisation and more folkloric sounds.” With ravishing tunes by Antonio Carlos Jobim and Egberto Gismonti thrown into the mix, the Quartetinho delivers an embracing blast of beauty with every performance.