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Luminosa

Released: March 17th, 2015

Onstage or on record, the music of Anat Cohen positively glows – with virtuosity, with charisma, with the sheer joy of creation – and never more brightly than on her seventh album as a bandleader, Luminosa. On Luminosa, Anat plays dancing originals, interprets Brazilian classics by the likes of Milton Nascimento, and even re-imagines electronica as acoustica with an ingenious arrangement of a Flying Lotus tune. Members from Anat’s touring quartet – keyboardist Jason Lindner, bassist Joe Martin and drummer Daniel Freedman – appear on the album, as do guest guitarists Romero Lubambo and Gilad Hekselman, percussionist Gilmar Gomes and the Brazilian players of her new band Choro Aventuroso. Anat has been named the top clarinetist in both the readers and critics polls in DownBeat, the jazz bible, for multiple years running. And her fluency in the jazz tradition is utterly at one with her flair for Brazilian music. As the Brazilian Press has declared: “Anat is an Israeli who seems like a Brazilian when she plays samba.” A true citizen of the world, Anat speaks a universal language through her horn.

“The title Luminosa is Portuguese for luminous – something shining, especially in the dark. To me, music is a luminous experience. Whenever I’m immersed in it, life lights up for me, no matter what else is going on. Whether it’s performing a concert with my quartet or sitting in with my peers, enjoying musical conversations at home with my brothers or hanging and playing choro with my friends – sharing moments in that bright space of music are the happiest times.”

- Anat Cohen