Anat Cohen Quotes
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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.
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The clarinet has always been my baby. I just didn't know that for a while.
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I think maybe the only time I think of being a woman... is being on the road and making sure my musicians are fed and they sleep. 'Are you OK? Do you need some water? Are you hungry? Can I get you a cookie?' I'm not sure all the men bandleaders do that.
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There are a lot of Israeli musicians in New York because you want to grow and go onstage, and eventually you have to get out of Israel to do that because there aren't enough places to play.
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The best part about living in New York is that you are able to play with different people in different styles in the same week. It's really part of who I am as a musical person. I try to incorporate everything that I encounter.
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Israel is a mishmash of other cultures. It's like New Orleans; it's a meltdown of other cultures.
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My everyday life is not just walking around on clouds. But you have to give the really special things in life importance and not let the temporary things roll you off the road.
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Some old people, they remember that they used to play clarinet, and they remember the squeaks of the clarinet. But I don't play like that.
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My father knew classical music very well. Driving in the car, listening to the radio, he could name every composer, every movement, what piece it was. I was fascinated by the way he recognized who wrote what.
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We still have to overcome the notion that a clarinet squeaks. People need to remember what a beautiful instrument it is, including in popular music.
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I've always been attracted to multicultural music. It's where the world is going.
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I'm working really hard to get the clarinet out of that hole, that Benny Goodman thing.
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Avishai my brother always says to the audience, 'If you weren't here, it would just be a rehearsal.' So it's important to me to acknowledge and engage them. I know that they are there for me, and I'm humbled by that.
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With cab drivers, I always say I'm from Brazil. I don't say I'm from Israel. It's happened more than once that someone is blaming me for the government's policy. And I say, 'Listen, I live here. I'm a musician. I don't call the shots.'
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I flow between modern and traditional jazz, between samba and choro - all maybe in a week's time.
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The clarinet is not so dominant in Israeli music as it is in klezmer. I heard klezmer when I was growing up, but for some reason I avoided it. I listened to Louis Armstrong instead. But the sense of melody is the connection between jazz and klezmer.
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Sometimes I get off stage, and I almost have no recollection of what happened. It's almost like a trance; it's very bizarre.
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I'm helping people think the clarinet is cool.
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I have an ambivalent feeling about the Israeli army. Growing up in Tel Aviv, being involved in the arts, the last thing artists want to do is fight.
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Clarinet is an incredible instrument. It's a great, expressive instrument.
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The clarinet chose me more than I chose the clarinet.
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My initial training was on the keyboard - mainly the great American songbook. In junior high, during the day, I was a classical clarinetist, but after school, I played New Orleans jazz and big-band music.
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I have two brothers that are musicians. My older brother, Yuval, is a saxophone player. My younger brother, Avishai, is a trumpet player.
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I like to listen to African music; I like to listen to Brazilian music that's not just Choro. I love to listen to Radiohead, I like to listen to James Brown - any music.