Anat Cohen Quotes
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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 definitely see myself as an international musician. When I play, I respect the source of the music, whether it's Cuban, Brazilian or Israeli. I try to bring that to all of the music I play. Music has no borders and no flags.
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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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My father had lived in the States in the 1960s for a while and came to love American Songbook material. Even today, he sometimes recognizes singers that I never even heard of, which is beautiful and inspiring.
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Clarinet is an incredible instrument. It's a great, expressive instrument.
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Influences at home, including classical music, were not all specifically jazz, but the family radio was always on... So there was always some connection to American culture, to American music.
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I think music is one of the clearest ways to connect between people of all differences.
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I focused on the saxophone ever since high school. It wasn't until my album 'Poetica,' which I recorded in 2006, that I went back to the clarinet. It felt like it was waiting for me!
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I feel like sometimes I get even more goofy onstage than I am offstage. I'm not trying to make the music less than what it is. Even if it's hard for me and I have to think about a lot of details, it's none of the audience's business. I don't want them to feel that I'm having a hard time.
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I could never really figure out why people would live in a kibbutz. I'm such a city girl.
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My parents never said to me, 'Why don't you go and get a real profession?' And that really helped.
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When I play the clarinet, I am 100 percent myself. It is as if it is part of my body. I can play whatever I think. Let me just read a melody and make it as sweet as I can.
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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.
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I was focusing on sax while at Berklee, but then I started to play Brazilian choro and Colombian music. I was doing more folkloric stuff on the clarinet because it works better. Finally, I realized I was working more on the clarinet than the saxophone, and I started to feel more comfortable on it.
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There's always this joke that I say in Israel: people don't really have discussions; they just try to convince the other people that they are wrong or they are right - they just try to impose their opinion on the others. Sometimes I think it's easier to avoid talking about things and just make music.
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When I got into high school, clarinet was not really in fashion. Everybody had electric bands.
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My younger brother Avishai was my first influence. He picked up the trumpet, and I listened to him. The way he played - with the half valves and the smears - made me want to play like him.