Avishai Cohen - Cross My Palm With Silver

The Guardian 80

(ECM)

Every generation of jazz trumpeters revisits the legacy of Miles Davis in their own ways, but the Israeli rising star Avishai Cohen’s version of the journey has been particularly skilful. His new quartet brings in childhood bassist friend Barak Mori to join Yonathan Avishai and Nasheet Waits on piano and drums, often echoing the spaciousness and quiet melodic strength of last year’s compositionally dominant Into the Silence. The sense of ensemble conversation is more urgent, however, befitting the leader’s search for music that cherishes active empathy in a fractured world. Will I Die, Miss? Will I Die? (the fearful question of an Aleppo boy to a nurse after last November’s gas attack) balances tenderly dolorous trumpet peals and understated rhythmic drive; 340 Down displays a range-vaulting trumpet fluency reminiscent of the young American Ambrose Akinmusire; 50 Years and Counting bustles with agile avant-swing, with Cohen snapping in and out of Waits’ flexible pulse, and Yonathan Avishai bringing a distinctively crisp economy and sense of space to a post-Herbie Hancock piano style.