Miller Theatre's Jazz Series Opens with Anat Cohen in CELEBRANDO BRASIL Tonight

Miller Theatre at Columbia University School of the Arts opens the 2015-16 Jazz series with Anat Cohen Quartet: Celebrando Brasil tonight, November 7, 2015 at 8:00 p.m at Miller Theatre (2960 Broadway at 116th Street).

Four dynamic bandleaders make this season at Miller an exhilarating world tour of jazz. Drawing inspiration from Rio and Puerto Rico, Southern India and Harlem, these artists breathe new life into a uniquely American art form. Together, they show us the endless possibilities of jazz today.

Dynamic bandleader Anat Cohen's clarinet sings out with the many musical voices of Brazil. Voted "Clarinetist of the Year" for the past eight years by the Jazz Journalists Association, Cohen's lyricism and versatility have helped to re-introduce the clarinet as a powerful jazz instrument. "When I play the clarinet I am 100 percent myself. It is as if it is part of my body," she said. "Let me just read a melody and make it as sweet as I can."

From Miller Theatre Executive Director Melissa Smey: "We're thrilled to welcome Anat Cohen back to the Miller Theatre stage. Her infectious energy always lights up a room. She is fluent in many styles, but I find her performances of Brazilian music to be especially captivating, full of passion, rhythm, and verve."

Featuring:
ANAT COHEN, clarinet and saxophones
JASON LINDNER, piano
OMER AVITAL, bass
DANIEL FREEDMAN, drums

Tickets: $20-$35; Students with valid ID: $7-$21. For more, visit www.millertheatre.com/events/anat-cohen-quartet-2015.

Anat Cohen (www.anatcohen.com) - Anat Cohen has established herself as one of the primary voices of her generation on both the tenor saxophone and clarinet. She is an established bandleader and prolific composer, conversant with modern and traditional jazz, classical music, klezmer, Brazilian choro, Argentine tango, and an expansive timeline of Afro-Cuban styles.

Born in Tel Aviv, Cohen began clarinet studies at age 12 and played jazz on clarinet for the first time in the Jaffa Conservatory's Dixieland band. At 16, she joined the school's big band and learned to play the tenor saxophone, which she later played in the Israeli Air Force band. In 1996, Cohen matriculated at Berklee College of Music in Boston. Upon relocating to New York, she quickly found work in various Brazilian ensembles like the Choro Ensemble and Duduka Da Fonseca's Samba Jazz Quintet, and started performing with David Ostwald's "Gully Low Jazz Band," which explores the music of Louis Armstrong, Bix Beiderbecke, Jelly Roll Morton, Sidney Bechet, and their Pan-American contemporaries. Cohen has performed for audiences at New York's Village Vanguard, Jazz Standard, Iridium, The Jazz Gallery, and the JVC Jazz Festival. She has also appeared at the Chicago Jazz Festival, the Kennedy Center, San Francisco's Yoshi's, Boston's Regattabar, the North Sea Jazz Festival, the Monterey Jazz Festival, and the Montreal Jazz Festival. Her July 2007 engagement at the Village Vanguard in New York was an historic one as she became the first female reed player and the first Israeli to headline at the club.

In March 2015, Anzic Records released Luminosa, her seventh album as a bandleader. Luminosa sees Anat play singing and dancing originals, interpret Brazilian classics by the likes of Milton Nascimento, and even re-imagine electronica as acoustica with an ingenious arrangement of a Flying Lotus tune.

Cohen's accomplishments have been recognized in a flurry of awards and distinctions from critics and fans alike; the Jazz Journalists Association named Anat Cohen Clarinetist of the Year eight years in a row. She has topped both the Critics and Readers Polls in the clarinet category in DownBeat magazine every year since 2011.

Jason Lindner - Hailed as a "musical universe" by Chick Corea, Jason Lindner first gained acclaim for his long-running Big Band, whose raw energy earned them a release on Corea's label. Lindner has served as musical director for Lauryn Hill and Claudia Acuña, and collaborated with Meshell Ndegeocello, who produced his recent release Jason Lindner Gives You Now Vs. Now. The Brooklyn native grew up on hip hop and learned to play jazz from elders like Barry Harris and Chris Anderson, then further expanded his musical palette to include African, Afro-Caribbean, South American, and Middle Eastern music, all informing his own compositional style. The New York Times wrote, "Rhythm provides more than a heartbeat for the pianist Jason Lindner. It also seems to fuel his respiratory functions and digestive activity, and maybe his neurons. What matters to him is groove, however it comes." Lindner appears on over 35 recordings, 5 as a leader. He has worked with many incredible artists, including Amel Larrieux, Matisyahu, Paul Simon, Mark Guiliana's Beat Music, Dafnis Prieto's Proverb Trio & Absolute Quintet, Chick Corea, Roy Haynes, Omer Avital, Christian McBride, Branford Marsalis, Elvin Jones, Lionel Loueke, Mark Turner, Bill Cosby, Roy Hargrove, Baba Israel, Avishai Cohen, Jimmy Lovelace, Paquito D'Rivera, The Rotterdam Jazz Orchestra, and many others. Lindner attended the Mannes College of Music and the New School, where he is an adjunct faculty member.

Omer Avital - Omer Avital, hailed by the Los Angeles Times as "a pioneer in combining jazz with myriad world music elements," is a composer, a virtuosic bassist, an oud player, and an active force on the world music scene for well over a decade. Born and raised in Israel to parents of Yemenite and Moroccan descent, Avital was surrounded from early age by the diverse musical and cultural landscape of his native land.

In 1992, Avital moved to New York and became an internationally recognized bass player and bandleader. Signed by Impulse (Universal Music) at age 26 to produce his first album, Avital recorded and toured with Wynton Marsalis, Kenny Garrett, Brian Blade, Joshua Redman, Brad Mehldau, Roy Haynes, and many others.

In 2002, Avital moved back to Israel for three years to study classical composition, Arabic musical theory, Oud (Arabic Lute), and traditional Israeli music. Since returning to New York in 2005, Avital has been creating works for and working with the core group of musicians of his Ensemble. Recent projects include the Debka Fantasia Cycle; arrangements of traditional Israeli songs re-imagined (and in many cases, returned to the original) Arab roots, Songs of Devotion (Piyutim), which incorporate traditional Jewish prayer melodies into chamber compositions, a Concerto for Bass and Orchestra and a Large Piece for his Ensemble-Song of a Land.

In 2008, Avital was awarded the Prime Minister's Award, the most prestigious distinction for artists in Israel. His work seeks to create highly individual yet instantly recognizable sound, the essence of Israel with all its contradictions and beauty.

Daniel Freedman - Drummer, percussionist, and composer Daniel Freedman was born and raised in New York City and grew up in a musical family. In high school he studied with masters Max Roach, Billy Higgins, and Vernel Fournier and later traveled to study music in West Africa, Cuba, and the Middle East. Daniel came up in the Smalls scene of the 1990s and during that time was a member of Jason Lindner's Big Band and Omer Avital's sextet. Daniel is currently touring the world as a member of Grammy-winning singer Angelique Kidjo's band. He has played and recorded with many artists such as Tom Harrell, Wynton Marsalis, Sting, Claudia Acuña, Omar Faruk, Meshell Ndegeocello, and Toumani Diabate. Daniel is a co-leader of acclaimed band Third World Love, and tours frequently with clarinetist and saxophonist Anat Cohen's band. As a composer and producer for NY-based jingle house Wicked Music, he has written many spots for television and the web. His record Trio with Jason Lindner and Omer Avital, and guests Myron Walden, Joshua Levitt, and Tomer Tzur, on the Fresh Sound label received nine stars in Modern Drummer Magazine, and he was featured in the same magazine in the article "Jazz Lions."

Directions and information is available online at www.millertheatre.com or via the Miller Theatre Box Office, at 212.854.7799.