Avishai Cohen Ashes to Gold LP

In blazing form, the trumpeter from Tel Aviv responds to the turbulent spirit of a troubled time, leading his dedicated band through a five-part suite that runs the gamut of emotions, by turns hopeful, despairing, outraged and profoundly melancholic. The melodic directness of the concluding "The Seventh," composed by Avishai Cohen's teenaged daughter Amalia, offers consoling contrast to the suite's intensity. In between, Cohen turns his attention to the haunting Adagio assai from Ravel's G major piano concerto, which has long been a highlight of the quartet's concerts.

Ashes to Gold was recorded in November 2023, at Studios La Buissonne, in the South of France.

Ashes to Gold is a thoughtfully composed chamber suite, one that balances a classical lyricism with moments of boldly searching improvisation. With his burnished, vocal-like trumpet tone, Cohen plays with the focused intensity of an opera singer; soaring with anger on the opening piece, before collapsing into sorrowful moans and coos as the suite progresses....There's a painterly impressionism to Cohen's work, evoking both the modal style of Miles Davis and the classical modernism of composers like Claude Debussy and Arnold Schoenberg.