Avishai Cohen
We saw Avishai Cohen at the Jazz Bakery recently. The world’s most amazing bassist. From Israel!
He had a trio, bass, piano and drums, and the other musicians were beyond superlative as well. The music mixed modern jazz, ethnic styles like Middle Eastern, Brazilian, and African influences, with folk, creating hypnotic cycles of chords in odd time signatures that were phenomenal. Blew my mind.
He is very entertaining to watch, very expressive, as are the drummer and pianist. At one point the drummer was playing a solo, and starting playing his legs. After that his sticks were just hitting air and making no sound.
Avishai is truly blazing trails in jazz, trails that haven’t been blazed since Miles.
I am in guitar heaven!
Saturday I got a call from West LA Music who had finally transferred a guitar over from the warehouse I wanted to look at… we went and I played it for hours while Michelle stood next to me and chanted “Buy it! Buy it! Buy it!”
It is so schweeeet! Handmade by Godin, it has flawless action and intonation. Every chord rings in perfect tune all the way up and down the neck. It can get that fat hollow-body jazz sound, but also has a piezo pickup that sounds like a crisp, clean acoustic.
It also has a Roland 13-pin output so it tracks MIDI stuff very well, so I can add lush string sounds for ballads and other fun textures. I am in guitar heaven!
