Anat Cohen & Fred Hersch Live at Healdsburg

Anat Cohen & Fred Hersch
Live at Healdsburg
Anzic Records

This album of duets (actually musical conversations) by the marvelous clarinetist and pianist was recorded in June 2106 at the Raven Performing Arts Theater in Healdsburg, California as part of the Healdsburg Jazz Festival. It must been a delightful performance as heard here with the delightful interplay throughout the eight compositions in this intimate context. Hersch contributed three tunes, Cohen one, and there are four covers.

Hersch's "A Lark," is the first track which allows Cohen's singing clarinet to dance over the textures Hersch lays down before his own explorations. It is followed by another delightful Hersch original, "Child's Song," with the clarity and inventiveness of their playing. The overall tone here and throughout the performances is restrained elegance. Cohen's "The Purple Piece" displays the way the pair employ dynamics in unhurriedly building the intensity here. Then there is an enchanting rendition of Billy Strayhorn's "Isfahan," and Hersch's understated lyricism complements Cohen's explorations from a deep, warm chalumeau register to the upper altissimo. Hersch's "Lee's Dream," finds them in a more playful mood followed by a lovely, ruminative rendition of "The Peacocks." Then there is Fats Waller's "Jitterbug Waltz" played with a restrained buoyancy with Cohen's swirling clarinet flights set against rumbling riffs.

Duke Ellington's "Mood Indigo" served as the concert's encore with Cohen's playing displaying the warmth so invests in her playing complemented by Hersch's spare accompaniment. It is a delightful close to the beautiful musical conversations that the two performed that night.

I received a review copy from a publicist. Here the two perform Jimmy Rowles' "The Peacocks."