The Bold Strokes of Anat Fort’s Pianism

By Robert Ham I May. 29, 2019

Israeli pianist Anat Fort has issued a pair of new recordings—and has more in store.
(Photo: Ronen Akerman)

For a jazz musician known internationally for her remarkable and picturesque piano playing, Anat Fort has a surprisingly slender discography. Though she’s been an in-demand performer and instructor, the Israeli-born musician has lent her talents to only a handful of studio sessions during the past two decades. So, Fort recently issuing a pair of albums is something of a surprise.

That’s especially the case for Colour (Sunnyside), the new dispatch from the Anat Fort Trio. The ensemble, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, hasn’t recorded much, even as bandmembers try to perform live as regularly as can be managed. (Fort lives in Israel, while bassist Gary Wang resides in New York and drummer Roland Schneider in Germany.) But just as it was when they met in the late ’90s, the trio instantly clicks whenever it convenes.

“In order to play and tour with people and spend a lot of time with them, you really need to get along with them,” Fort said. “Not just musically; we have that. We are really good friends. I think we really complete each other as people. Musically, we come from different and similar places all at once, and that creates something that’s very loose and flexible for us to work with.”

Those qualities are splattered all over Colour, its nine tracks unspooling with the ease and warmth of a long, unhurried conversation. Fort takes the lead with flowing solos and shimmering chords that evoke the album’s title or the bold strokes of a paint brush. But she leaves plenty of room on the canvas for Wang and Schneider to add extra shades of pleasant, sun-drunk languor.

A similar mood flows through Fort’s Bubbles (Hypnote), another recent release. A collaboration with percussionist Lieven Venken and bassist Rene Hart, this collection of originals and flint-edged improvisations was recorded back in 2004 as a document of the instant chemistry the three had. By the time Venken reached out late last year to discuss potentially releasing it, Fort had little recollection of the recording. “Rene and I were, like, ‘What are you talking about?’” Fort said, laughing at the memory. “We were very skeptical [before listening]. We didn’t think it was so good, but when we heard it, we actually liked it.”

We’ve not heard the last of Fort in 2019, either. She’s featured on a forthcoming tribute to the late Arnie Lawrence and is looking to put together a quintet to record some of her favorite Paul Motian tunes. It might have taken 20 years to build up some momentum, but there’s no stopping her now. DB