Feb 3, 2025 10:49 PM
The Essence of Emily
In the April 1982 issue of People magazine, under the heading “Lookout: A Guide To The Up and Coming,” jazz…
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
“She said, ‘A lot of people are going to try and stop you,’” Sheryl Bailey recalls of the advice she received from jazz guitarist Emily Remler (1957–’90). “‘They’re going to say you slept with somebody, you’re a dyke, you’re this and that and the other. Don’t listen to them, and just keep playing.’”
Feb 3, 2025 10:49 PM
In the April 1982 issue of People magazine, under the heading “Lookout: A Guide To The Up and Coming,” jazz…
As Ted Nash, left, departs the alto saxophone chair for LCJO, Alexa Tarantino steps in as the band’s first female full-time member.
Mar 4, 2025 1:29 PM
If only because openings for JLCO’s 15 permanent positions appear about as frequently as sub-freezing days on the…
Larry Appelbaum with Wayne Shorter in 2012.
Feb 25, 2025 10:49 AM
Larry Appelbaum, a distinguished audio engineer, jazz journalist, historian and broadcaster, died Feb. 21, 2025, in…
“This is one of the great gifts that Coltrane gave us — he gave us a key to the cosmos in this recording,” says John McLaughlin.
Mar 18, 2025 3:00 PM
In his original liner notes to A Love Supreme, John Coltrane wrote: “Yes, it is true — ‘seek and ye shall…
Cynthia Erivo and Herbie Hancock perform “Fly Me To The Moon” during a Grammy Awards tribute to Quincy Jones on Feb. 2.
Feb 3, 2025 10:21 PM
The jazz and blues community may not have been center stage for the majority of the 67th annual Grammy Award…
