A biography for Anat Cohenhasn’t been written yet.
“Some old people, they remember that they used to play clarinet, and they remember the squeaks of the clarinet. But I don't play like that.”
“I'm working really hard to get the clarinet out of that hole, that Benny Goodman thing.”
“Israel is a mishmash of other cultures. It's like New Orleans; it's a meltdown of other cultures.”
“We still have to overcome the notion that a clarinet squeaks. People need to remember what a beautiful instrument it is, including in popular music.”
“I like to listen to African music; I like to listen to Brazilian music that's not just Choro. I love to listen to Radiohead, I like to listen to James Brown - any music.”
“I was focusing on sax while at Berklee, but then I started to play Brazilian choro and Colombian music. I was doing more folkloric stuff on the clarinet because it works better. Finally, I realized I was working more on the clarinet than the saxophone, and I started to feel more comfortable on it.”
“My initial training was on the keyboard - mainly the great American songbook. In junior high, during the day, I was a classical clarinetist, but after school, I played New Orleans jazz and big-band music.”
“My younger brother Avishai was my first influence. He picked up the trumpet, and I listened to him. The way he played - with the half valves and the smears - made me want to play like him.”
“The clarinet chose me more than I chose the clarinet.”
“Boston was incredible. I had some of the best experiences of my life there at Berklee because I met a bunch of other people who were at the exact same stage in life and interest as me. There were American and international students all wrapped up in the Berklee environment, where you basically did nothing but music 24/7.”
“When I got into high school, clarinet was not really in fashion. Everybody had electric bands.”
“I think music is one of the clearest ways to connect between people of all differences.”
“With cab drivers, I always say I'm from Brazil. I don't say I'm from Israel. It's happened more than once that someone is blaming me for the government's policy. And I say, 'Listen, I live here. I'm a musician. I don't call the shots.'”
“Clarinet is an incredible instrument. It's a great, expressive instrument.”
“Whether it's performing a concert with my quartet or sitting in with my peers, enjoying musical conversations at home with my brothers or hanging and playing choro with my friends - sharing moments in that bright space of music are the happiest times.”
“The clarinet is not so dominant in Israeli music as it is in klezmer. I heard klezmer when I was growing up, but for some reason I avoided it. I listened to Louis Armstrong instead. But the sense of melody is the connection between jazz and klezmer.”
“I focused on the saxophone ever since high school. It wasn't until my album 'Poetica,' which I recorded in 2006, that I went back to the clarinet. It felt like it was waiting for me!”
“The clarinet has always been my baby. I just didn't know that for a while.”
“Influences at home, including classical music, were not all specifically jazz, but the family radio was always on... So there was always some connection to American culture, to American music.”
“The best part about living in New York is that you are able to play with different people in different styles in the same week. It's really part of who I am as a musical person. I try to incorporate everything that I encounter.”