Ryan Cohan - Originations (2020)

Ethnicity and jazz have long and successfully coexisted - examples of this are innumerable. Even more ancient history of attempts to synthesize jazz and academic music, what Gunter Schuller came up with the name "third movement". But Ryan Cohen goes further: he strives to combine jazz, ethnicity and academic music, and - he succeeds! I listened to the whole album with great pleasure. The opening piece, The Hours Before Dawn, immerses you in the world of an Arabic fairy tale, but told in a language that is equally jazz and academic. In addition to the "Arab" theme, the son of two nations also has a "Jewish" theme in this album, more precisely Israeli: I mean the composition Sabra is the fruit of an edible cactus growing in Israel, prickly outside and sweet inside, as well as the self-name of Israelis born in the Promised Land ... Ethnicity is less expressed in the other four compositions, but the depth of Ryan's music, the interaction of the musicians, the complex structure of the compositions, the play of tempo and moods are impressive with no less force. So, in my opinion, Originations is really strong, interesting and in some way innovative work, which should not be missed.