AVISHAI COHEN — After the Big Rain (2007) FLAC (tracks), lossless

Avishai Cohen's After the Big Rain is an ambitious, earthy and endlessly surprising work that finds the trumpeter/composer melding post-bop, avant-garde jazz, African folk music and electric soundscapes. Having been a force on the downtown NYC jazz scene since the '90s, Cohen has made a name for himself as an adventurous, forward-thinking musician performing in various ensembles that mixed everything from klezmer and free jazz to swinging hard bop and post-rock. Here, Cohen takes his world music inclinations one step further partnering with West African vocalist/guitarist Lionel Loueke on a series of loosely connected pieces that strongly feature Loueke's moody singing and percussive guitar. Interestingly, the album often sounds more like African folk music than jazz with Loueke setting a song up and then Cohen with his muted/electronically enhanced trumpet and keyboardist Jason Lindner's wave-like Fender Rhoades joining in organically after a few bars. Cohen himself is a fire brand of an improviser who evinces both a Miles Davis-like sense of harmonic color and a knack for muscular, knotty Woody Shaw-inspired improvisational lines. Here, he mixes both styles liberally, often bumping against Yosvany Terry's rhythmic "jack-in-the-box" sounding chereke playing. In many ways, After the Big Rain harkens back to trumpeter Don Cherry's stellar 1975 jazz/world fusion album Brown Rice and in a similar sense is a moving and enveloping early masterwork. Matt Collar
Tracklist :
1.    After The Big Rain    6:13
 Avishai Cohen 
2.    Parto Forte    11:45
 Avishai Cohen 
3.    Gbede Temin    4:36
 Lionel Loueke 
4.    Meditation On Two Chords    8:14
 Jason Lindner 
5.    Afterthoughts (Mozartine)    7:17
 Avishai Cohen 
6.    Miryama    3:44
 Avishai Cohen / Lionel Loueke 
7.     African Daisy (La Suite African)    11:02
 Avishai Cohen 
8.    After The Big Rain - Epilogue    5:59
 Avishai Cohen 
Credits :
Acoustic Bass – Omer Avital
Drums, Percussion – Daniel Freedman
Guitar, Vocals – Lionel Loueke
Keyboards, Electric Piano [Fender Rhodes] – Jason Lindner
Lyrics By – Lionel Loueke (tracks: 6)
Lyrics By [Translated To Fon by] – Lionel Loueke (tracks: 8)
Producer, Trumpet, Effects, Arranged By, Composed By, Lyrics By – Avishai Cohen
Shaker [Chekere] – Yosvany Terry (tracks: 1, 2, 7, 8)