Longtime bandmates in the expansive
Third World Love quartet, Israeli-born duo trumpeter
Avishai Cohen and pianist
Yonathan Avishai display their vibrantly empathetic interplay on their 2019
ECM album
Playing the Room. In many ways, the album is a continuation of the work the pair did on
Cohen's 2016's
ECM debut,
Into the Silence, and 2017 follow-up
Cross My Palm with Silver. As with those works,
Playing the Room is an intensely lyrical album that finds the duo in thoughtful harmonic conversation. There's a symbiotic, teeter-totter-esque balance to
Cohen's and
Avishai's playing that goes far beyond their first name/last name connection. They clearly listen to each other, and play off each other's lines with a warm, almost intuitive empathy. They start things off slowly with
Cohen's aptly titled "The Opening," a yearning ballad that evokes the classic standard "My One and Only Love." Similarly engaging,
Avishai's rhapsodic "Two Lines" moves from focused, classical introspection to a buoyant mid-section in which
Cohen dances with glassy elan over
Avishai's ringing chords. There are also several deftly rendered covers here, including a heartfelt reading of
John Coltrane's "Crescent," an urbane, Harmon-muted version of
Duke Ellington's "Azalea," and a spritely take of
Ornette Coleman's "Dee Dee." Also surprisingly affecting is the duo's delicately ornate reworking of
Stevie Wonder's "Sir Duke." No less affecting is their burnished rendition of the Israeli lullaby "Shir Eres." While
Playing the Room fits nicely into the atmospheric and gentle
ECM aesthetic, it's never cold or too spare. These are colorful, organic performances that move between ruminative balladry and moments of bright, swinging exuberance. ~ Matt Collar