Whatever happened to the prominence of the clarinet in Jazz? Sure, the clarinet is still the front-and-center instrument in Klezmer music, but over the years the clarinet’s prominence in Jazz has shrunken to the point of non-existence, only to be replaced by the soprano or alto saxophone. There was a time when the clarinet was THE featured Jazz instrument, making the likes of Johnny Dodds, Sidney Bechet, Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, Woody Herman and Pete Fountain stars, but those days have seemingly disappeared. Enter Israeli-born Anat Cohen…not only is she a female in the male-dominated world of Jazz instrumentation, but her featured instrument is a clarinet. When she arrived in the U.S. in 1996, Cohen was known more for playing the sax with the Brazilian Choro Ensemble and the Louis Armstrong Centennial Band. The last few years saw her begin to favor the clarinet over the sax, and her last few albums featured only her clarinet playing. Here we have a version of the standard “St. James Infirmary” recorded at the Village Vanguard in New York City from a 2009 show billed as “Benny Goodman…And Beyond.” The recordings of the show resulted in the 2010 album “Clarinetwork,” featuring Benny Green on piano, Peter Washington on bass and Lewis Nash on drums. She just recently released a new album called “Claroscuro.” More on that recording in the future…
