Avishai Cohen: The Trumpeter of a Musical Dynasty
Israel's jazz wave produced two musicians named Avishai Cohen — a bassist and a trumpeter — and the trumpeter came from one of the most remarkable musical families the country has produced. Alongside his siblings, the clarinettist Anat Cohen and the saxophonist Yuval Cohen, he formed a sibling front line known simply as 'the 3 Cohens.' On his own, he became one of the most respected jazz trumpeters of his generation.
A Childhood in Sound
Avishai Cohen was born on 23 May 1978 in Tel Aviv into a family steeped in music. He asked for trumpet lessons at the age of eight, and by ten was playing in the big band of the Rimon School of Music. As a teenager he was already good enough to tour with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra — an extraordinary platform for a young jazz musician — and he grew up inside a household where his brother and sister were pursuing the same demanding path. The three siblings would later record and tour together, a rare case of three world-class jazz musicians emerging from a single family.
Berklee and the Monk Competition
Like many of his Israeli peers, Cohen went to the United States to study at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. In 1997 he reached the finals of the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition — the most prestigious contest in jazz, and a near-guarantee of attention — placing among the top trumpeters of his cohort. The recognition launched him into the New York scene that his fellow Israeli musicians were then transforming.
SFJAZZ and a Career of His Own
Cohen became a member of the SFJAZZ Collective, the all-star ensemble that brings together leading jazz musicians to perform and compose new work, and he built a substantial career as a bandleader. His trio Triveni and his many recordings established him as a trumpeter of lyrical intensity and adventurous composition, equally at home in the acoustic post-bop tradition and in more exploratory settings. Critics and polls repeatedly named him among the leading trumpeters in jazz.
Why This Matters
Cohen matters as both an individual artist and as a symbol of a phenomenon. Individually, he is one of the finest trumpeters of his generation, a child prodigy who turned an eight-year-old's request for lessons into a major international career.
As a symbol, he and his siblings embody the depth of the Israeli jazz movement — not one breakout star but a whole family, and beyond them a whole scene, capable of competing at the highest level of an American art form. The boy who played in a school big band at ten grew up to sit in the front line of world jazz, and to prove that the talent his country was famous for in the concert hall could flourish just as powerfully in the jazz club.
Achievements
- Toured with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra as a teenager
- Finalist at the 1997 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition
- Member of the SFJAZZ Collective
- Leader of the trio Triveni and an acclaimed recording artist
- Part of the renowned '3 Cohens' sibling jazz group
