KWLC reviews CSS, Avishai Cohen Trio

My official album for summer 2008 was Donkey by CSS, a Brazilian pop/dance band that has had huge success this year. Their music continues in the vein of post-french house and electronic scene music, instigated by Daft Punk in the 1990s and cultivated by many talented groups into a hugely popular international music movement.

Similar in some obvious ways to the other recently successful Brazilian pop/dance band Brazilian Girls, CSS has a different feel to their sound, with more clear-cut, flowing tracks and less musically shocking composition.

Donkey is a portrait of international party culture. The lyrics on this album tell stories of finding love in clubs and “dancing my a** off til I die,” being “bored to death” with popular culture, “kissing in the photo booth” and traveling across the world to find the best party.

I think good dance music often has a demanding quality to it; for instance, take the classic Jock Jams lyric, “Everybody dance, now!” That kind of forceful request is not particularly easy to decline when combined with a crazy dance beat. And when you’re ready to dance, you definitely don’t want a DJ telling you, “Hey, maybe think about dancing at some point?” You want the dance gods to command you to dance! A good example of this is CSS’ “You better get your move on” – well, when you put I that way, I guess I should. With CSS, the music itself is fundamentally danceable, which is where the true success of this album lies.

Donkey is undeniably funky, and the party atmosphere it creates is irresistible. This was the perfect album for any summer situation and I used it accordingly.

-Julia Schumacher, Rock Music Director

Avishai Cohen Trio - Gently Disturbed

Israeli-born bassist Avishai Cohen has been a part of New York’s jazz scene for over a decade. In that time, he has managed to draw influences from his fellow players, pianists Danilo Perez and Chick Corea. He plays the string bass in the style of Dave Holland or even the late Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen, relying on very open noted, syncopated lines that more float than swing.

On Gently Disturbed, Cohen is accompanied by Shai Maestro (piano) and Mark Guiliana (drums). Maestro’s light, sparse comping allows room for Cohen’s sound to mix with Guiliana’s splashy cymbals without becoming bogged down. Guiliana’s style relies heavily on his cymbal work, and when played with Cohen’s compositions it makes for a very floaty sound. The sound draws tonal influences not only from the African-American jazz tradition that Guiliana and Maestro are most familiar with, but also from Afro-Cuban, Spanish and Arabic music traditions that Cohen specializes in.

The album has very heavy grooves while maintaining a very melodic sense, culminating in an acoustic trio that sounds unbelievably full. Best track: The Ever Evolving Etude.

Gently Disturbed was released in May. The Avishai Cohen Trio is currently on tour in Europe. You can hear new music from The Avishai Cohen Trio and several other prominent stars in the jazz world every Sunday night from 6-10 p.m. on KWLC.

-Pete Russella, Station Manager