Anat Cohen is gifted on all the reeds and probably best-known for her full-bodied tenor work with DIVA, the all-woman big band. Poetica features Cohen on clarinet, an instrument with which she has had an on-and-off connection since age 12. Back home in Tel-Aviv, the local high school for the arts discouraged her from playing clarinet so for more than fifteen years Cohen concentrated on tenor. Fortunately, when she attended Berklee trombonist/educator Phil Wilson noted her original voice on her favorite instrument and urged Cohen to pick it up again. Since moving to New York, she has explored the music of many countries with a strong clarinet tradition, adding Latin American songs to those of her native Israel. That is the genesis of this new release.

In Poetica, Cohen's mellow clarinet sound and creative improvisations takes us on a musical voyage that starts out with the Israeli song,"Agada Yapanit (A Japanese Tale)." A simple tune, it's just ripe for interpretation. The trip ends with bassist Omer Avital's dramatic "Cypresses." Avital, by the way, did most of the charts for this CD. "Hofim (Beaches)" first presents the soothing sea and then lively beach action as it accelerates and the back beat takes on. You'll meet up with both Jacques Brel and John Coltrane and be introduced to a beautiful Brazilian ballad and several Israeli folk tunes. One of them,"Eyn Gedi," brought to mind scenes of great beauty - a sunrise, the open prairie. It turns out to be the name of a lovely oasis so the chart worked!

Cohen's backing alternates between a jazz rhythm section (which gives pianist Jason Linder several solo opportunities) and string quartet. She also contributes a pair of original compositions and several arrangements. "La Casa Del Llano" is lively and percussive while "The Purple Piece" takes a pensive waltz through twists and turns to a powerful ending.

This is one of those rare albums where you are first captured by the music and only afterwards think about the efforts of the musician. Cohen's music is just what she wished it to be: flowing, expressive and intimate. Anat Cohen has simultaneously released the CD Noir, where she performs on soprano, alto, tenor and clarinet with a 14-piece jazz orchestra. That's for another review.