When it comes to creative jazz instrumentalists like Anat Fort, an Israeli-born pianist and composer, improvisation comes first. With her new disc, A Long Story, Fort’s early classical influences are immediately identified through solos and subtle chords. However, listening to her improvisations throughout the disc, you clearly feel how contemporary jazz artists like fellow ECM labelmate Keith Jarrett (among others) helped shape her music.
“I began playing classical piano when I was six,” says Fort, speaking from her native Tel Aviv, although she’s lived in Brooklyn since 1996. “When I discovered jazz, I listened to Coltrane and more mainstream artists like Duke Ellington.”
When asked about Jarrett, she explains that the former Miles Davis alum was “definitely an influence.”
The chemistry between Fort and the other musicians on the disc—which was recorded in a Brooklyn studio in the Spring of 2004—is audible. Bassist Ed Schuller and legendary drummer Paul Motian provide the perfect backdrop for her work on the keys, and her chords intensify the beauty of the individual talents of each musician. To have an idea of how this works, just listen to the way she works the piano chords when Schuller takes the lead halfway through “Morning: Good” and the intense beauty of “Lullaby,” which the bassist opens with a solo, to then be joined by clarinetist Perry Robinson, Motian and Fort who, together, deliver a hauntingly beautiful melody. This week, for her Birdland disc release concert, Fort will perform with Robinson and Schuller along with drummer Roland Schneider since Motian is unavailable.
Fort recently wrapped a short European tour, and she claims there is a clear distinction on how audiences in Europe and in the United States receive her work. “When I play in New York, which is home for me, I have a nice following. It’s a specific feeling; they respond to certain tunes they’re familiar with. It’s a wonderful thing to have.” In the Old World, however, “they warm up slowly and somehow stick with you, and at the end they clap. It’s a very different feeling.”
March 13, Birdland, 315 W. 44th St. (betw. 8th & 9th Ave.),
212- 581-3080; 7, $15.
