Album Review: The Art of Duo from John Daversa and Tal Cohen

Album:  The Art of Duo
Artists:  John Daversa and Tal Cohen
Websites:  johndaversa.com
                  instagram.com/johndaversa
                  facebook.com/johndaversamusic

From the first track on The Art of Duo by trumpet player John Daversa and pianist Tal Cohen, the listener recognizes that the recording is something special.  That the interaction between Daversa and Cohen is something special.  Their conversations, which sees the pair alternately as one initiates and the other responds, make the listener aware of their symbiotic rapport. Their recording shows audiences what soulful and winsome interpolating is made when humans collaborate together.  That music made from the free flow of creativity among humans is the most magnetic music possible.

Though Daversa and Cohen do not consider their recording jazz music because the music transcends musical styles, it is jazz because jazz allows its musicians to be spontaneous, to go where the music takes them, to flex their creativity and impulses for impromptu riffing.  Daversa describes in a press release: "It’s about the moment right now, and the opportunity within this moment. It’s about being expressive, and to create a greater presence filled with improvised dialogue and spontaneity. Making music that inspires and encourages people to trust their own excitement and passion for what they want to bring to their life.”

The rapid Tango-esque pulse in Cohen's keys lightly rumbling across "Artful Sparring" does not necessarily make the arrangement a Latin tune.  The reverberating notes of Daversa's EVI (electronic valve wind instrument) fuse lightning streaks into the mixture, giving the arrangement an animated movement.  It's a dance between the instruments, frolicking and whirling in a melodic and spontaneous manner.  Their phrasing surges and ebbs, alternately forming voluminous crests and soft lulls.  It's a delightful aural experience.

Although the delightful aural experience does not end with the beginning track, as the recording moves into the reflective riffing of "But Beautiful."  A soothing ballad that is more than a soothing ballad with expressive interactions between Cohen's trundling keys and Daversa's trumpet punctuating peaks across the soft rippling sands of the melodic progressions. One enhances the other's conjured musings.

Daversa switches to lead vocals on the bluesy ballad "Little Black Spider," displaying an empathy in his resonance that draws the listener's attention as he implores, "Don't be afraid, cause I'm not gonna hurt you, my friend, I'm just someone to talk to, look deep in yourself and find your fire, come alive in a dream you hold inside, rediscover yourself by reaching higher... live your life with a passion."  The clarion ring in his nuanced voices skewer the inspiring lyrics into the listener's mind, the way a endearing poem will live on in one's consciousness. The tenderness in Cohen's strokes accentuated by Daversa's slow ruminating toots along "Radiant Heart" exhibit a human quality that is insufficiently translated in sheet music.

The seamless harmonizing and phrasing comes out as instinctual to the listener, as Cohen surges and Daversa punctuates, interposes and enriches without ever interrupting the free flowing swells.  Alternately between initiating and reacting, leading and responding, the pair of Daversa and Cohen have composed something special and meaningful to humans in their symbiotic rapport.

Musicians:
John Daveras - trumpet,  EVI (electronic valve instrument), and vocals
Tal Cohen - piano