“Trumpeter Avishai Cohen makes his ECM leader debut with Into the Silence, an album dedicated to the memory of his late father. Cohen composed the melodies over six months following his father’s passing in November 2014, inspired by an album of Rachmaninoff’s solo piano music. It’s not always sad music—this is not a collection of dirges—but it does maintain a contemplative mood throughout. Cohen says “The title of the song and album refers to the silence of absence, the way you see pictures of someone who is gone but you don’t really hear them in your life anymore.”

Cohen found an empathetic group to share this personal vision. The core quartet features him and two longtime collaborators: pianist Yonathan Avishai (a decade-long co-member in multicultural band Third World Love) and busy New York drummer Nasheet Waits (also in Cohen’s trio Triveni). Bassist Eric Revis, a mainstay of the Branford Marsalis Quartet for two decades, has also been a rhythm section partner with Waits in multiple bands. Tenor saxophonist Bill McHenry joins in on three tracks (he has played with Paul Motian and Andrew Cyrille, but had previously only played with Cohen informally).”

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