If you’re unfamiliar with the work of Avishai Cohen, the brilliant trumpeter, please, do some homework. He’s incredible.
I had the good fortune to attend Berklee during the same years Avishai was there (along with his sister Anat Cohen; a very talented saxophonist and clarinetist) and hearing him play always motivated me to improve (or “shed”, as we jazz musicians like to say). He’s just one of those guys whose playing is so good it simultaneously depresses and motivates me. (Depressing because it makes me feel so far away from being the player I want to be.)
In this video, pay close attention to what Avishai says about work ethic, practicing, and especially transcribing (~1:40). A constant theme I try to instill in students is that you learn this language of jazz through immersive absorption in the music, through imitation and assimilation. You don’t learn it from pattern or ii-V7-I books.
