A Late-Night Masterclass in Heart and Virtuosity
With tender ballads, turbocharged horns, and a “ridiculously young” pianist stealing the show, Avishai Cohen’s final set of a three-night residency turned an ordinary London day into something unforgettable
Just your average London day: State Opening of Parliament, another Starmer leadership challenge. Stevie Wonder’s birthday! Happy birthday to you! And, oh yeah, Avishai Cohen is leading his Quintet for their final set of a three-night residency at Ronnie’s. Outside, there were old school queues down Frith Street, inside the buzz of expectation was like the burr and murmur of Lords before the first ball of a Test Match.
Cohen himself acknowledged the moment. “The last show! It must be the best!” and the band beamed straight to the audience’s collective heart. Barely 90 seconds into the opening ‘Shuffle’ and a young woman whooped her approval as Yuval Drabkin’s accomplished tenor eased into his solo. There’s more than a touch of Coltrane to Drabkin’s energised attack, as Cohen himself noted and he’ll happily embroider a solo with ‘A Love Supreme’ quotes. But Drabkin’s jazz erudition, like the Quintet’s as a whole, never pushes the audience too hard. It’s Cohen’s gift that the Quintet remains accessible while maintaining the highest level of jazz virtuosity.
Drabkin works as a twin-turbo with Yonatan Voltzok’s trombone, so soulful on the thoughtful ballad ‘El Bazita’. But it was the ridiculously young pianist Itay Simhovich (where does Cohen find these tyro pianists?) who often stole the show. Again, there were echoes of McCoy Tyner in the big chordings and energy, but Simhovich has his own voice, as expressed through ‘Simchover’. Even ultra-cool Voltzok clapped the pianist’s soaring solo, while Cohen later reflected, “I’m as surprised as anyone” as the young man received rapturous applause for another finely structured solo.
At heart, Cohen is a romantic and a collective swoon rolled around Ronnie’s as he eased into ‘Remembering’, one of his most tender songs. This led to Cohen’s heartfelt singing of ‘Avre Tu Puerta’, a song that “takes me back to my roots, a song from my mother”. The perfect topping to the evening was the band’s radical rework of ‘Summertime’, not as ska-driven as the recording but still with an urgency not associated with the song, indeed unrecognisable until Cohen sang that timeless melody. It was enough to render the bar staff silent (they’d long given up trying to write limericks with rhymes for Streeting and Starmer) until they themselves joined with the delighted audience’s applause.\
Andy Robson
20 May 2026
