When I first saw Juanita performing, everyone in the room knew that something special was happening. As she struck the first note, a silence fell upon the crowd, the gravity of her touch stilling the air. And then just like that, before anyone knew it, she lifted the spell, rounding off the first song with a great big laugh and a wry grin to the audience, a teenage twinkle in her eye. “Thank God to be alive… And to breathe in and out… You can’t take it for granted”. The room was hooked. Each piece transported her to living pages of her past; sometimes sweet, sometimes slinky, and sometimes deeply painful. And she took the audience right there with her. Her first love, her hardest heartbreak, her greatest win, her bluest day. Where had she been? What had she done? What was it like? Spellbinding.If you’re lucky enough to catch Juanita for a post-show chat, you’ll get to experience her magic firsthand. Pearls of wisdom unroll from decades of adventure, and dazzling insights illuminate matters of love, friendship and money. It’s therapy. She’ll remind you of your values and not to sweat the small stuff. She’ll humble you, make you realise you aren’t as important, skilled, or knowledgeable as you thought.
Juanita’s been playing since the swing era of the early 1940s, reimagining beloved jazz standards, twisting the notes, tone, and syncopation; unpredictable, at times almost unrecognisable. Today, she embodies how music can transcend the limitations of our human form. She makes her way carefully to the piano and, as she starts playing, she becomes ageless. She is water, her fingers dancing across the keys with the fluidity of only a true master. The piano has carried her through triumph and tragedy, and it is her place to feel most alive. Juanita Cohen Smith is a conduit of jazz; it flows as blood through her veins.
When Yonatan Levi and Omri Gondor arrived at Juanita’s Eilat front door with recording equipment one scorching morning in May 2021, they had no idea what they were stepping into, not least the cultural impact they were about to co-create. But they knew it was important. Five days and 70 songs later, they released her first-ever album, Introducing Juanita Cohen Smith. The six tracks sold out on vinyl and paved the way for her relocation to Tel Aviv, Israel’s art and culture epicentre. This maiden foray into wax tracked her towards a weekly residency at Jazz Kissa in Tel Aviv. It follows a long hiatus for Juanita; don’t forget she’d been living in Eilat for 49 years, a small, isolated town by the Red Sea in Israel (in the Arava Valley of the Negev Desert, bordering Egypt) before she got the call. She’d never stepped away from the keys and would play the Red Sea Jazz Festival, but she’d effectively thrown in the towel, no idea that her most significant creative wave was yet to break.Yonatan Levi (the Tel Aviv-bred double bassist who spent a decade establishing his jazz career in New York and Berlin before returning home in 2020) invited Juanita to the residency at Jazz Kissa, which he runs alongside his record label (Slil Records) and Israel’s foremost jazz recording studio (LEVO Recording Studios). You may be wondering why Slil Records hasn’t released another album since Cohen Smith’s debut LP (SLIL01). Over the last two years, they have been establishing a home base in Tel Aviv, laying the groundwork to sign more artists and release more music, including that of Juanita Cohen Smith. And it’s the studio we have to thank for the release of her second album, as it propelled Levi and Gondor to revisit the Eilat sessions. When they began to record Juanita in the high-spec setting of the new studio, the Steinway piano, high-end console and vintage microphones suddenly felt synthesised, sanitised and unforgiving. There was something in the original field recordings in Eilat that just wouldn’t translate to the studio, a charm found in the natural conditions of her home, Juanita in her own space with her own piano. Irreplaceable treasure. Don’t fret, they recorded the studio album anyway (it’s gorgeous), and it will be released one day, but first there’s more to share from the Eilat sessions.
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Juanita Cohen Smith
Introducing
Juanita Cohen Smith
When I first saw Juanita performing, everyone in the room knew that something special was happening. As she struck the first note, a silence fell upon the crowd, the gravity of her touch stilling the air. And then just like that, before anyone knew it, she lifted the spell, rounding off the first song with a great big laugh and a wry grin to the audience, a teenage twinkle in her eye. “Thank God to be alive… And to breathe in and out… You can’t take it for granted”. The room was hooked. Each piece transported her to living pages of her past; sometimes sweet, sometimes slinky, and sometimes deeply painful. And she took the audience right there with her. Her first love, her hardest heartbreak, her greatest win, her bluest day. Where had she been? What had she done? What was it like? Spellbinding.If you’re lucky enough to catch Juanita for a post-show chat, you’ll get to experience her magic firsthand. Pearls of wisdom unroll from decades of adventure, and dazzling insights illuminate matters of love, friendship and money. It’s therapy. She’ll remind you of your values and not to sweat the small stuff. She’ll humble you, make you realise you aren’t as important, skilled, or knowledgeable as you thought.
Juanita’s been playing since the swing era of the early 1940s, reimagining beloved jazz standards, twisting the notes, tone, and syncopation; unpredictable, at times almost unrecognisable. Today, she embodies how music can transcend the limitations of our human form. She makes her way carefully to the piano and, as she starts playing, she becomes ageless. She is water, her fingers dancing across the keys with the fluidity of only a true master. The piano has carried her through triumph and tragedy, and it is her place to feel most alive. Juanita Cohen Smith is a conduit of jazz; it flows as blood through her veins.
When Yonatan Levi and Omri Gondor arrived at Juanita’s Eilat front door with recording equipment one scorching morning in May 2021, they had no idea what they were stepping into, not least the cultural impact they were about to co-create. But they knew it was important. Five days and 70 songs later, they released her first-ever album, Introducing Juanita Cohen Smith. The six tracks sold out on vinyl and paved the way for her relocation to Tel Aviv, Israel’s art and culture epicentre. This maiden foray into wax tracked her towards a weekly residency at Jazz Kissa in Tel Aviv. It follows a long hiatus for Juanita; don’t forget she’d been living in Eilat for 49 years, a small, isolated town by the Red Sea in Israel (in the Arava Valley of the Negev Desert, bordering Egypt) before she got the call. She’d never stepped away from the keys and would play the Red Sea Jazz Festival, but she’d effectively thrown in the towel, no idea that her most significant creative wave was yet to break.Yonatan Levi (the Tel Aviv-bred double bassist who spent a decade establishing his jazz career in New York and Berlin before returning home in 2020) invited Juanita to the residency at Jazz Kissa, which he runs alongside his record label (Slil Records) and Israel’s foremost jazz recording studio (LEVO Recording Studios). You may be wondering why Slil Records hasn’t released another album since Cohen Smith’s debut LP (SLIL01). Over the last two years, they have been establishing a home base in Tel Aviv, laying the groundwork to sign more artists and release more music, including that of Juanita Cohen Smith. And it’s the studio we have to thank for the release of her second album, as it propelled Levi and Gondor to revisit the Eilat sessions. When they began to record Juanita in the high-spec setting of the new studio, the Steinway piano, high-end console and vintage microphones suddenly felt synthesised, sanitised and unforgiving. There was something in the original field recordings in Eilat that just wouldn’t translate to the studio, a charm found in the natural conditions of her home, Juanita in her own space with her own piano. Irreplaceable treasure. Don’t fret, they recorded the studio album anyway (it’s gorgeous), and it will be released one day, but first there’s more to share from the Eilat sessions.
DateRecordingMasteringCover PhotoCover Design
Buy
Stream