Ethan Cohen | Sebastian Greschuk | "Ensemble Unity"

When bassist Ethan Cohn and trumpeter Sebastián Greschuk first connected, as colleagues in the prestigious Focusyear residency program in Basel, Switzerland, they were struck by their compositional kinship. Hailing from different continents (Cohn from New York, and Greschuk from Argentina), these two exceptional musicians found common ground while abroad, and the vision for Ensemble Infinity came into focus.

The lineup they chose was fairly expansive: an octet with vocalist Tatiana Nova joining a contingent of four horns (Greschuk, fellow trumpeter Yakiv Tsvietinskyi, alto saxophonist Joshua Schofield, tenor saxophonist Gianni Gagliardi), plus pianist Lorenzo Vitolo and drummer Áron Tálas aiding Cohn in the rhythm section. “There’s an aspect of cultural exchange to this group,” Cohn maintains. “Everyone is from a different country. We come from really different backgrounds but we’ve followed our honest path and found what we love.”

The group took on a life beyond its Focusyear origins — hence Ensemble Infinity. Greschuk notes a parallel between the group’s eight players and the sideways numeral eight. “The name felt very close to our idea,” says the trumpeter, “that this thing is still going on and will keep going on. Even if it takes different forms, the band is an infinite line to we don’t know where.” Cohn refers to it as a “modular ensemble,” able to assume a range of sizes and shapes: “All of this music can be shrunk down to a smaller group, but the root of it is the two of us and the compatibility of our music.”

That compatibility stems from a host of shared influences. Though the project is rooted in jazz, there are hints of Ethan and Sebastián’s love of folk rhythms, rock, pop, and avant-garde music. There is also a strong inspiration that flows from the individuals involved: “We were writing exactly for the musicians we were playing with,” Cohn says, invoking a time-honored practice in jazz. He recalls “cheering in the booth,” for instance, while hearing Schofield’s alto solo unfold on the swaying and mysterious “Luna’s Lullaby,” an ode to a friend’s agitated unspayed cat. 

Ensemble Infinity also documents what Greschuk calls the “trumpet brotherhood” that he shares with Tsvietinskyi, who gets a generous feature on Cohn’s beautiful album opener “Saragossa.” “Yakiv is from Ukraine,” Greschuk notes, “and my grandfather was from Ukraine. We have this super-strong friendship and in the middle of the war I went to Ukraine to visit and perform with him. On my tune ‘Bosque’ we trade improvising on full choruses, with Yakiv on flugelhorn, and it felt so great to capture that.” The two trumpeters also share an affinity for the valve trombone, which they both play in various spots on the session, adding a distinct warmth and tonal variety. “I think of it almost like a bass trumpet,” says Greschuk, “with a similar range. It’s refreshing.”

Nova’s agile voice opens another dimension in the music as well. “She’s not always the main melody,” Cohn observes. “Sometimes she’s got a harmony with the horns which is rare and very challenging. She also sings lyrics, she sings main solo parts, she sings without lyrics, and she improvises a solo. Her voice can blend as part of the horn section. On my ballad ‘Bound to You,’ she shows how fantastic she is at telling a story through song, and I felt that needed to be showcased. The song has a child-like quality that I asked her to try and emphasize, and she nailed it.”

Cohn’s five pieces mesh with Greschuk´s three to create a world of intricate lyricism, labyrinthine form and engaging tension and release. Vitolo takes soaring piano solos on Greschuk’s “Słońce,” a moving waltz for the composer’s Polish girlfriend; “Nubes'' (or “Clouds”), named for the mold formations in a flatmate’s neglected fridge; and “Ladina Oswald,” by Cohn, the intensity of which draws on the experience of getting scammed by someone using that evocative alias. “Monsanto Daydream,” with Gagliardi doubling on tenor and soprano sax, is borrowed from the repertoire of another Cohn project, The Plastic Waste Band, a psychedelic jazz-rock unit focused in part on environmental issues. A brief reprise of “Bosque,” with Cohn on electric bass, closes out the album with still new textures and approaches, true to the Ensemble Infinity moniker in every sense.

Ethan Cohn, a native New Yorker, studied jazz performance at McGill University with mentors Fraser Hollins, Christine Jensen, Chris McCann, and John Hollenbeck. While in Montreal he recorded three albums of original music as leader of The Plastic Waste Band, a psychedelic jazz-rock group known for its commitment to environmental conservation and its refreshingly accessible yet rule-breaking approach. In 2020 Cohn moved to Switzerland to take part in the Focusyear band, studying privately with Larry Grenadier. He then returned to New York to pursue his master’s studies at The New School’s Performer-Composer program, where he delved into electroacoustic music as a research assistant for percussionist and electronic musician Levy Lorenzo. He has also studied privately with Reid Anderson, Dave Douglas, Buster Williams, Elliot Cole, and Drew Gress.

Sebastián Greschuk released his first album, Paisaje, in 2019 on the ears&eyes label. After attending the Focusyear program in Basel he began his master’s studies in composition at Jazzcampus Basel Musik Akademie and has since had the opportunity to study with Guillermo Klein, Ambrose Akinmusire, Larry Grenadier, Mark Turner, Alex Sipiagin, and other masters. He has arranged music for the wind ensemble at the prestigious MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), written original music for the Jazzcampus Big Band, and arranged a piece for the Jazzcampus Large Ensemble performed by special guest Seamus Blake. For many years Greschuk has also taught privately and at educational institutions such as EMC (Escuela de Música Contemporánea) and the Berklee International Network as a professor of trumpet, jazz ensemble, and music notation.